A fertilizer-based bomb scare in Ontario this week strengthens the case for government investment in protecting stored ammonium nitrate fertilizer supplies, said a leader of the agri-retail industry.
David MacKay, president of the Winnipeg-based Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers, said June 11 that the industry remains vulnerable, despite the benign outcome of the Ontario incident.
“An overall public threat still exists and … essential crop inputs like fertilizer remain vulnerable to criminal and terrorist misappropriation.”
For more than three years, MacKay has been lobbying government and opposition MPs on a proposal to have Ottawa co-fund an estimated $100 million “security infrastructure” upgrade at 1,500 agri-retail sites across the country.
The federal government has not responded to the plea, despite industry warnings about security dangers.
Senate and House of Commons agriculture committees have recommended the government act.
The upgrades would include fencing, installation surveillance, alarm systems and staff training.
MacKay said Conservative government disinterest in the issue is baffling. It is spending more than $1 billion on security for G8 and G20 meetings in Ontario this month but is not interested in discussing a $50 million proposal to secure fertilizer supplies that can and have been used to build bombs.
He has been trying to arrange meetings with agriculture minister Gerry Ritz and public safety minister Vic Toews.
“Agriculture wants to shuffle this file along, seeing it as a public safety issue and I can’t get a meeting with the public safety minister,” said MacKay.
“I actually know the minister and briefed him on this issue several years ago when he was at Treasury Board,” said MacKay. “He thought it was logical. Now that he is public safety, I can’t get a meeting. It doesn’t make sense. Maybe this week’s incident will raise the government’s level of interest.”
The Ontario scare began when a customer purchased more than 1,500 kilograms of ammonium nitrate from a store in southwest Ontario. The seller did not follow procedure and record his identification.
When local farmers said he was not buying in bulk for them, police began searching for the buyer, fearing a security threat.
When he came forward to say he was a producer who planned to use the fertilizer on his plants, police closed the case as a “gardening incident.”
