MPP Bailey Gets Commitment from Labour Minister for Improved Worker Safety at Troubled Gas Plant

(Queen’s Park) – Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey used the first Question Period of the fall legislative session to press Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government to take more action to address the ongoing worker safety concerns at the troubled construction site of the Green Electron Power Plant in Courtright, ON.

“Dozens of safety complaints have been filed with your Ministry… but it wasn’t until the local trades walked off the job to protest the lack of a basic safety protocol by the company – the company that your Liberal government hand-picked – that the Ministry of Labour finally took enforcement action on site. Why did it take your ministry so long to enforce the Health and Safety Act and lay charges against Greenfield energy?” asked MPP Bailey.

In his follow up question MPP Bailey pressed the Liberal government on how confident they were that they had done everything they could to ensure safety on site, “Premier, can you guarantee our community that it is safe for their loved ones to return to work at this site?  Would you feel comfortable if one of your loved ones worked at this plant?”

In response, the Minster of Labour admitted that “it is frustrating to see these issues persist at this site,” and committed to MPP Bailey and the people of Sarnia-Lambton that the Ministry of Labour would “use every enforcement tool we have to ensure that we get compliance at this plant.”

The cancelled Mississauga Gas Plant was moved to Sarnia-Lambton where it broke ground, again, in July 2012.  On September 11, the Ministry of Labour finally laid charges against the Greenfield South Power Corporation after more than 70 visits to the site and over 200 safety compliance orders being issued.  The union trades employed at the site of the Green Electron Power Plant site walked off the job on August 25^th in protest of their ongoing safety concerns at the site.

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