For the second time in recent months, Crown prosecutors declined to lay charges in a fatal mill explosion in the B.C. Interior.

Jobs Minister Shirley Bond told reporters today that improvements were still needed in the province's investigation of complex incidents such as the two brutal mill fires of 2012, which occurred in Burns Lake and Prince George.

To ensure those improvements happen, Bond announced that veteran civil servant Gordon Macatee, most recently commissioner at BC Ferries, will now administrate WorkSafeBC and develop improvements in that body's investigative work.

Like the two deaths and 20 injuries at the Babine Mill in Burns Lake, the two deaths and 24 injuries that occurred after dust from pine beetle-killed lumber exploded in an insufficiently-cleared Lakeland mill in Prince George had sparked calls by WorkSafeBC inspectors for regulatory charges against mill management.  

But in an echo of the Burns Lake decision earlier this year, Crown counsel decided that there was not enough chance of a successful prosecution for charges to be laid.

In the interim between the two announcements, the province doubled the number of safety inspectors responsible for lumber mills in the province and established a "very aggressive 90 day action plan" to improve mill safety, according to Bond.

The announcements followed the release of recent mill inspections that determined over 40 per cent of B.C. mills were still operating in an unsafe fashion two years after the Burns Lake and Prince George explosions.

In response to media questions about whether an open public inquiry should be held into the mill fires, Minister Bond pointed out that the province's chief coroner will conduct inquests into both disasters, a process she described as "transparent and open."

"I am praying that we don't ever have to face something like this again," Bond said.

Tom Sandborn covers labour and health policy beats for the Tyee. He welcomes your feedback and story tips at [email protected].