Ontario MPP Peter Tabuns’ anti-fracking private members bill is getting a surprising amount of backlash from Ontario natural gas interests considering that there are supposedly no hydraulic fracturing projects in the works for the province. Bill 82 goes for second reading at Queen’s Park this Thursday and both Union Gas and the Ontario Energy Association have sent letters to all MPPs asking them to vote against it. The letters claim that the economic benefits from potential fracking in Ontario are significant and that it can be done safely.
Fracking contaminates millions of litres of fresh water per well. Companies inject dozens of toxic chemicals into the ground to break up shale rock formations to reach trapped oil and gas. Fracked wells also leak vast quantities of methane – a powerful greenhouse gas. Fracking for unconventional gas is rapidly expanding in almost every province across Canada. The Council of Canadians opposes fracking because of its high water use, its high green house gas emissions, its impacts on human health, the disruption it causes to wildlife, and the danger it poses to groundwater and local drinking water. We are calling for a country-wide halt to fracking operations. Already, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have moratoriums against fracking.
A New York Times article from yesterday reports confirmed findings of fracking chemicals in Pennsylvania well water.
A recent poll we conducted found that 75% of Ontarians want a ban on fracking.
Please take a moment to sign our action alert asking the Ontario government to support Bill 82 and ban fracking in Ontario.
