City
Justice Slow in Sunrise Propane Explosion
It's been a year since the Sunrise Propane explosion that left two people dead and 12,000 temporarily homeless in Toronto, and things are still a mess.
One resident trying to rebuild his damaged home feels shafted by the city's bureaucracy and potential $30,000 out-of-pocket fees; Sunrise Propane is still working in the industry despite being shutdown after the explosion. Where's the justice?
I wondered if the city could offer a sliver of accountability to this story. I looked into whether we recouped from Sunrise Propane the $1.8 million the city spent cleaning up the asbestos-strewn neighbourhood after the August 10, 2008 explosion. Sunrise didn't move fast enough, so the city had to step in.
As it turns out, our cash-strapped city is only now starting the process of getting its money back. A staff report dated April 2009 asked the city to give their legal representatives the power to proceed with getting reimbursed by Sunrise. It was passed by council.
The province paid Toronto half of the funds and the city will pursue the remaining from Sunrise. I asked Robert Andrusevich, a city spokesperson, if there's a chance we won't get paid. I got the impression he doesn't think this will happen. Andrusevich said he can't talk about the city's legal strategy but stressed they intend to pursue the funds owed them for cleaning the neighbourhood.
During an interview with the Star last year, Mayor Miller wasn't as optimistic and admitted the city might be on the hook for the remaining cost. I hope Miller's wrong. I mean, taxpayers bailing out private business? Isn't that unheard of?
Hopefully, Sunrise will have to cough up some funds, at some point. Media outlets reported this week that the Ontario Ministry of Labour laid two charges against Sunrise Propane. The charges allege the company didn't ensure the Downsview propane facility met industry regulations and that it failed to protect the health and safety of its employee, Parminder Singh, who died during the explosion. Sunrise could be fined a total of $1 million.
Sunrise is also facing at least one class action lawsuit totaling $300 million by residents affected by the explosion.
Second photo by ONT Design, top photo by Daniel Cooper, both of Flickr.
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I hope i am wrong.
How is this not an automatic procedure for god's sake??? Why should it require a staff report and a vote a year after the fact?
Lawyers do not generally automatically initiate legal proceedings on behalf of their clients (be they in-house our outside counsel); instead, they prepare a strategy that is approved (or not) by the client before action is taken. It would seem from the information in this post that it is Council that gives the ultimate go-ahead. I would suppose that more frequent or straightforward issues (e.g. slip-and-fall type things) are handled with less overhead, but clearly the Sunrise situation is unusual.
Presumably the City has many ongoing legal matters -- many of which likely have more than $900,000.00 (half of $1.8 million) at stake -- not to mention countless other issues before Council, which may account for the length of time between the incident and the vote.
Mark, would you prefer that legal action be undertaken hastily and without full due diligence on the City's part? How many "for god's sake???"'s would be warranted if staff instead acted without approval or oversight from Council? It is true that the City is cash-strapped, but it is not as though the dollar values involved are so great that this as-yet unresolved matter is causing some kind of breakdown in the provision of city services...
Fair enough - I'm not a lawyer and won't pretend to understand the mechanics of this, but it seems to me that it took a long time to bring this to Council. The dollar value may not have been significant but it is important to push this up the agenda so other cowboy operators know the City WILL pursue them in such cases.