SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
August 22, 2022 09:00AM
  • Aug/22/22 10:50:00 a.m.

Speaker, through you to the Premier: One year ago this week, downtown Wheatley exploded, likely as a result of an old abandoned gas well that had leaked.

According to the Globe and Mail, months after the explosion the Chatham-Kent fire chief warned the provincial government of gas leaks and repeatedly begged for help, but the province evidently decided this was the municipality’s problem, not the province’s. There are an estimated 15,000 abandoned oil and gas wells in rural southwestern Ontario. Experts say another Wheatley is just a matter of time.

Will the provincial government take action to prevent another explosion, or will the Premier abandon rural communities to deal with this danger on their own?

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  • Aug/22/22 10:50:00 a.m.

To the Premier: The explosion in Wheatley flattened the downtown core and many people were hospitalized. About a year before the Wheatley explosion, there was another explosion just 10 kilometres away near Leamington. That explosion took the lives of a retired couple. Experts believe that a leaky oil and gas well may have been the cause of that explosion as well. People have died, and yet when Chatham-Kent detected a gas leak in downtown Wheatley and begged the province for help, the province dithered.

Past provincial governments have allowed oil and gas companies to walk away from their responsibilities when they abandon these wells. When will your government take action to prevent another deadly explosion like we are seeing in the province of Ontario?

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