A plastics plant in southwestern Ontario that was ordered by the province and federal government to reduce emissions of the cancer-causing chemical benzene now says it will permanently close by June 2026.
The Sarnia facility, which employs about 80 people directly, has been shut down since late April, after members of nearby Aamjiwnaang First Nation said they went to hospital and were treated for illnesses related to benzene exposure.
Orders from the provincial government drastically reduced the target for benzene emissions in May.
“The production site in Sarnia is currently shut down due to recent orders from regulatory authorities that forced us to declare force majeure. We are currently assessing what is required to restart the site — a process that could take approximately six months.”
Interesting.
I wonder if the same strategy can be applied to the industries just east of the Whitby Harbour, directly north of the waterfront trail. Because at some times of the day, one of those companies is either burning tires or releasing some other toxic shit into the air, which makes it impossible to use the trail without being poisoned in some way.
Back almost 25 years ago I was hired as a weather observer at my regional airport and had to go for training in Hamilton. We had a meteorologist in the group, and he told us that big companies recruited meteorologists out of university so the could forecast wind speed and direction for the company. This was so the company would know when they could flare their stacks without setting off the gov’t air monitoring stations around the plant.
Capitalism at its finest, right there.