Toronto City Hall Email: councillor_augimeri@.ca Maria Augimeri 100 Queen Street West, Suite C53 Website: www.mariaaugimeri.com Toronto, M5H 2N2 Twitter: twitter.com/MariaAugimeri City of Toronto Councillor Telephone: 416-392-4021 Facsimile: 416-392-7109 , Ward 9

Dear Premiere Wynne

As you are likely aware, Justice Leslie Chapin recently issued a decision against Sunrise Propane Energy Group Inc., finding it guilty of nine environmental and safety rules.

This places blame on the company for the 2008 Propane Explosion that incinerated Parminder "Rocky" Singh Saini, and killed veteran firefighter Robert Leek, cost millions and caused heartache and distress to members of my community, many who lost their homes and were displaced.

In 2010, the Ontario Fire Marshall found that the cause for the blast was a "truck to truck" propane transfer that was not only illegal but sadly also not an uncommon method of propane exchange at the Sunrise facility.

While the blame for the immediate workplace hazards, short-cuts, woefully inadequate training and overall dangerous culture of negligence can be placed on Sunrise Propane Energy Group Inc., the responsibility for preventive measures existed squarely with the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) who is the arms-length industry self-regulator tasked with propane oversight.

Justice Leslie Chapin's decision echoed condemnation of the TSSA when she pointed out how it failed to substantively act despite knowing about the illegal transfers occurring at this facility as late as 2007. The TSSA did not even have an up-to-date list of propane facilities in the Greater Toronto Area at the time of the 2008 blast -- a fact that should be a harbinger of its potential negligence in its other regulatory areas.

It is no secret I have been calling on your Government to end the era of privatized public safety. It is clear the TSSA, through its industry-self funding is a woefully inadequate protectorate of lives and livelihoods and it clearly has not soundly handled the responsibility of creating safety rules and ensuring their enforcement.

While I acknowledge some legislative adjustments to the TSSA have been made since 2008, that is of little solace to those who lost loved ones, and does even less to ease the collective trauma that continues to be borne by members of my community. This is why I call on you to return public safety to the public, as it existed before it was privatized for ideological reasons in 1996. Bring technical standards and safety back into Provincial hands and publicly accountable as it should be. It would help those directly affected by the blast sleep a little sounder tonight.

Regards,

Maria Augimeri City Councillor Ward 9 - York-Centre