Walkerton Presentation at the OPSEU
Convention
Friday, April 6, 2001
1. President Casselman’s
Remarks
In the past year, a new phrase entered the
Canadian political dictionary. It’s a powerful phrase, loaded with meaning.
The phrase is: "since Walkerton."
Walkerton changed the way a lot of people look at
public services. Walkerton undermined complacency. Walkerton challenged us to
look more closely at what we are doing.
Walkerton pointed out what happens when public
services are stretched too thin.
Everyone, even the most dedicated and competent
among us, makes an error in judgement from time to time. An effective SYSTEM has
to allow for that. It has to provide enough back-ups to make sure the odd lapse
is not, literally, fatal.
In Walkerton, some of the people working for the
municipal water system-not OPSEU members-were clearly not the most dedicated and
competent. The evidence is clear about shoddy record keeping, false testing and
more. But even with that, the SYSTEM should have caught the problems before
people became sick.
The Walkerton Inquiry is still hearing evidence,
but I’m sure that part of its final report will point to the need for more
people to protect the safety of our drinking water. I’m sure it will say that
Walkerton was one of the prices we pay for cutting services and programs.
For us, as a union, Walkerton was one of those
occasions where members from a wide variety of different workplaces, different
locals, and different communities all responded in a wide variety of ways.
The crisis drew on OPSEU members (and OPSEU
retirees) from:
- the Ministry of the Environment,
- the Ontario Clean Water Agency, (OCWA)
- the hospitals in Walkerton and Owen Sound and
London,
- the local Health Unit,
- the public health labs in the Ministry of
Health,
- air and land ambulance services,
- the Ministry of Natural Resources and more.
They included surface and ground water
specialists, environmental officers, administrative staff from the Ministry of
the Environment, working with OCWA and the Grey Bruce Health unit to clean up
Walkerton’s water supply.
They established an alternative water supply for
Walkerton’s jail, hospital, and nursing homes, as well as public showers in
the park for public use. Many were in Walkerton for more than six months, while
their colleagues back at their normal workplaces picked up the extra work and
kept the rest of the province safe.
Plant operators, shift forepersons and
administrative staff from OCWA coordinated the cleaning and disinfecting of
Walkerton’s water system so people could again drink their tap water. Many of
them left their homes and families for more than six months to do this work.
The sound of helicopters flying critically ill
patients to hospital in London is something the residents of Walkerton will
never forget. On those helicopters were our members stabilizing patients
throughout their journey.
Lab technologists in the Walkerton hospital
worked 12-14 hours a day, testing some 1,300 blood and urine samples for signs
of kidney failure. The accuracy and efficiency of the lab staff from this rural
hospital impressed the pediatricians from Toronto’s Hospital for Sick
Children.
Public health inspectors from the Grey Bruce
Health Unit, among other things, held public meetings to keep Walkerton informed
about the situation. At the height of the crisis, virtually all of the health
unit’s staff were pitching in, answering the hundreds of calls from concerned
citizens.
MNR firefighters were responsible for keeping the
water trucks pumping water to the jail, hospital and nursing homes.
All in all, it was a gigantic team effort, with
members going far beyond the call of duty to restore clean drinking water to
Walkerton. People dropped whatever else they were doing and moved in to help
out.
The response was an example of public service at
its best.
It showed the people of Ontario what public
service is all about – professional and caring people giving their expertise,
their hearts and their energy to help. It put a national focus on what we do –
the same way a few years ago the ice storm in Quebec and Eastern Ontario made
people think about the things they normally take for granted.
The OPSEU members who answered the call in
Walkerton were acting in the very best sense of public service. For that reason
we have created a special award to recognize what they did. We have a
certificate for each local that had members working, one way or another, to help
the citizens of Walkerton.
