EDMONTON — The Alberta government announced Tuesday that 53 charges have
been laid in the deaths of two foreign workers at an oilsands site two years
ago.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Company Ltd.,
and SSEC Canada Ltd., have been charged under the Occupational Health and
Safety Act.
A breakdown of the charges was not immediately available.
Alberta Employment Minister Hector Goudreau said the charges signal to the
world that Alberta's oilsands remain a safe place to work.
"We are taking job safety very, very seriously," he said. "I'm still very,
very concerned about what happened, and we want to make sure those things do
not happen again."
On April 24, 2007, the internal supports of a large tank collapsed, killing
Hongliang Liu from China's Shandong province and Genbao Ge, from the Henan
province.
The incident took place at the Horizon Oil Sands project near Fort McKay,
about 480 kilometres north of Edmonton.
The men were in Canada on temporary foreign-worker permits.
The province immediately issued a stop-work order on the site. Nearly a
month later, a second tank on the site collapsed.
Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach said Tuesday the incident occurred at the height
of Alberta's oilsands development, when prices were escalating and there was
a shortage of workers on the ground in Alberta.
Still, he said the message was clear: "These are the rules that you follow
in Alberta, and safety of the workers is paramount."
There are concerns one of the companies charged no longer holds any stakes
in Alberta. The province has not been able to serve papers to Sinopec
Shanghai Engineering Company, raising the question of whether the company
will appear in court in Fort McMurray on June 8.
Alberta's Opposition NDP said the incident shows the province's "model of
enforcing standards is broken."
"People have died already and we've had more than enough warnings in the
government, in the public, that stuff wasn't safe," said Edmonton-Strathcona
NDP MLA Rachel Notley.
The workers did not know their rights, she said. She said the province has
to build a system of health and safety committees so workers in the future
will know how to express their concerns.
Goudreau, however, dismissed any need to re-evaluate the province's
temporary foreign-worker program.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
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