Union wants province to separate promotion, oversight agencies
The United Steelworkers
(USW) are calling for change in safety and oversight in the mining industry. The call to action comes after the disaster at the British Columbia-based Mount Polley mine.
The Mount Polley dam failed in August 2014, spilling some 25 million cubic metres of water and debris into B.C.’s Quesnel Lake. A crack about 10 metres in length — located one kilometre away from where the dam eventually breached — was first reported at the Mount Polley gold and copper mine in 2010.
Investigations into the incident and the events leading up to the breach are currently being carried out by the B.C. Conservation Service, the province’s chief inspector of mines and a three-person panel appointed by the provincial government. Mount Polley Mining — a wholly owned subsidiary of Imperial Metals — said all concerns brought up in the 2010 inspection were addressed under an engineer’s direction.
According to critics, the current processes governing safety and oversight are to blame.
Since 1877, the regulation of mining safety has been the responsibility of the B.C. Ministry of Energy and Mines. Mines, quarries and gravel pits in the province are covered by the Mines Act and, as a result, are outside the jurisdiction of WorkSafeBC, the provincial workers’ compensation board.
The USW are calling for a shift in safety regulations to separate the promotional and oversight agencies.
"Steelworkers have been long concerned about the combination of both regulation of the mining industry and promotion of the industry under one roof in the Ministry of Energy and Mines," said USW District 3 director Stephen Hunt in a statement.
Norm Macdonald, the NDP opposition spokesperson for Energy and Mines, said the change makes sense, in theory.
"It makes sense to separate agencies that are promoting mining and agencies that are overseeing and investigating," he said. "What you would hope is that you would have a rigorous workers’ compensation program that would then do the work to keep workers safe."
The only problem with the USW’s call for a shift in oversight, Macdonald said, is that WorkSafeBC is little more qualified to provide protection for employees.
"In my opinion, it’s designed to fail workers. It really has not been an effective body," he said.
In the past, Macdonald said, WorkSafeBC has failed to investigate properly. He cited a lack of resources, explaining that without the necessary information gleaned from investigations, prosecutors are unable to hold anyone accountable.
"It just seems like these are such fundamental things to get right," Macdonald said. "It’s inexcusable and it’s unfair to the really professional outlets, which the vast majority of mining are."
On the whole, Macdonald said, the industry is successfully managing complex operations with a strong record. But by allowing the oversight of safety to be diminished, businesses that are less careful are being allowed to tarnish the industry as a whole.
"The mining industry here is, for the most part, world-class in terms of its operations," Macdonald said.
"But we need government to set a bar for health and safety and environmental responsibility so that the vast majority who are doing the job properly aren’t penalized by the small number that are inevitably going to cut corners."
Al Hoffman, however, said it is this exact harmonization within the Ministry of Energy and Mines that is ultimately responsible for the industry’s strong safety record.
Hoffman is the province’s chief inspector of mines and the executive director of health, safety and permitting for the Ministry of Energy and Mines. He said the industry’s low rate of lost-time accidents, steady decline of accidents overall and absence of fatalities in the past several years are all due to the expertise cultivated within the ministry.
"It actually makes us a stronger regulatory body," Hoffman said. "Our inspectors are specialists in mining. We have a very long history and so have regulations developed specifically for mining. Most of our mines inspectors have worked in the industry and so we have the good fortune of being able to specialize in mines and all aspects of mining."
Because the ministry is also responsible for permitting, he said, it is able to influence everything from an early stage and with safety in mind.
And while the ministry is constantly working to improve oversight — a new audit system was recently developed, directed inspections are being launched to bring mines into compliance and a code review is currently underway — Hoffman said it is only collaboration with employers that will ultimately improve safety.
"We’ve always tried to emphasize a collaborative approach," he said. "That’s how we’ve been successful with the stakeholders involved — unions, worker organizations, mine management and, of course, government."
The best way to establish safety and oversight is from the inside, through the creation and maintenance of health and safety committees. Hoffman said one of the ministry’s main objectives is to make sure these committees are in place and functioning appropriately, allowing for further collaboration.
Hiring more people and further reinforcing existing protocols will only go so far without co-operation from the companies themselves.
Macdonald agreed all partners need to contribute to making the workplace safer, saying, "It’s one of the things we should get right all the time, or strive to get right all the time. There’s no question we need to up our game here."
