As inspectors tried to find out what went wrong and caused the deaths of three workers at a Langley, B.C. mushroom farm, B.C.'s labour minister says it's too early for an inquiry.
Iain Black said that his ministry first needs to know exactly what happened before tying the incident to other cases where farmworkers died on the job.
"One has to be cautious, trying to speculate that this is an agriculturally focused incident because we just don't know yet, we're still dealing with the horror of the situation," said Black.
Three men died at the Trong Mushroom Farm in Langley on Friday when they were overcome by noxious fumes released when a pipe broke in a pump house.
But more has to be done to safeguard farmworkers in B.C., said Charan Gill of the Canadian Farmworkers Union.
"The government is doing piecemeal work, there should be a general kind of commission to look into the agriculture industry, to really see what kind of improvements can be made," said Charan Gill.
Gill wants an inquiry into the issue and then action from the province to improve the situation.
Friday's accident is far from the first involving farmworkers. Last March, three women died after an overloaded van flipped on the Trans-Canada Highway near Abbotsford. It was carrying 17 people despite being designed for just 10.
Another crash in Langley in 2003 also proved fatal -- the van in that case case was also overloaded.
The provincial government has made a number of changes to improve farm worker safety, including stepped-up farm vehicle inspections, more education for workers, and more mandatory penalties for employers who don't follow the rules.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Stephen Smart
