Accompanied by city officials, the Ward 2 (Etobicoke North) councillor made good on a promise to inspect City Auto and Tire Services (1345 Martin Grove Rd.) and Kipling Wash and Gas (2044 Kipling Ave.) – two of three propane facilities in Etobicoke of comparable fuel capacity to Downview’s explosion-devastated Sunrise Propane.
“I’m definitely not satisfied. Both are failing to comply (with city bylaws),” he said following a tour of the facilities Monday afternoon. “But I have to be fair, so I’m going to come back next month and if they don’t pass they’ll be fined.”
Ford and Italo Joe Luzi, Etobicoke-York District’s supervisor of Municipal Licensing and Standards, gave the owners until Sept. 23 to clear out a multitude of unplated – and in some cases dilapidated – vehicles, clean up the trash-stewn and overgrown lawns on the perimeters of both stations’ properties, and get their paperwork in order.
Toronto’s Municipal Code states every property owner “shall cut the grass and weeds on their land...when growth is more than 20 centimetres high” (Chapter 489) and prohibits the “accumulation of litter and debris on all City and private property” (Chapter 548).
At City Auto, Ford and Luzi found the fence line surrounding the site’s 9,200 United States water gallons (WG) propane tank encasement littered with trash, a broken ladder and vegetation measuring well over the mandated height, and the front of the garage piled high with old tires. In addition, a Toronto Public Health inspector found several pools of standing water with active mosquito larvae – a growing concern since the city has reported three mosquito batches positive for West Nile Virus this summer – that had to be immediately drained.
But the biggest concern of all for Ford, he said, was the assortment of unroad-worthy cars crowding the already compact site.
“There are a lot of derelict vehicles,” he said, pointing out several rusty cars, vans and trailers without legitimate plates or valid license stickers to owner Peter Arshi. “If there were an accident here, I can’t see how anyone could get access to the scene. That’s a big concern.”
Throughout the inspection Arshi, who said the business had been in operation, virtually problem-free, for at least 20 years, took vigilant notes and promised to remedy all of the outstanding issues by the deadline set by Ford.
Over at the “recently renovated” Kipling Wash and Gas, the property was visibly less cramped and better maintained, but still failed the city test, Luzi said.
“If you walk around the edges there, the place is a pig sty,” he said, pointing out several barrels containing unknown liquid at the back of the property, several questionable cars on the premises and litter blown around the periphery of the site. “You gotta understand, in the compliance business you either are or you aren’t – it’s like pregnancy that way – there is no in-between.”
Luzi said the Technical Standards and Safety Association (TSSA) recently released information indicating they do inspections of such facilities every three years or so, but he maintains those inspections should be done closer to every two to three months. That’s a predicament Ford wishes he had more command over as the local councillor.
On the day of his impromptu inspection, Ford said he extended an invitation to both the TSSA and the Ministry of Environment to attend the walk-through, giving them five days notice.
“I wish the city had more control (over the inspection process). I don’t feel comfortable with this situation, especially when I invite the TSSA and the Ministry of Environment out and they choose not to come,” Ford said. “I don’t like the province to be in control over an issue that I have to answer to my constituents to.”
While the ministry sent its regrets and the TSSA never showed, staff at both City Auto and Kipling Wash and Gas said they’d been visited by TSSA inspectors within the last week (although the paperwork confirming the inspections were undated).
Still, Ford was confident the day’s inspection had been a success and that both property owners were more than willing to comply with the city’s standards.
“I’m not here to be the bad guy, I’m here to work with the owners to get everything in order,” he said. “I’ll be back on Sept. 23 and hopefully everything will be tickity-boo.”