Ontario Hansard - 05-October2009

Mr. Peter Tabuns: I have a question again for the Minister of the Environment. Thousands of Toronto residents and Toronto's medical officer of health are vehemently opposed to the government's plan to use archaic and polluting diesel trains along the congested Georgetown South rail corridor. People fear for their own and their children's health.

Can the minister explain how the proposed diesel trains will impact levels of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and fine particles?

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Supplementary?

Mr. Peter Tabuns: The answers keep getting weaker. In an e-mail to the ministry on September 11, McCormick Rankin consultants concluded that the diesel trains to the airport will increase foreign particle emissions three times and nitrogen oxide emissions tenfold over car transport. That's an astoundingly dirty installation.

While the government studies the electrification of the Georgetown South corridor, it's allowing diesel trains to the airport that will harm the health of tens of thousands of Toronto families living next to the line. Why won't the government at least wait for the results of its own study before saying yes to dirty diesel trains?