S. Simpson: Today in Burns Lake the Babine coroner’s inquest is commencing into the Babine explosion. As we know, a similar inquest happened recently in Prince George around the Lakeland explosion. There, while the jury presented some good recommendations about some changes around the sector, this inquest did not address the family’s key questions. It did not talk about who was responsible. It did not look at that. It did not look at the conduct of WorkSafe.

We know that the coroner’s process is part of the reason that that doesn’t occur. We know also that the families did not have dedicated counsel to ask the questions that they wanted. As a result, today the families of the victims in Babine are expecting the same disappointment in a result.

The Premier said, when she went to Babine: “We are going to be there. We are going to step up.” My question to the Premier is: what does she say today to the Babine families who are expecting the same disappointment that the Lakeland families experienced because the coroner’s inquest can’t get there and this Premier said no to legal counsel for these families?

http://www.leg.bc.ca/hansard/40th4th/20150713pm-Hansard-v27n9.htm