Mine safety talks to continue, union may consider review

Ontario's Minister of Labour says there will be more meetings in the coming days on the issue of mine safety in the province.

Yasir Naqvi met with representatives from the United Steelworkers union Thursday in Toronto.

The union has been lobbying for an inquiry ever since two men died at Sudbury's Stobie mine in 2011.

The province said no to an inquiry, but has suggested it might be open to a review of some sort.

In a brief statement yesterday, Naqvi said the meeting with the Steelworkers was fruitful and said there would be more discussions in the coming days.

"We had a productive meeting with the United Steelworkers this afternoon," he said.

"We share the same goal of improving mine safety to ensure miners go home safe to their families at the end of their shift. I look forward to continued discussions with them about how to best achieve our shared goals in a way that is collaborative, thorough and gets results."

Local 6500 Steelworkers president Rick Bertrand said the union might agree to a review.

"At the end of the day, Minister Naqvi tells us that he's committed to making some changes and improving health and safety, like the steelworkers are, and he feels his proposal for review and our position to have an inquiry is the same," he said.

Bertrand said he wants to see a proposal for a review process before the union will agree to it and expects to start that process next week.