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Joel Harden

  • MPP
  • Member of Provincial Parliament
  • Ottawa Centre
  • New Democratic Party of Ontario
  • Ontario
  • 109 Catherine St. Ottawa, ON K2P 0P4 JHarden-CO@ndp.on.ca
  • tel: 613-722-6414
  • fax: 613-722-6703
  • JHarden-QP@ndp.on.ca

  • Government Page
  • Feb/21/24 10:00:00 a.m.

I want to thank the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery for that hour lead on Bill 153. As he mentioned, this has been something we’ve been looking at in committee, but as legislation evolves we ask questions. That’s our job.

I do have a question for the minister. I had occasion, on my route down to Toronto, to talk to some of the great people who work in the gas sector that maintain the pipelines. They’re members of Unifor. They told me a few startling things that this legislation doesn’t address, and I’m wondering if the minister would be open to amendments.

They told me that Enbridge at the moment is not obliged to let the province of Ontario and its regulatory authorities know about any compromises in its entire gas pipeline infrastructure in the province of Ontario. I was also told that, in the United States, this is a live discussion there, with many countervailing legal suits going on from municipalities concerned, because methane leaks, as the minister said, are extremely dangerous for workers and extremely dangerous for communities.

Is the minister mindful of that, given that he talked about health and safety, about amendments to this bill that would require all operators of underground infrastructure to disclose compromises—

217 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
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