Ottawa changes 1947 Act affecting Hudson Bay M/S

Amendments have been made to a 40-year-old federal Act governing health and safety rules affecting the operations of Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting in the Flin Flon mineral area of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

The Flin Flon mineral area is largely in Manitoba but extends into Saskatchewan, with most of Hudson Bay’s employees and mining operations located in Manitoba, at Flin Flon, and at Snow Lake. There are about 1,850 employees at the two operations, a Hudson Bay spokesman informs The Northern Miner.

Because of the amendment to the Act, a federal announcement says, these employees may soon benefit from a single, uniform set of rules covering safety and health in the workplace.

The original Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Act of 1947, because of the interprovincial nature of the company’s Flin Flon mining operation (where a part of the mine extends into Saskatchewan) were brought under federal labor jurisdiction. But in actual practice, both federal and provincial officials have inspected the company’s surface plants, and provincial officials have inspected the underground operations.

The amendments to the Act will specify that Manitoba statutes and regulations will apply to all Hudson Bay operations in the mineral area, and Saskatchewan has agreed that the Manitoba laws will also apply to the small number of the company’s employees who actually work in Saskatchewan.

The amendments resulted from extensive consultation and consensus-building that took place between the federal government, the two provinces, the unions and the company, the government announcement said.

The spokesman for Hudson Bay said the recently-acquired Ruttan copper mine at Leaf Rapids, Man., would not be directly affected by the Act amendments.