VICTORIA –New Democrats Chuck Puchmayr and Bob Simpson are insisting the Campbell government fully implement the recommendations from the Coroner’s Inquest yesterday into the death of Joseph Jules Francois Leroux before another forestry worker is tragically killed on the job.

“The Coroner’s inquest confirms exactly what we stated in the Legislature in the fall of 2005 when we challenged the government about the impacts of deregulation on forest worker safety,” said Labour Critic Chuck Puchmayr.

“I am not surprised that the main thrust of the recommendations for the Ministry of Forests and WorkSafe B.C. centered on beefing up safety regulations. They are an indictment of misguided deregulation policies that have put too many forestry workers at risk,” said Forest and Range Critic Bob Simpson.

Forestry Coroner Tom Pawlowksi conducted the inquest while the jury directed 17 safety-oriented recommendations to the Ministry of Forests, B.C. Forest Safety Council, WorkSafe B.C., and ICBC. The recommendations appear to address testimony at the inquest which revealed unregulated forestry roads, unenforced speed limits and an absence of radio use.

The jury’s eight recommendations to the Ministry of Forests were aimed at embedding safety procedures into how the Ministry does business, rather than putting the onus on the contractors and operators out in the forests.

"We recommend that adequate resources be dedicated to compliance and enforcement to ensure that adequate level of change, including road-safety focused enforcement, is carried out on forest roads," the jury stated.

Puchmayr attended the first week of the inquest and Simpson was at the Prince George Courthouse when the jury returned with its non-binding recommendations. The two NDP MLAs say they are convinced that when the Auditor-General releases his report on forest safety later this summer that document will provide further confirmation that it is the lack of regulations that’s creating safety hazards within the industry.

This is the second inquest since 2005 that has pointed to deregulation as a major factor in creating unsafe conditions in the forests. Ted Gramlich, 53 a Crofton faller, was crushed by a tree west of Nanoose Bay. The inquest made 23 recommendations to government - 9 of which had regulatory and legislative repercussions.

Since 2005, 37 forest workers have been killed in the woods, a number of whom were involved in log hauling.