Warning Western Candian Content:
Last week, while the entire human race was breathing a collective sigh of relief watching the trapped Chilean miners being rescued one by one from a hole 600 meters underground, many people around the world did not know that there was a similar mine cave-in here in B.C. and that we also mounted a spectacular rescue operation of our own.
Since many of you have not heard of it, as our provincial newspapers only publish sporting events and real estate listings, let me tell you the whole story.
First of all, as soon as word spread through the grapevine that a mine had caved in and trapped 33 B.C. miners, there was confusion and everyone was running helter-skelter, in no particular direction.
Later that day, the redoubtable Bill Bennet, Minister of Mines, denied that anything of the sort had happened. He attributed the "wicked rumors" to" the NDP who are trying to smear this Province's Business-Friendly Reputation.”
Two days later, the Provincial Government of B.C. admitted that something of the sort did happen. It however turned out that the mine was an illegal one on First Nations Traditional Territory, and neither the Ministry of Mines, nor the Geological Survey had any record of its existence. The name of the company that operated the mine, International Golden Fleece, was registered at the Vancouver Stock Exchange. The mine's directors were therefore able to vanish without trace and take all of the shareholders assets with them.
Three days after the cave in, uniformed and undercover agents from 15 different B.C. security agencies descended on the site: Army, Air Force, Navy, Police, Strike Force, RCMP, Road Safety, Civil Defence, BCPSEA, Customs, Prison, Immigration and The Royal Canadian Legion. They openly clashed with one another until Tim Horton’s opened a franchise at the mine location and provided essential supplies to the R.C.M.P.
Four days after the accident, a political storm raged across B.C. Mine engineers and seismologists said an earth tremor caused the mine's roof to cave in, and they had a week earlier warned of impending seismic movements in the region. The Premier of B.C. Gordon Campbell however denied that earth tremors were responsible. He said he knew who was responsible for the disaster and blamed it on the N.D.P.
Three more days later, it was revealed that an aide close to the Premier had called geologists and asked them to withdraw their claim that the cave-in was natural, so that he could blame NDP. As soon as Dial a Dope host “Bill Goode” reported this story, the NDP called on the Premier to resign, failing which the NDP said they would impeach him. Days later, the Premier responded by saying the constitutional clause for impeachment should not be abused, so the NDP tried to fire their leader instead.
Ten days after the accident, leaders of the NDP paid a solidarity visit to the Premier and they urged him not to comment anymore on the mine collapse since he is a zoologist, not a geologist. They also said he should resist the temptation to defend every bit of rock, gravel or sand that caves in anywhere in B.C. The Premier thanked them for their advice. He however said "it was the only sin I committed" because many previous disasters in B.C. such as: train derailments, cost over-runs on all government projects pipeline bombings (no those were in Alberta), Dam bursts in the Okanogan, lying about the HST and the Basi Virk bribery case were not investigated because they were all attributed to natural causes, or the NDP.
The Premier responded to the NDP by giving the leader of the opposition a 49% raise in pay for playing fair and told her to go away.
The B.C. Emergency Natural Emergency Management Agency [B.C.ENEMA] then rushed to the scene with a Ukrainian-made helicopter, speed boats and fire engines, none of which could reach the trapped miners. Another 2 days later, the Minister of Mines visited the site for an on-the-spot assessment. After the inspection, he announced that government will award a contract to rescue the miners to a private company bid only.
The Ministry's preparations were however delayed because the Minister of Mines left for Cranbrook for the weekend and did not return until Monday afternoon. He attributed his lateness to the traffic situation on the Cranbrook/Airport road. He then sat down and prepared a memo for the contract, and was very careful to build his 10% commission into it.
The Public Procurement Act provides that the contract must be by international competitive bidding, no B.C. Union Shop would be eligible, but the Minister of Mines waived this requirement in favor of selective tender, given the urgency of the situation. The bids then went to the Ministerial Tenders Board, and because the minister was "interested" in one of the German companies, it was given the job despite doubts that it could handle it. A memo was then sent to the Provincial Executive Council [PEC], which ratified it two weeks later.
However, more delay resulted because the Association of B.C. Contractors [A BC CON] protested that only foreign firms were invited to make bids. The Mines Minister then asked the government to withhold the contract while he carried out an oversight function and held public hearings. While the hearings were on, one MLA declared that since the mine cave in occurred in his constituency, the contract must be treated as a constituency project.
After the government hearings ended, the contract moved to the Due Process Office, which delayed it for a month because it said there was no bank guarantee, performance bond, tax clearance certificate, declaration of assets or letters of credit. After no provincial newspapers wrote editorials condemning the delay, the Provincial Government issued a Due Process Certificate and the Accountant General issued a warrant, but there was no cash backing from Private Industry. A week of buck passing then ensued between the Ministry of Finance, Office of the Accountant General and the Ministry of Mines before the contract was cash-backed.
Finally, the contractor mobilized to site three months after the cave in but when he arrived, he found that First Nations youths had barricaded the site, demanding to be "compensated" before the heavy equipment could pass through their traditional territory.
Two weeks later, the contractor began drilling into the collapsed mine, but the Chief Rescue Engineer was arrested on his way to work after he has consumed one beer and his license to operate a motor vehicle was suspended. His license was personally reinstated a week later by the Premier who stated that any one who drinks and drives in B.C. should learn from his mistakes, and rescue work resumed at the site. On the day that the engineer reappeared, some people vandalized the cables of the dedicated power line to the mine, so diesel-powered generators had to be brought in. Over the next three weeks, steady progress was made, until shortage of diesel for the generators halted the operation because members of B.C. Teamster’s Tanker Drivers Division (BCTTDD) went on strike to protest police harassment at a nearby checkpoint.
After another month of drilling, the shaft hit the spot where the miners were trapped. The chief engineer then called for the escape capsule to be built in Germany. He was told that due to the delay in clearance of the “Tin Kan Kapsule Kompany” product by the Customs and 15 other agencies in Vancouver, so the capsule was diverted to Edmonton, where it was offloaded and some non -union truckers were hired to bring it in via the Rogers Pass.
The capsule finally arrived in a Ford 250 pick up truck and was lowered through the shaft to the trapped miners.
Unlike in Chile, no B.C. engineer was ready to go into the collapsed mine to organize the rescue effort. No R.C.M.P officers could be found that were capable of fitting in to it either. As a result, once the capsule reached the bottom, the desperate miners all rushed to get in. They ignored the order to go into the capsule one by one, and they held it up for a week while they debated the formula for deciding who will go in first.
Someone suggested a zoning formula, or that there should be rotation by political affiliation. Although this formula was adopted, one trapped miner beat the queue and sat on an attachment seat in the capsule. He quoted the Premier of the Province as saying that the rules only apply before the election and once elected in B.C. you can do any damn thing that you like.
At last update the first miner has reached the surface and brought up a bag of rocks from the mine to throw at Bill Bennet. |
