Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to speak about an issue of safety that affects all our northern communities. It is an environmental concern, a liability of abandoned gas stations here in the North. Abandoned gas stations are a problem because long after the doors close and the profits are taken and gone, those underground fuel tanks are still there and sometimes even the spills are there until they are forced to clean these up. These sites usually require substantial environmental cleanup and remediation, but it will sit there until they’re forced to.
In Yellowknife there are at least two gas stations that are sitting empty in prime commercial space; one sitting downtown in my riding and the other sitting between Tim Horton’s and Wal-Mart. Mr. Speaker, this has an effect on the community. Mr. Speaker, they’re fenced in but they look more like eyesores than anything.
Mr. Speaker, the community-at-large is not expecting these to be cleaned up because they know deep down inside there is no one forcing them to clean these properties up. Where is the public interest in this issue? Mr. Speaker, I don’t think there is any interest at all. It’s my understanding, Mr. Speaker, that there are no municipal bylaws that can force these property owners to clean up and remove those tanks and those properties as long as they are paying their property tax. The eyesore and potential environmental liability sits there and waits.
I think the territorial government should step up to the plate and should create a property law in the Northwest Territories that forces these people, when they walk away from these sites for more than a year and they certainly have no intent to reopen these facilities, that they should be acting in the interest of the public. The public stewardship should be taken as first priority and that should be that they clean these sites up. I’d hate to think that many owners have walked away from these sites and they’re going to ignore their liability for as long as they can, but some do. Sometimes that falls on the public purse to take responsibility of what should be done up front.
Mr. Speaker, I have problems with this, but I’d say that there are solutions. The Alberta government has a solution for assessing part of the cost and the remediation of those sites up front. Mr. Speaker, I think there are plenty of examples of where we can find solutions to this problem. What about performance bonds up front? We could start considering those actions to make sure the public interest is always foremost on our minds.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, the potential health and environmental risks are underpinned by a process that is inadvertently protecting by them paying their taxes and then not being forced to clean up. Mr. Speaker, I stand with the community in making sure that our environment is clean and we are responsible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
