Mr. Speaker, I rise with pleasure this afternoon to participate in this debate. I will take this opportunity to congratulate and thank my hon. colleague from Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough for bringing this motion forward and for working so hard to make this Westray motion votable.
My colleague continues to shed light on the important matter of workplace safety as a result of the Westray mine disaster in May 1992. I and indeed the entire caucus of the PC party support the motion fully.
I wish to read Motion No. 79 to the House. It states:
That, in the opinion of this House, the Criminal Code or other appropriate federal statutes should be amended in accordance with Recommendation 73 of the Province of Nova Scotia's Public Inquiry into the Westray disaster, specifically with the goal of ensuring that corporate executives and directors are held properly accountable for workplace safety.
As well, I think that it is important for me to read Recommendation 73 of the Westray inquiry. It reads:
The Government of Canada, through the Department of Justice, should institute a study—
—Of the accountability of corporate executives and directors for the wrongful or negligent acts of the corporation and should introduce in the Parliament of Canada such amendments to legislation as are necessary to ensure that corporate executives and directors are held properly accountable for workplace safety.
Recommendation 73 clearly calls on the Government of Canada through the justice department to institute a study to ensure the accountability of corporate executives. The criminal code must be amended to ensure that corporate executives and directors are held properly accountable for workplace safety.
Let me inform members of the House what brought this motion to life. On May 9, 1992, an explosion occurred at the Westray mine killing 26 workers. It was a horrible tragedy, one that was felt throughout the province of Nova Scotia and indeed the country. Many Nova Scotians acted in heroic fashion that deadly day back in May 1992.
The devastation on that Mother's Day nearly eight years ago has left a long and painful memory in the hearts and minds of miners in the province of Nova Scotia. The explosion at the Westray coal mine sent a very chilling message to the people. The message was that haste and financial gain often put people's lives in danger.
The death of the 26 coal miners was foreign and unexpected to a peaceful community like Plymouth. The families of these miners were left having to come to grips with how such a tragedy could have occurred. That is why it is incumbent upon us as legislators to ensure that there is a safe working environment for all workers engaged in labour activity.
Days after the Westray mine explosion, on May 15, the Government of Nova Scotia appointed Mr. Justice Peter Richard to head a commission of inquiry established under the Public Inquiries Act. The commission had a very broad mandate so as to shed light on the explosion and all related circumstances. The commission's work thus began immediately to prepare the public hearings set to begin on October 19, 1992.
The final tabling of this report occurred five years later in November 1997. The report entitled The Westray Story: A Predictable Path to Disaster contained 74 recommendations. It concluded that this tragedy could have been avoided if minimal occupational safety standards had been met. Allow me to take a moment to read from Justice Richard's report:
The Westray Story is a complex mosaic of actions, omissions, mistakes, incompetence, apathy, cynicism, stupidity, neglect—viewed in context, these seemingly isolated incidents constitute a mindset or operating philosophy that appears to favour expediency over intelligent planning and that trivializes safety concerns. Indeed, management at Westray displayed a certain disdain for safety and appeared to regard safety conscious workers as the wimps in the organization. To its discredit, the management at Westray, through either incompetence or ignorance, lost sight of the basic tenet of coal mining that safe mining is good business.
There are ways to prevent such tragedies. There are ways to eliminate criminal actions by corporations, and this is what the motion seeks to address. There are ways it can be done by amending the criminal code, some of which were proposed by Justice Richard. One proposal would be to create a new criminal offence that would impose criminal liability on directors or others responsible for failing to ensure that corporations maintain an appropriate standard of occupational health and safety in the workplace. This is precisely what this motion would address.
In Nova Scotia mining is regulated by three pieces of legislation: the mineral resources act, the occupational health and safety act, and the coal mines regulation act. Mr. Justice Richard reviewed all these provincial acts and concluded that their main purpose was to ensure the safety of all workers.
Unfortunately we have seen many examples of occupational safety in the workplace taking second spot behind the bottom line, especially in the mining industry where the very nature of the work involves a great deal of risk. It is the duty of company officers to ensure that the work is done in the safest possible conditions.
We want to ensure that individuals inside and outside corporate Canada are dealt with equally and fairly under the law. Executives will not be able to hide behind their job titles in the commission of their duties.
Corporate Canada understandably has two related functions: to make a profit and to create jobs. Profit is a good thing but a balance has to be struck between making a profit and the cost that is sometimes incurred by the behaviour of some companies. There must be a balance between making a profit and the means by which to get there.
Section 220 of the criminal code refers specifically to criminal negligence causing death. Similarly section 234 refers to manslaughter. There may be the need as well to introduce amendments to these sections that would broaden the scope of culpability, or perhaps even go so far as to make specific references to executives, directors or persons in management positions.
It is my hope that the devastation of the Westray disaster will not be forgotten. Just as important, the recommendations of the inquiry cannot be forgotten either. The fundamental and basic responsibilities for the safe operation of an underground coal mine, and indeed any industrial undertaking, rest very much with the owners and managers.
Westray management starting with the CEO was required by law, and certainly by good business practices and good conscience, to design and operate a mine safely. The significance of that failure cannot be overstated. Simply because others were also abdicating their responsibilities is not an answer. Shared responsibility can be said to be implicit in the recommendations that came from Mr. Justice Richard's report.
Companies must ensure that to avoid practising hazardous or illegal practices these acts cannot be condoned in any capacity. If companies have not already done so, they should do everything within their power to implement safe, ethical work practices. Ethics such as these should be studied and followed everywhere in places of employment, even in upper management. If this is not the case, actions must be taken to demonstrate the importance and the seriousness of the issue.
Business executives must promote and nurture safe work ethics and have an open, approachable attitude toward their employees. No one ever wants to feel the effects that were felt in Plymouth with the Westray mine.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this motion and thank my colleague from Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough.
