Re On Energy, PM Needs To Lead With His Head, Not Heart (Sept. 7): Any attempt by Justin Trudeau’s government to bludgeon the Kinder Morgan and Energy East pipeline projects through the thickets of constitutional, legal, political, economic and environmental …
Removing hearing panel members won’t solve Energy East’s problems (Letter to the Editor – Published in Toronto Star, September 11, 2016)
September 1, 2016 The Editors The Toronto Star 1 Yonge St Toronto, Ontario Re: Time to Earn Public Trust (September 1, 2016) Dear Sir/Madam, The NEB’s problems around the review of the proposed Energy East Pipeline run far deeper than …
Mid-townToronto CP Rail accident highlights need for railway safety reform
August 24, 2016 The July 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster, in which 47 residents of the town were killed, drew widespread attention to the issue of the transportation of dangerous goods by rail. This weekend’s accident on the CP Rail line …
The Lac-Mégantic Disaster: Three Years Later.
Three years ago this week, an unattended train of 73 car-loads of crude oil from the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota, operated by the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic (MMA) railway ran away and then derailed, exploded and burned in …
Ontario’s Climate Change Action Plan: A preliminary assessment – June 20, 2016
Ontario’s climate change strategy released this week represents by far the most ambitious effort so far to lay out a strategy for achieving the province’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. The strategy, as suggested by environment and climate change minister …
Submission to House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities study on Railway Safety – April 2016
April 18, 2016 Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario C/o Andrew Chaplin Clerk of the Committee Re: Study of Railway Safety Dear Committee Members I understand that the Standing Committee on Transport, …
Re: Reigning in runway trains top priority, Garneau says – Letter to the Editor, Published in the Globe and Mail June 7, 2016
June 6, 2016 The Editors The Globe and Mail 444 Front St. W Toronto, Ontario Dear Sir/Madam, While Transport Minister Garneau’s emphasis on reducing the incidence of runaway trains in Canada is welcome, the declining preformance of Canada’s railways in …
Letter to Editor Re: “Backup brake could have averted disaster” Published in the Globe and Mail, March 8, 2016
March 7, 2016 The Editors Globe and Mail 444 Front St. W. Toronto, Ontario Dear Sir/Madam, In addition to highlighting the specific failure of Transport Canada to require the proper setting of the brakes on the train involved in the …
Letter to the Editor Re: Development is stuck at a yellow light
February 23, 2016 The Editors The Globe and Mail 444 Front St. W. Toronto: Ontario Dear Sir/Madam, Jeffery Simpson’s column today (“Development is stuck at a yellow light”) is grounded in some fundamental misconceptions about the nature of the environmental, …
Comments to the Standing Committee on General Government re: Bill 135, The Energy Statute Law Amendment Act, 2015
Presented February 22, 2016 Introduction Thank you for the opportunity to address this important piece of legislation. My name is Mark Winfield, and I am an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at York University here in Toronto. I am also …