Report on Mount Polley mining disaster set for release – by Justine Hunter (Globe and Mail – January 28, 2015)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

VICTORIA — A report to be released on Friday will pinpoint the cause of the Mount Polley dam failure and is expected to lead to new safety standards for the entire Canadian mining industry.

But blame and consequences for any misconduct won’t be part of the story this week. Almost six months after the ecological disaster, responsibility for the collapse of the tailings pond that released millions of cubic metres of waste material into Quesnel Lake and other waterways in central British Columbia is still under investigation.

The provincial government is set to release the results of a geotechnical inquiry by an independent panel – this will be the engineers’ explanation of what went wrong.

The report’s findings could pave the way for the partial reopening of the copper and gold mine 55 kilometres northeast of Williams Lake. Two other investigations have yet to be published that would determine if any fines or prosecution are warranted – one by the Chief Inspector of Mines and the second by the Conservation Officer Service, a law-enforcement body that would send any recommendations for charges to provincial Crown Counsel.

The results of those probes could be months away, and officials from the Ministry of Mines said Tuesday a decision on the application to resume operations at Mount Polley is expected by mid-March. “Any findings or recommendations made by the panel may help to inform the review process,” ministry spokesman David Haslam said Tuesday.

Opposition leader John Horgan said the government sought to inoculate itself against criticism it may face as a result of this week’s report by announcing on Monday more funds to beef up mine inspections. “The Premier is trying to get out ahead of this damaging report because it was her government that made deep cuts to inspections and monitoring in the first place,” he said Tuesday. He said he will be looking for evidence that those cutbacks to inspections at Mount Polley contributed to the failure.

For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/report-on-mount-polley-mining-disaster-set-for-release/article22667439/