Mr. Speaker, in 1928, a fire broke out at the 500-foot level of the Hollinger gold mine in Timmins, but the closest trained crew was more than 1,000 kilometres away in Pennsylvania. That crew boarded a special train that broke speed records heading north through a brutal blizzard, but by the time it got there, it was too late, and 39 men were dead.
Out of that tragedy, Ontario established the first mine rescue office in Timmins, and today we have teams that are among the best in the world. I want to thank those brave volunteers who keep our workers safe: the crews who dealt with the McIntyre fire, the 1984 rockburst at Falconbridge, the 1993 Macassa disaster. Congratulations, in particular, to the teams who competed in the north recently, including the winners, team Dumas in Timmins, team AuRico in Kirkland Lake, team Vale West, and team Glencore in Sudbury.
They remind us that the greatest wealth that ever came out of a mine were the miners coming home at the end of their shift.