CP Rail refuses to pay for Lac-Mgantic cleanup

Canadian Pacific says it's not responsible for paying to clean up Lac-Mgantic, Que.

The railway is rejectinga legal demand by the provincial government that it help fund the cleanupof the devastated town.

The Canadian Press has learned that the railway will announce today that it will appeal the legal order.

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The news comes one day after the provincial government added CP to a list of defendants that it says are responsible for paying for the cleanup.

That legal notice demands that the companies follow a provincial law that holds businesses accountable for the financial impact of an environmental disaster.

"Canadian Pacific has reviewed the notice. As a matter of fact, in law, CP is not responsible for this cleanup," said railway spokesman Ed Greenberg.

"CP will be appealing."

The province says CP was the main contractor responsible for the fateful shipment that was supposed to send crude oil from North Dakota to a New Brunswick oil refinery.

It handed off the train in Montreal to the smaller Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd., which then operated the tanker train that jumped the tracks in Lac-Mgantic on July 6.

The disaster killed 47 people and prompted a mass evacuation, a criminal investigation, lawsuits, and concerns that the community of 6,000 might have to abandon its downtown core.

MM&A is already among the other companies on the legal notice, but the small railway has said it can't afford to pay and has requested bankruptcy protection.