I’m going to call out the numbers of the locals
that had people working on the Walkerton crisis, I want all delegates here to
see just how broadly our response to the Walkerton crisis really was. And I want
to recognize the important public service work that was done here:
Roll call of locals:
ALL Ministry of the Environment and Ontario Clean
Water Agency Locals
|
Local 103 |
Ministry of Environment – London Regional
Office
Ministry of Municipal Affairs |
|
Local 106 |
London Health Sciences Centre |
|
Local 113 |
Regional Public Health Laboratory –
London |
|
Local 115 |
Ontario Clean Water Agency – Elgin Area
Water System |
|
Local 120 |
Lake Huron Water Treatment Plant – OCWA |
|
Local 123 |
Ontario Clean Water Agency – Lambton Hub |
|
Local 142 |
Windsor Public Health Lab |
|
Local 154 |
Ontario Clean Water Agency – Amherstburg,
Belle River and Ruthven |
|
Local 203 |
Hamilton Public Health Lab |
|
Local 224 |
Ministry of Environment – Owen Sound
Office
Ontario Clean Water Agency – Owen Sound
Ministry of Transportation – Owen Sound
and the Probation/Special Agreement
Officers of Ministry of Community and Social Services in Owen Sound; and
the Ministry of Natural Resources – Owen Sound Office |
|
Local 225 |
Walkerton Jail |
|
Local 230 |
Ontario Clean Water Agency
Ambulance Dispatch |
|
Local 250 |
Owen Sound Emergency Services
Bruce County Ambulance Service |
|
Local 266 |
PHU CACC |
|
Local 275 |
South Bruce Grey Health Centre |
|
Local 276 |
Grey Bruce Owen Sound Health Unit |
|
Local 314 |
Orillia Public Health Lab |
|
Local 339 |
Peterborough Public Health Lab |
|
Local 412 |
Ottawa Public Health Lab |
|
Local 432 |
Kingston Public Health Lab |
|
Local 453 |
Ministry of Environment-Cornwall |
|
Local 523 |
Toronto Air Ambulance Base |
|
Local 532 |
Ministry of the Environment – 135 St.
Clair Ave. W. |
|
Local 553 |
Ministry of Environment Lab and
Environmental Sciences and Standards Division – 125 Resources Rd. |
|
Local 584 |
Ontario Clean Water Agency - South Peel
Facilities |
|
Local 545 |
Central Public Health Laboratory |
|
Local 601 |
Sault Ste. Marie Public Health Lab |
|
Local 605 |
Ministry of Environment |
|
Local 607 |
Ministry of Environment
Ontario Clean Water Agency |
|
Local 628 |
Sudbury Air Ambulance Base and the Sudbury
Public Health Lab |
|
Local 633 |
Ontario Clean Water Agency |
|
Local 645 |
Ontario Clean Water Agency |
|
Local 649 |
Timmins Public Health Lab |
|
Local 651 |
Ministry of Natural Resources |
|
Local 716 |
Thunder Bay Public Health Lab |
|
Local 726 |
Ministry of Natural Resources |
|
Local 727 |
Ministry of Natural Resources
Ontario Clean Water Agency |
And then there were those that donated to OPSEU’s
Walkerton Fund. Three that I know of are:
The Provincial Women’s Committee
Local 230 Ministry of Transportation – Owen Sound
Local 340 Ministry of Finance – Oshawa
There were probably many more.
2. Tribute to Betty Trushinski
While OPSEU members responded valiantly to the
horror in Walkerton, one of our members was among those who paid with their
life. Betty Trushinski was one of the seven who died in the E-coli outbreak. I
would like to ask her local president, Karen Passmore, Local 275 say a few words
about Betty.
Tribute to Betty Trushinski – by Karen Passmore,
Local 275
Brother and Sisters:
I am the President of Local 275. Our members are
the employees of the South Bruce Grey Hospital Corporation which is comprised of
four hospitals in Walkerton, Kincardine, Chelsey and Durham. Most people here
have probably never worried about the safety of the water you drink. Last May in
Walkerton when many people started to get sick, no-one thought it could be the
water and when the E-coli outbreak was confirmed, we were told that this
infection would be most dangerous to the elderly, the very young, and the
chronically ill.
Betty Trushinski was none of these.
She was a very healthy 55 year old employee of
the Walkerton site, where she had worked in the dietary department for over 25
years. I didn’t know Betty very well, but her co-workers have told me what a
bubbly and energetic person she was and that she enjoyed life to the fullest.
However, because she was very health conscious, she always drank lots of water.
Who would have ever thought this would make her sick.
She went home sick from work on the Saturday of
the May long weekend before anyone knew for sure what was causing people to come
down with severe diarrhea. She came back to see the doctor in emergency on the
following Wednesday and was told to drink plenty of fluids and was sent home
again. By the Friday morning, she came back to the hospital and was immediately
admitted. By 6:00 pm she was flown by air ambulance to London where she died
four days later. Her funeral was held only two weeks after she had become sick.
Everyone was in total shock because this
infection wasn’t supposed to kill healthy people. Betty’s husband, Frank,
and three grown children were devastated. She also had four grandsons and had
always hoped she would someday have a grand-daughter. Unfortunately, she missed
the birth of her first grand-daughter a month ago.
Her co-workers at the hospital still struggle
with the loss of their good friend who died when she had so much to look forward
to. The people in our area are now aware that you never take anything for
granted, including that the drinking water is safe. Please remember Betty as the
wonderful person that she was. And on behalf of the members of my Local, I would
like to thank OPSEU for their continuing support to us during this tragedy.
