While Ontario's efforts in this arena are to be applauded, unfortunately we only have 4 diving inspectors in Ontario. We also have 250,000 lakes alone. While I have never had occasion to report an obviously unsafe commercial diving operation, I have reported an unsafe construction site. This particular farce was the demolition of a gas station at the intersection of 2 busy provincial highways in broad daylight. Driving by I could see summer help students without even basic hard hats or safety shoes milling about. Two were on top of the canopy while a backhoe was being used to pull sections of it down. Steel was snapping and shaking and there wasn't a safety belt to be seen. The site was less than 10 minutes away from a regional WCB centre where dozens of construction safety inspectors were based. I called the office from my cell phone but nobody was available to come out and issue a stop work order. They were all out and about inspecting sites on their scheduled list. Filing a complaint is one thing -- having the resources to take action is another.
And while there is a CSA standard that would require commercial training of commercial divers, unfortunately it has not yet (as of this spring anyway) been adopted by this province. Consequently, a person can legally perform commercial dive work without any training whatsoever -- even PADI OW would be a step up. Commercial operations are supposed to follow certain procedures but the unfortunate fact is that the incident in Florida, as described in the sketchy news report, could have happened here even if a dive inspector was standing on the shore observing the operation at that moment. We require tether lines -- the boy was tangled in a "rope used for diving". We require surface support in the form of a backup diver and a supervisor -- he was pulled out by "other members". We require a means of communication -- they pulled him out when they saw his helmet float to the surface. It doesn't say but the helmet may have contained 2-way voice communication. Or they may have been using tugs on a signal line and that was 1 of the "ropes" he got tangled. We require at least one of the surface support personel to be trained in first aid and suitably equipped -- the boy survived long enough for a helicopter to get him to hospital so something suitable and timely must've been done for him on the surface*.
Ontario may have taken a few steps down the right road, but the journey is far from complete.
(*Please note: I am not saying that the operation was conducted in accordance with any recognized standards, just that we cannot tell from that report. I work in an industry where I regularly experience things first hand that are later shown on the evening news and often I am left shaking my head wondering if the reporter was really at the same scene. The answer is of course that while the reporter may have been, the editor certainly wasn't.)
