A request for records of a promised meeting between Premier Doug Ford and his environment minister about cancer-causing chemicals in Hamilton's air turned up no results.
Ford said he would meet with then-minister David Piccini in July after a city-run experiment found a concentration of the carcinogenic chemical benzo(a)pyrene exceeded provincial air quality guidelines.
“I’m gonna have to look more into that," Ford told reporters at the time. "I’ll speak to the minister of environment."
More than three months later, The Trillium requested "any correspondence or record of meetings" about the pollution between Ford and either Piccini or Andrea Khanjin, who took over as environment minister in September, from the day the premier promised the meeting until Oct. 31, when the request was made.
"Access to the requested information cannot be granted, as no records exist," came the reply a month later.
That's not to say the premier didn't address the issue with either minister in a way that didn't create a paper trail. The Trillium contacted the offices of Ford, Piccini and Khanjin to ask about that, but none would comment.
Health Canada funded the study, which was led by the City of Hamilton over a nearly two-year period. The researcher coordinating the study, Matthew Adams, has said the amount of benzo(a)pyrene in Hamilton's air is like smoking part of a cigarette every day. The levels vary throughout the city but nearly all measurements were above guidelines, which will likely result in increased cancer rates, he said.
Studies have linked occupational exposure to benzo(a)pyrene to several types of cancer.
Steelmakers in Hamilton have long-held exemptions that allow them to emit higher levels of pollution than would normally be allowed. The two companies, ArcelorMittal Dofasco and Stelco, are among the top emitters of benzo(a)pyrene in Canada.
However, a plan to transition ArcelorMittal Dofasco from coal-fired steelmaking to electric will likely eliminate the company's benzo(a)pyrene emissions, Adams said. The provincial and federal governments have pledged $500 million and $400 million to the estimated $1.8-billion project.
Ford has said the corresponding decrease in pollution will be equivalent to taking a million cars off of Ontario roads — though the Narwhal found the premier may actually be underselling the benefits.
Ontario's air quality standards are quite stringent, and Adams said he's unsure whether the electric transition will bring Hamilton's air back under the guidelines on its own. But it will make a big difference. Some measurements are 100 times the current standard, he said.
"So whether or not we can reach the standard, we're going to get much, much closer to it," he said. The health risk will "never be zero, but we can get hopefully to very, very small risks."
Adams and his team will reveal their study's full findings and hold a public meeting in February, he said. Then, he'll look at analyzing the results with cancer rates.
"I've been talking to other researchers to see if we can look at taking our exposure data, and pairing that with cancer outcomes in the city over the last couple of decades to see, what is the realized risk?" he said. "What are we seeing for potentially increased rates of different types of cancer? And so we're trying to see how we can do that study."
