The fact that there will be no charges/fines from the province of BC for the Mt. Polley disaster speaks to the fact that:
-provincial regulations are insufficient as this was clearly a huge mistake by the company (Imperial Metals) that caused a lot of damage and environmental destruction
-the deterrents for this sort of mistake are far too weak.
-the province does not have the public interest (health, safety, financial) at the top of it's list... where it should be
We will see what comes from the feds but regardless, this is a massive failure from our provincial gov't in terms of sending a clear message that companies who aren't compliant with regulations will pay for their actions.
For those who feel our province is deterring business from operating in BC due to overburdening regulations I'd ask you how you square that idea with the reality of this outcome. Unfortunately this is not a 'one-off' either. Mining, Forestry, Oil & Gas, etc projects have resulted in countless 'incidences' where the public is left holding the bag. I think we can all agree that regs should be streamlined and projects that meet the regs should get approvals/permits quickly. However, we should also agree that when laws are broken and when disasters like Mt. Polley happen, it should not be taxpayers who end up paying for cleanup and suffering the environmental/health consequences while the violating company gets to carry on business as usual. Get money out of politics and hopefully we can start moving towards proper regulation and enforcement.