EDITORIAL PAGE (May 18, 1992)

Since the May 9 Westray mine disaster at Plymouth, N.S., rocked the nation, there has been no shortage of critics to say the mine should never have been opened. Everyone is suddenly an expert who believes the potential for disaster was well known before mine development even began.

It is true that risks were known. Mines on the Foord coal seam had a well documented history of fatalities from methane-related incidents during two centuries of mining.

But the risks were not extraordinary. Coal mining, unlike hardrock mining, has a reputation — almost a mystique — for being hazardous. The mine disasters Canadians read about from around the world are almost always related to coal. It is the nature of the ore.

In coal mining, as in any commercial enterprise, the risks must be weighed against the benefits. Whether it is the airline industry, ocean shipping, construction or a manufacturing assembly line, every human activity holds the potential for injury and the loss of life. Accepting the risk doesn’t mean owners and managers wilfully put profits ahead of people, but neither does it mean they can guarantee safety. The best they can do is comply with established safety standards and perhaps, through experience, enhance those standards.

Curragh Resources, the mine owner, did that, and in fact the Westray miners were honored by their peers at the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum for having the safest underground coal mine in Canada in 1991. When the production decision at Westray was made, the company, governments and the community all knew of the risks and accepted them. They believed the risks could be managed with the benefit of modern technology and open communication between management and miners. Much as modern society likes to create villains and place blame, this tragedy is more a case of nature asserting its awesome and often destructive power than it is a conspiracy of politicians and mine owners sacrificing men’s lives for their own, personal gain.

The risks were known, but so were the benefits. This mine offered a chance to produce what the public demanded — low sulphur coal that would be less environmentally hazardous and less costly than coal from Cape Breton Island. And there were the jobs. Those pundits ensconced in Ottawa and Toronto who, in retrospect, say it shouldn’t have happened, forget how important it is for a community to provide its people with an honest and dignified way to earn a living. A project like Westray is a major contributor to making Nova Scotia a desirable place to live rather than simply a ward of central Canada. Financially, the mine was something everyone wanted — including the unions who hoped to bolster their sagging membership. Safety was never an issue, except to acknowledge the area’s history of mining fatalities. The exact cause of the explosion may never be determined, although a provincial inquiry will try to reconstruct the events leading up to the disaster. Regardless of its findings, however, coal mining will continue despite its inherent risks because Nova Scotia still needs coal. The results will not help the miners who died or their families, but life in mining towns like Plymouth must go on. The objective now should be to re-examine the process of mine permitting and monitoring in Nova Scotia so that future loss of life can be prevented.