It has been almost two years since one worker was killed and another seriously injured when the floor of the Cineplex building in Lower Lonsdale collapsed during demolition.
We know now that the company in charge of the demolition failed to follow their engineer’s explicit instructions to clear away debris before moving their excavator into place. Had they followed their demolition plan, every worker would have made it home safe at the end of the day.
But the only reason this is now public is because we filed a freedom of information request to get a copy of the investigation report, which took almost two years to produce.
In their own words, WorkSafeBC conducts investigations “so that similar incidents can be prevented from happening in the future.” We see no public good in carrying out detailed investigations only to have them sit under lock and key, waiting for someone to file an FOI request.
Reports like this should be made public by default as soon as they are completed, similar to how the province’s police watchdog the Independent Investigations Office publishes theirs.
Last year, 48 workers died from traumatic injuries they received on the job. We know almost nothing about any of them.
B.C.’s labour minister must live up to his title and step in to make transparency in workplace investigations the norm, not the exception. It could be a matter of life and death.
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