May 1, 2007

Chinese workers killed on construction site identified

FORT MCKAY, ALTA.

Two Chinese workers killed at an oilsands construction site in northern Alberta have been identified as an engineer and a scaffolder.

Hong Liang Liu, 33, an electrical engineer, and Genbao Ge, 27, were identified by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. as the men killed Tuesday when the roof of a huge oil container fell down as it was being put into place.

Both were non-union employees of Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Co. Canada Ltd., said Real Doucet, Natural Resources’s vice-president of oilsands.

Natural Resources had contracted SSEC to build the tanks early- to mid-2006, he added. Liu arrived in Canada in September, while Ge arrived this January.

Four other Chinese labourers were injured in the accident. Two were released from hospital within 24 hours and two were taken to Edmonton hospitals.

Capital Health said one, in the University of Alberta Hospital, is in good condition, while the other, in the Royal Alexandra Hospital, is in stable condition.

Neither wished to speak to media.

Doucet said a memorial is planned Saturday for Liu and Ge, at Natural Resources Ltd.’s $10.8-billion Horizon project.

It’s set to coincide with the International Day of Mourning for Killed and Injured Workers.

Doucet wasn’t sure what the Horizon memorial will entail.

“We’ll do something special for them. We have someone right now organizing the ceremony.”

He said SSEC was certified last June by Service Canada to bring temporary foreign labourers into the country.

Because neither of the men killed at Horizon were employed in a registered Alberta trade, they didn’t have to prove to Alberta’s Apprenticeship and Industry Training office they were qualified to work in their fields.

Mark Zeliger of Service Canada said it’s up to the sponsoring employer to ensure their employees can do the job they claim they can do.

Doucet said about 150 Chinese nationals are working at Horizon’s oil tanker construction site.

Some are welders, he said, a registered trade in Alberta.

SSEC couldn’t be reached for comment.

The bodies of the dead workers were transported to the office of the Edmonton medical examiner last Thursday.

Their next of kin have been notified and a spokesman for the Chinese consulate in Calgary said they believed their remains would be returned to China this week.

Occupational Health and Safety has brought a fifth investigator in on the investigation, as well as a provincial government interpreter.

CANADIAN PRESS

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