A Kitchener auto-parts company with a large propane tank has been shut down for safety concerns after a surprise inspection Wednesday.
Kitchener Frame was shut down after it could not prove to safety inspectors that staff members have been properly trained to operate the company's 5,000-gallon propane-pumping station.
The move comes during a safety inspection blitz by Ontario's Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) following the explosion at Toronto's Sunrise Propane facility.
The agency, which operates at arm's length from the provincial government, is assigned to monitor the province's 3,000 propane facilities. The TSSA will be inspecting each one, and promises to look into the biggest 150 facilities by the end of day Friday.
Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters earlier Wednesday he won't decide the fate of the agency until an investigation into the cause of the Sunrise Propane explosion is completed.
However, McGuinty did say it's possible that the TSSA will lose its independent status and be brought back into the government fold.
"Something happened which obviously should not have happened," McGuinty said Wednesday. "Let's figure out exactly what went wrong before we act precipitously."
The New Democrats have been lobbying McGuinty to bring the TSSA back under government control.
Criticism of the TSSA has grown since the August 10 explosion and fire at Sunrise Propane's northwest Toronto propane facility that led to the evacuation of thousands of people. Most have since returned to their homes, although a few houses have been deemed uninhabitable.
Consumer Services Minister Harinder Takhar told CTV Toronto that he is satisfied with the TSSA's inspection timeline.
"I think this is the first step," Takhar said. "We need to learn from this plan, these inspections, what kind of issues are out there, and then we will decide what the next step should be."
With files from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss and The Canadian Press
