The Toronto Propane Explosion · 15 August 2008, 14:49 by Walt Jarsky
Last night I went to one of the community meetings about the recent explosion and fire at Sunrise Propane sponsored by the Ancaster Residents Association at St. Norbert’s Catholic Church. There were hundreds of people filling the church basement, with an overflow crowd in the church and on the steps outside.
I had a chance to talk with a couple of people and I got a sense of how upset people were about being awoken at 3:50am by a huge bang, and then seeing the fire in the sky and not knowing what happened – A plane crash? A terrorist attack?
The meeting started late because people had to be encouraged to leave the main meeting space. The program itself was a bit chaotic too. Dr. Howard Shapiro of the City Health Department tried to calms residents’ fears about exposure to asbestos particles. The MPP for York Centre, Monte Quinter, seemed sincere in his efforts to answer immediate concerns, was content to focus responsibility on TESSA, the Technical Standards and Safety Authority, and did not voluntarily own up to his or the Provincial Ministry of the Environment’s responsibility to monitor this provincially mandated body.
Councillor Rob Ford said no such danger should return to the community, and he would ask City Council to rezone the land to residential use.
Many individuals asked incisive questions. Most responses were general, consoling, and in some cases misleading.
This was a first meeting. It is great it was organized. But we still need to evaluate it.
As I analyze the crisis, I see it having three components: the need for disaster relief; the need for policy and legislative reform; the necessity of well organized citizens to make sure the first two occur and continue to be done as required.
In this community of 12,500 persons, thousands were forced from their homes in the middle of the night, their homes were damaged, and they are under the current threat of exposure to asbestos (and other unknown contaminants). Some people still cannot return to their homes. One resident called for a registry to be developed, recording all persons exposed to this disaster, since the effects of asbestos exposure may not show themselves until many years later.
The World Health Organization understands health to be security in housing, employment, nutrition, education, relationships, and health care. I would add having a dynamic spiritual and political life as components of health as well. All aspects of health of the residents have been disturbed, and we do not know yet the extent of the disturbance.
Clearly there is a need for relief from this disaster.
This explosion dramatically shows how the residents were living with a “smoke detector” (TESSA, the Ministry of the Environment, our elected leaders at every level of government, and last but not least, our civic organizations) that they thought would protect them, but in fact was missing a battery. We might conclude that we would be better off without a warning device, than one that gave us this false assurance.
The media coverage up to this point limits its comments to the reports from TESSA. What is not being discussed is that when Sunrise Propane broke the law, there were no consequences except some formal finger wagging. Why aren’t such violations hit with hefty, and when required, escalating, fines?
As the media scrutinizes TESSA, we hear some experts consider the merits of bringing it under closer scrutiny of the Provincial government. Certainly that needs to be done. But that brings us to consider the Ministry of the Environment which is currently subject to this “closer” scrutiny.. What is its responsibility in this matter? The Province is divided into areas and each is assigned a Senior Environmental Officer. It appears that that officer, like many of those responsible for this mess, is successfully hiding under his or her desk.
Yes, we need environmental policy and legislative reform.
Surely, many political careers will be impacted by this event. We may even see some new elected leaders. But they will be impaired in their new office unless the neighbours in Ancaster and across the city organize themselves more effectively.
There are some difficult problems ahead for the residents. Hopefully, the disaster relief will be simple. Living near a potentially contaminated site, or possible right in one, is more complicated. While Councillor Ford can blithely say he will ask Council to rezone the site, the realities of existing laws may make that more difficult than it sounds. To rezone a site to residential use, will involve an assessment of its contamination, and then a clean-up, before it can be rezoned. The residents are presently living near or in a Brownfield. This problem requires every level of government, and reform of every level of pertinent legislation.
We are in an environmental, health, and democratic crisis, and this explosion and its aftermath is one manifestation of it. How will we individuals, civic and religious groups respond to it?
Walter Jarsky is an executive member of the Parkdale Residents Association responsible for addressing the brownfields in South Parkdale.
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