By Scott Roblin

Farm safety recommendations made in provincial fatality inquiry

Jul 3, 2017 | 3:35 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – An Alberta judge has released the findings of a fatality inquiry into the death of a rancher northwest of Calgary three years ago.

In January of 2014, 46-year-old Stephen Gibson was killed on the job near Cochrane after being pulled into an auger while moving grain.

Judge Anne Brown made two recommendations resulting from the inquiry, which will be passed along to the province.

The first proposed change would be to mandate safety training as part of post-secondary agriculture education, while the second would be to impose yearly inspections on farming equipment across the province.

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Farmworkers Union of Alberta President Eric Musekamp said it’s time for the government to take action.

“We don’t want government interference and we wish that it would be better, but it simply is not,” said Musekamp. “This fatality is a glaring example, this is so utterly preventable yet it happened.”

Following the deaths of three young girls on a farm near Rocky Mountain House in 2015, the Alberta government began the process of implementing Bill 6.

The bill mandated that paid farm workers be covered under Worker’s Compensation Board insurance, and applying Occupational Health and Safety standards to said workers.

This was a controversial issue as many farmers fought back against the government intervention, though Musekamp said change was needed.

“Up until Bill 6 was enacted, there really was very little change,” he said. “No change in the statistics, in fact increases in child farm-related fatalities over the years. So, there has been no evolution until this government stepped in and mandated changes.”

In 2015, 63-year-old Dennis Becker and his 14-year-old grandson Layne Langridge were killed after they both became trapped while standing in a semi-trailer filled with grain in Burstall.

Becker’s son Barry said while a move towards farm safety is a great thing, he’d rather not have it enforced by the provincial government.

“I’d rather see the industry get more on board with safety, I’d rather see the industry take a firmer stance on safety,” said Becker. “The rest of the industries in Canada have really gotten on board, specifically oil and gas who has led the charge in a lot of ways.”

In her notes, Brown referenced a federal report that said 92% of all farming deaths are work-related, while 70% involved equipment on the farm.

According to Becker, safety needs to be a priority for kids involved in agriculture, well before they even enter college age.

“It’s not industry specific and it’s certainly not academic specific,” he said. “So, safety awareness and just how to identify risks, I think that should start much younger than post-secondary. Speaking personally, my nephew was 14 when it happened and he was a long way from post-secondary school.”

The Ministry of Agriculture will take a look at Brown’s recommendations over the next few months, and will make a decision if they want to move forward with tabling any new legislation.