All members observed a minute’s silence in
respect to Betty and the others who died in Walkerton.
3. Report on Walkerton Inquiry
As the slogan goes for the Day of Mourning for
workers killed and injured on the job: Mourn for the dead, but fight for the
living.
OPSEU is deeply involved in the fight to make
sure that what happened in Walkerton never happens again. I would like to call
on our General Counsel, Tim Hadwen, to outline what we are doing at the Inquiry.
Report by Tim Hadwen
As OPSEU’s in-house lawyer, it has been a real
honour for me to help co-ordinate OPSEU’S participation in the Walkerton
Inquiry
I would like to cover six points:
· An outline of the Inquiry itself
· OPSEU’s goals
· What we have done so far
· What we are going to do
· How you can contribute
· The nature and timing of Mr. Justice O’Connor’s final report
The Inquiry is looking at some things this
Government never wanted a judge of the Court of Appeal to spend all day, every
day for a year and a half looking at.
Those three things are:
· What happened in Walkerton;
· "The effect, if any, of government policies, practices and
procedures" (i.e. the Tory government’s role); and
· The safety of Ontario’s drinking water generally: what needs to be done
to make you trust your tap water.
The Inquiry is divided into three parts:
· Weeks and weeks of formal hearings before
the judge
· Research papers to be discussed at public round tables, and
· Town hall meetings
The formal hearings are starting up again next
week. We have retained the law firm of Gowling and Henderson to represent us.
They are engaged now in the tedious, expensive and necessary task of
interviewing witnesses and wading through mountains of documents.
OPSEU has three main goals at the Inquiry:
· To protect our individual members; some have
had their conduct called into question and they need a defence;
· To show that quality public services are crucial to safe drinking water;
and
· To document the effects of the Tory cuts.
What has OPSEU done so far? (it’s a long
list)
· Got whistleblowing protection for people
coming forward to the Inquiry;
· Got full standing at the Inquiry;
· Protected our members involved in the Inquiry;
· Brought forward a lot of evidence to the Commission;
· Got the following items on the agenda of the Inquiry:
- Tory privatization initiatives
- Recruitment, retention and morale of staff
- Over-centralization of government decision
making; and
- Poor government responses to criticism from
public servants and the public;
· Authored a paper on "Renewing the Ministry of the Environment"
- thanks to the MOE member project team
who put so much work into it (they were assisted by
focus groups held in the workplace, and $25,000 in
funding from the Inquiry)
· Co-authored a paper with the Canadian
Environmental Law Association representing the Concerned Walkerton Citizens on
keeping water treatment public.
Both papers will be available on the OPSEU web
site soon.
What has the evidence shown so far?
There have been a lot of articles in the paper
but they did not get it quite right.
The Walkerton tragedy wasn’t caused by staff
failings, it was caused by a system breakdown.
A whole bunch of things fell through a lot of
cracks.
Let me give you three examples:
· Loose planning rules allowed a field of cows
to be too close to a well;
· Loose operating guidelines meant the right water treatment equipment was
not in place, and
· MOE management turned down a staff request to start enforcement
proceedings;
To sum up, the real problem was lack of a strong
public system.
What are we going to do from here on?
· Participate fully in the inquiry to
establish the impact of cuts to the Ministry of the Environment;
· Show that if the OPSEU members of the
Ontario Clean Water Agency had been running Walkerton’s water, the tragedy
likely would not have happened;
· Advocate for recommendations that:
- public services be recognized for their part
in ensuring clean drinking water;
- that the MOE be properly staffed and
managed; and
- that municipal water treatment especially
rural municipal water treatment should be done by a new and improved OCWA
You can support OPSEU’s position in this
hearing by going to one of the Town Hall meetings of the Inquiry:
Here is the schedule:
|
Peterborough |
April 10 |
|
North Bay |
May 1 |
|
Windsor |
June 12th |
|
Thunder Bay |
July 10 |
|
Kingston |
TBA |
|
Toronto |
TBA |
|
Ottawa |
TBA |
At the Town Hall you can contribute directly.
· If you are with the MOE, OCWA, a public
health unit, or another related ministry:
- Make a presentation about your role in
delivering safe drinking water to your community
· For details or help, contact Megan Park,
Campaigns Unit at OPSEU Head Office, 1-800-268-7376 ext. 207
· If you are interested in public services and
drinking water, attend the hearing.
At the end of the long winding road of the
Inquiry will be Justice O’Connor’s Christmas message to the Premier and the
citizens of this province, which should be
"Ontario needs a strong
public system to ensure safe
drinking water"
Return to Walkerton
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