No, (b) would be better than nothing, but (a) should be the standard we're trying to reach.
If you look at even the C-NLOPB's organizational chart as it still stands on their website, it's very clear that the safety officer is under the CEO. I'll use an example of why I think this is problematic. In the annual report following the crash in 2009 the message of the then CEO of the offshore oil regulator—this is after we had this horrific loss of life—in that report was about how well industry was doing, that it was a banner year economically in Newfoundland and Labrador. It was also a year in which people died in a crash and yet that was secondary in his message in this annual report.
I think that says it all about when you have production, and economic decisions, and safety under the same roof with the same people making the same decisions. I firmly believe, as in Australia, the U.K., and Norway, that these must be separated.
This is a very long discussion that we've been having since Justice Cullen's report, and yet in Canada we still have not done this.