SARNIA—The province is giving a $100-million grant to a Sarnia-area petrochemical company that’s under investigation by Ontario’s environment ministry. Alberta-based Nova Chemicals, which operates three plants in the Sarnia region, is being investigated over allegations it didn’t properly report a Nov. 8 incident at its site in Corunna, south of Sarnia, where a chemical leak forced employees to evacuate.“We’ve asked the company if there are any incidents that were to be reported and the information we have received is there were none,” said Minister of Economic Development and Growth Brad Duguid, when asked by reporters if he was aware of the investigation.“That doesn’t mean there weren’t any issues — that just (means) there weren’t any that should have been reported.“The money won’t flow if there’s any outstanding compliance issues,” Duguid added. The announcement appears to be bright news for the Sarnia area, where thousands are employed in a thriving petrochemical industry. At the grant announcement in Sarnia on Friday, Nova said it would invest $2 billion to build a new plant in the area and upgrade one of its existing facilities. The plant, first proposed in 2011, will have about 150 workers and result in about 1,400 indirect jobs, the company said. Last month, a Star investigation found that since 2010, more than $2.6 billion in public money has flowed to dozens of companies that had repeated or significant violations of environmental rules designed to keep the public safe. Those companies were fined, in total, about $15 million. Critics note that, in effect, taxpayers paid their fines and, in many cases, the companies continued to pollute. Nova was not among the companies examined in the Star investigation.A separate joint investigation by the Star, Global News, National Observer, the Michener Awards Foundation and journalism schools at Ryerson and Concordia un ...
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