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The province is open to the idea of providing any assistance it can – even financial aid – to Toronto residents whose homes were damaged in a massive propane explosion last week, Premier Dalton McGuinty said today.
McGuinty said he asked Toronto's deputy mayor to let him know if there's anything the province can do to help residents affected by the disaster, which forced the evacuation of thousands of people living within a 1.6-kilometre radius of the plant.
"I said to (Deputy Mayor) Shelley Carroll, let's find a way to help the community, and if there is something that we might be able to assist in, we remain open to that," he said from an aerospace parts manufacturing facility in Mississauga, west of Toronto.
"I didn't get into any specifics, but I just said that if we can help, you should call upon us and we'll take a look at it."
Several homes were damaged – at least one beyond repair – by a series of ground-shaking explosions Aug. 10 that levelled Sunrise Propane Industrial Gases and roused terrified residents from their sleep as giant fireballs lit up the early-morning sky.
A Toronto firefighter, Bob Leek, died after being found at the scene without vital signs. A body was also recovered at the site, but police have not said whether it is Sunrise employee Parmindar Saini, who has been missing since the blast.
McGuinty, who recently returned from a trip to Beijing to promote the province's bid for the 2015 Pan Am Games, said he toured the disaster site for the first time Sunday and was frightened by what he saw.
It raised troubling questions about whether propane facilities should be allowed to operate so close to residential neighbourhoods, he said.
"Just being there and seeing the windows blown out and the garage doors blown off and the roofs torn away ... just through the grace of God this happened at 4 o'clock in the morning," he said.
"What if families had been on the sidewalk?"
But McGuinty dismissed calls to dismantle the Technical Standards and Safety Authority, which oversees propane facilities in the province.
Criticism of the arm's-length agency intensified after the TSSA released an outdated list of the Ontario propane facilities it monitors in the days following the Sunrise disaster.
The safety authority also initially refused to say whether the propane company had violated any provincial regulations, but later revealed it had issued "cease and desist" orders to Sunrise Propane in 2006 because it wasn't complying with the rules.
McGuinty, whose party protested the creation of the TSSA while in Opposition, said he too was "concerned" by the inaccuracy of the information.
But the province is working hard to find out what led to the disaster and will take a second look at the TSSA to determine what needs to be done to ensure public safety, he added.
"This obviously raises some questions and we think we should take the time to get those answers," McGuinty said.
Small Business and Consumer Services Minister Harinder Takhar, who also expressed disappointment with the agency, said he is meeting with TSSA officials Tuesday to obtain an updated list of propane facilities in the province.
City officials reassured residents Monday that a massive cleanup effort has gone "exceptionally well," with about a third of the work complete.
The 128 properties most affected by the blasts have been cleared of debris, along with a park and a community centre, Carroll said.
An asbestos scare prevented many residents from returning to their homes immediately after the disaster, but the results of air quality tests conducted so far have been "encouraging," she said.
Despite McGuinty's offer to help, any talk of financial assistance to affected residents would likely be complicated by the class-action lawsuits that are being launched against the province, the city and Sunrise Propane.
Hundreds of residents are expected to join multimillion-dollar lawsuits demanding compensation for property damage, lost wages and suffering.
