On April 24, 2003, seven people died in an explosion and fire on Bloor Street West in Toronto. The incident was a tragedy and Enbridge is deeply saddened by the deaths and injuries that occurred. Enbridge Gas Distribution and two other companies have had charges laid against them related to this incident. This matter remains before the courts.
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Our Performance
Rates of Injury, Lost Days and Work-related Fatalities
We deeply regret that in early 2006 a contract worker on an Enbridge pipeline construction project in northern Texas died after he was accidentally run over by a truck driven by a worker from the same contracting company. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conducted an on-site investigation with the cooperation of the contracting company and Enbridge. The OSHA identified no issues of non-compliance.
Two Liquids Pipelines employees and one contractor suffered days-away injuries in November 2006 when two, 12-inch pipeline batch pigs unexpectedly launched from a receiving trap. All three workers were transported to hospital. One Enbridge employee and the contractor were treated and released. The other Enbridge employee was hospitalized and required an extended leave of absence to recover from his injuries. Canada’s Transportation Safety Board, the National Energy Board, and Manitoba Workplace Health and Safety conducted investigations parallel to our own internal incident investigation and measures have been implemented to prevent a recurrence.
Days-away injury frequency and severity and total recordable injury frequency are the statistical comparative industry measures used to gauge performance.
The following table shows the combined totals for Liquids Pipelines, Enbridge Gas Distribution and U.S. Gas Transportation for 2006 and the previous four years:
| 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | |
| Days Away Injury Frequency | 0.28 | 0.42 | 0.29 | 0.31 | 0.66 |
| Days Away Injury Severity | 6.67 | 4.14 | 4.42 | 3.87 | 9.89 |
| Total Recordable Injury Frequency | 1.63 | 1.95 | 2.11 | 2.21 | 1.74 |
Note: A days-away injury is any work-related injury that prevents a worker from reporting to work on the next calendar day. Total recordable injury includes days-away and medical-aid injuries.
Reducing Injury Frequency
It is our goal to have our whole workforce pay close attention on an ongoing basis to injury prevention. Liquids Pipelines received the Canadian Energy Pipelines Association’s 2006 award for the lowest injury frequency rate in Canada in the large pipeline category. In addition, Enbridge received the American Gas Association Safety Achievement Award in recognition of having achieved the lowest DART (Days Away, Restricted or Transferred) severity rate, or the greatest number of work hours without disabling injury or illness, in 2006 in the category of very large sized member local distribution companies. We believe this recognition is indicative of the high priority everyone at Enbridge is giving to health and safety.
Enbridge Gas Distribution also measures its safety performance through its Public Safety and Reliability Index (PSRI), which gauges the effectiveness of the business unit’s programs to deliver natural gas safely and reliably to customers. Our PSRI result for 2006 was 1.87, placing this measure substantially below our year-end target of 3.00 by more than 35 per cent, reflecting our excellent performance in the areas of emergency response, customer-equipment compliance, and managing cast iron main breaks.
Enbridge Gas Distribution maintains representation on the health and safety committees of both the Canadian Gas Association and the American Gas Association. On these committees, safety and health professionals from gas industry companies join forces to consolidate and compare safety performance statistics to identify cross-industry safety trends and industry-leading loss-prevention strategies. In 2006, these committees placed significant focus on understanding and improving gas utility contractor safety and corporate safety culture.
Click here for information on the 2003 Bloor Street Incident.
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Click here for information on the Remediation of Discontinued Manufactured Gas Plant Sites.
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Enbridge Gas Distribution may incur future costs due to claims relating to alleged coal tar contamination at or near former manufactured gas plant (MPG) sites. In October 2002, a claim was filed for $55.0 million in damages relating to a certain MPG site. Enbridge Gas Distribution filed a statement of defence in June 2003 denying liability. Although the Company believes that it has a valid defence to this claim, certain risks exist. The probable overall cost cannot be determined at this time due to uncertainty about the presence and extent of damage in addition to the potential alternative remediation approaches which vary in cost. Enbridge Gas Distribution expects that costs, if any, not recovered through insurance may be recovered through rates. As such, Enbridge Gas Distribution does not believe that the outcome will have any material financial impact.
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