I take great exception, Hans, to your assumption that health and safety is a "cross the t's and dot the i's" aspect of Board activities. Trivializing the most important aspect of mining - the health and safety of the human beings who make the mine work - is way out of line.

This is not just a moral issue, but is also a question of the effectiveness and productivity of the organization itself. Good h&s practices are crucial and fundamental to making an organization profitable and productive where the workers are highly skilled and independent in their work.

I spent a number of years working close to the Ontario Ministry of Labour as a Senior Research and Policy Analyst in OHS, trying to overturn that very attitude, which is hugely costly both to the employees and also to the firm itself. H&S is critical to all management decisions - not a side issue - since it cuts to the heart of the effectiveness of communication systems and trust between workers and management, the morale of the mine, its human relations climate, and its culture. A dysfunctional communication system and dysfunctional culture kills people, and will shut a mine down.

Good communications is DW's specialty, and to dismiss his function in this OHS area so out of hand is a great mistake. Especially when you consider that the people who employ him - Black and Sonnenreich - are both medically oriented and highly skilled managers. If they know anything about quality management and best practices in learning organizations - I am sure they are steeped in this approach because of their pharmaceutical, legal and medical backgrounds - they know how to get the best from their highly skilled people, how to motivate them and utilize their skills so that they remain maximally creative, productive, innovative and happy.

Au contraire, I would go so far as to suggest that DW being placed in that position is a great honour for him, and a recognition of his communication and effective management skills that will stand TDC in very good stead in future. Ike