British Columbia Federation of Labour

Vancouver-Mine safety is still at risk in British Columbia while the provincial government refuses to improve mine safety laws, says B.C. Federation of Labour President, Jim Sinclair.

In response to the deaths of four workers last year employed at quarry operations in BC, earlier today, the Ministry of Energy and Mines released a safety handbook.

"The government is missing the point," Sinclair said. "We need more than a pamphlet listing safety suggestions, we need better safety laws and stronger enforcement of them."

Despite recommendations from a coroner's inquest into the death of four people at Sullivan Mine in 2006, the provincial government has refused to act on recommendations that included changing BC's mine safety laws to meet or exceed WCB standards.

"The best way to improve mine safety is to remove it from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Energy and Mines and put it in the hands of the WCB," added Sinclair. BC is the only province in Canada that still has mine safety under the Mines Act, administered by the Ministry of Energy and Mines. In all other provinces mine safety is under the jurisdiction of provincial occupational health and safety regulations and the administration is the responsibility of either the WCB or the Ministry of Labour.

In Nova Scotia, in response to the recommendations of the 1997 Westray Inquiry Report, the government took the responsibility of mine safety away from the Department of Natural Resources and placed it with the Department of Labour.

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For more information contact: Jessie Uppal 604-430-1421 or 604-220-0739.