Gelinas: Liberals ignoring environmental disaster in Gogama

Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas called on the Wynne government to stop ignoring the ongoing environmental disaster in Gogama and order CN to remove all of the oil from the water.

“The people of Mattagami First Nation and Gogama were promised that their natural environment would be brought back to what it was like before the derailment. We were promised clean water. The water is not clean. We can see the oil. We can smell the oil. We can see dead fish everywhere. The environment was not like that before. It was beautiful,” Gélinas said.

It has been 18 months since a CN train derailed, caught fire, exploded and spilled one million litres of oil into the Makami River in Gogama. CN spent all of last summer and Fall trying to remove the oil from the water until the river froze over. Then spring came and it became obvious to all, but to the Wynne government, that there is still a lot of oil in the water.

“This makes no sense. It does not cost the government anything as it is CN that pays for the cleanup.  I know that the people of Mattagami and Gogama will never match the donations to the Liberal party that the CN is making, but they deserve a government who looks after their interests. They deserve a government who cares about the environment like they do. Why don’t they order CN to clean it up right now; before the water freezes over? Water is life!” Gélinas said.

Gélinas said Ministry of Environment officials are aware there is still oil in the water, but instead of taking action to clean it up, they just continue observing as winter quickly approaches.

“All that’s going on in Gogama is that they are monitoring, but it doesn’t matter how much oil we find. What’s the next step? We monitor some more. All the government has to do is to order CN to come back and continue the cleanup,” Gélinas said.