Following the 2006 death of one of its geologists, the Yukon government has been ordered to pay for an independent safety audit for every department.

Kurt Dieckmann, director of occupational health and safety for the Yukon Workers Compensation Health and Safety Board (WCB), said Thursday the investigation into the death of geologist Geoffrey David Bradshaw on July 22, 2006 prompted the first-ever government-wide review.

The review was to ensure all departments have adequate safety programs, properly trained supervisors, and a safety-concious work culture.

'As director of occupational health and safety and under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, I've ordered the Yukon government to do a government-wide audit of safety management practices encompassing all departments,' Dieckmann told a news conference.

'This audit is to be conducted by a qualified external agency at the government's expense.

'All reasonable recommendations of that audit must be implemented without undue delay.'

Dieckmann said a committee, including himself, senior government officials and a Yukon Employees Union representative, will co-operate with independent auditors on the project, which will take about a year to complete.

Dieckmann said he will personally review the findings coming out of the audit, which are to be released to employees, and will order the government to comply with 'reasonable' recommendations without delay.

Valerie Royle, the president and CEO of the WCB, said her office has the authority to review all employees, including government, as the WCB is an independent organization.

'Because the worker was employed by the Government of Yukon, I want to start out by having everyone understand that this was between Government of Yukon and the Yukon Workers Compensation Health and Safety Board.

'The board operates as an arm's-length organization from government as required by the legislation,' she said.

'Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the director, Kurt (Dieckmann), has the authority to investigate workplace injuries, fatalities and to take any number of steps to enforce the act.'

Dieckmann said though Bradshaw's death was determined to be caused by himself in combination with the pilot of the helicopter that killed him, inconsistencies with the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources safety procedures were found.

'It was found that the employer lacked a formal hazard assessment process and incident reporting system which would have enabled the employer to recognize and correct unsafe acts.

'These were not found to be a significant contributing factor in this tragedy.

'The investigation findings, however, raised the question of what shortcomings may exist in safety programs elsewhere in government. Government of Yukon is the Yukon's largest employer,' he said.

According to a report summary of the investigation into Bradshaw's death, the geologist was killed when he was attempting to board a Hughes 500-D helicopter in the Wernecke Mountains, 165 km from Mayo.

'The fatality occurred while Bradshaw was walking upright with his head tilted forward in front of the helicopter near the edge of its rotor disk. The helicopter was under power in a hover toe-in maneuver in order to board Bradshaw and his co-worker.

'Bradshaw sustained a fatal open head injury when he walked upright into the main rotor blades while the helicopter was under power.'

Dieckmann said the fatality resulted when both Bradshaw and the pilot deviated from proper safety procedures.

'The direct cause of the fatality were a combination of the worker and the pilot both departing from critical safe work procedures

'The pilot lost sight of the worker at one point and at that point should have aborted the maneuver; he didn't,' he said.

'The worker should have approached the helicopter in a crouched position as he was trained to do; he did not.'

The WCB is not releasing the name of the helicopter company nor the pilot involved in the fatal accident.

Dieckmann said details of the pilot's error in the tragedy have been forwarded to Transport Canada as aviation falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government.

He said the Yukon government's safety review is to have an action plan in place by September.

While a safety review of a department costs about $20,000, he said, it was not known how much the government-wide review would cost.

Dieckmann said two government departments, Energy, Mines and Resources and Highways and Public Works, have already begun the process to become COR (Certificate of Recognition) certified in an effort to increase their safety procedures.

COR is a nationally-recognized safety program.

Currently, no government department is COR certified.

According to the WCB, the Yukon government, along with most other industries in the territory, has taken more money out of the workers' compensation system since the early 1990s than it has put in.

The Yukon government paid $25 million in assessments and had $42 million in claims-related costs between 1992 and 2005.