Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Friday, July 20, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The debate over whether a Yellowknife-based exploration company properly equipped one of its employees who died as a result of a bear attack last April will spill over into Yukon territorial court.

The negligence case filed by the Yukon Worker's Compensation Health and Safety Board against Aurora Geosciences, a Yellowknife mineral, oil and gas exploration company, is slated to go to trial in November after the company pleaded not-guilty to five negligence charges Tuesday in court.

The board laid the charges in late April, stemming from an incident in the bush near Ross River - 198 kilometres northeast of Whitehorse - where 28-year-old Jean-Francois Page was staking mining claims for Aurora.

RCMP said Page was mauled by a bear protecting her two cubs.

"It may have been avoided," said Mark Hill, spokesman for the Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board. "The belief is that, as laid out in the charges, he was not properly instructed or equipped to deal with the situation."

Hill said he could not comment on the specifics of the case.

John Witham, president of the Yukon Chamber of Mines, said that no amount of training could ensure the safety of an explorer who comes upon a bear.

"It's absolutely ludicrous that (the board) is pursuing this thing," said Witham. "I can't think of anything in the world that's less preventable than a bear attack. To me, there's got to be better ways for the WCB to expend their energies and improve workplace safety than blowing a bunch of taxpayers' money chasing this thing."

Witham said that if the board wins the case, it could set a dangerous precedent "for any industry - be it the tourism industry, the forestry industry, surveying/engineering technology industry, mining industry, the exploration industry - anyone that has to work in the bush," he said.

"It's going to be very difficult to convince an employer or an insurance company to insure someone out in that situation if the WCB is going to jump on you for an attack of a wild animal. How can you regulate that?"

Al Doherty, a veteran geologist and a previous victim of a bear attack, has also stated his opposition to the case.

Gary Vivian, president of Aurora Geosciences, was in the bush at press time and could not be reached for comment.