Another Islander speaks out about a life-altering oil spill bill and urges P.E.I. government to act
‘It basically ruined me, and to this day, it’s still there’
A Charlottetown resident is calling on the P.E.I. government to do more to protect homeowners after reading about a recent oil spill very similar to one on his Montague property 20 years ago, which he says ruined him financially.
Tony Carroll decided to speak out after he read a recent CBC report about a Sherbrooke family's oil spill.
CBC News previously reported that Betty and Kenny Waite, both in their late 60s, were handed a $345,915 environmental cleanup bill from the province more than a year after a full tank of home heating oil leaked into their clay basement and seeped into the soil.
With no insurance coverage for the spill, the Waites are unable to pay. The province has since placed a lien on their home, meaning if they sell it, the proceeds could potentially go to the government.
Carroll said the Waites' story brought him back to 2004 when he, his wife and their children were living in Ontario while Carroll worked on his PhD. They were renting out their home in Montague when hundreds of litres of home heating oil leaked into the basement and soil.
"Everything just went 'ka-poof, ka-poof.' It went down the drain, and it was a pivotal point in my life, really," he said.
"It basically ruined me, and to this day, it's still there."
Credit rating ruined
Carroll said he initially thought insurance would cover the damage, but was told it would not because tenants were living in the house at the time.
Still, the P.E.I. Environment Department ordered him to clean up the oil. Like the Waites, Carroll couldn't afford the cost. After six months of back and forth, he said the government arranged for the cleanup and sent him a bill, which he said was for more than $300,000.
"It was a huge property," he said. "The province had to come in and lift up the property so they could dig underneath it.… It cost a lot of money."
During the ordeal, he couldn't rent out his home and lost months of rental income. He eventually lost the house to foreclosure. Struggling under the weight of the debt, his credit rating tanked and he said he couldn't get student loans or afford to continue his PhD.
The debt is still outstanding with the province.
"You're always afraid — are they going to take the money? Are they going to look that lien up and start garnishing your wages?" Carroll said. "I'm fortunate they didn't. But it's always there. That financial insecurity is always there.
"When I read the story in the news about the people that have the oil spill, my heart went out to them."
If you fall through the cracks, it'll ruin your life. It really will.— Tony Carroll
The Charlottetown resident is urging the province to step in and do more to protect homeowners.
"There's got to be a better way than people losing their homes, and people that have worked their whole lives to build a certain level of security, and to have that 'poof, gone' over an oil spill," he said.
Environment Department officials have told CBC News it's the responsibility of homeowners to ensure they have insurance coverage for oil spills.
However, an official with the Insurance Bureau of Canada said in an interview that many insurance companies don't provide coverage for oil spill cleanups under their standard policies. Some companies offer add-on coverage, while others offer nothing at all.
Carroll believes the province should step in and create a publicly funded insurance program for cases like these.
"If you fall through the cracks, it'll ruin your life. It really will."
With files from Steve Bruce