Quebecers leery of pipeline safety: poll

In the debate over whether to build a crosscountryoil pipeline, advocates often use improved safetyas a key selling point. Pipelines are the safest way to transport oil, they say.

But Quebecers are the least likely in Canadato buy that argument,suggests to a new poll commissioned by the CBC.

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The poll, conducted by Ekos, found that while more than two-thirds of Canadians consider pipelines thesafest way to transport oil long distances, only51 per cent of Quebecers agreed.

Simone Landry, ofMascouche, Que., might be typical in this regard.She came across some TransCanada employees one day, surveying at the edge of her horse farm for the Energy East project.

"He says 'you know what happened on Lac-Mgantic,with the trains and all this, you knowthis will eliminate all that,'" Landry said, recalling her encounter with the employees.

"And I went, 'Are you kidding me?'"

But if only a slim majority of Quebecersbelieve pipelines are safe, they aren't inclined to consider other modes of transport any safer.

Lac-Mganticremains a factor

Not surprisingly, given the Lac-Mgantic tragedystill remains fresh in the minds of many, few in the provincethink trains are safe for transporting oil.

Most Canadian agree: nearly 53 per cent are of the opinion that trains aren't safe.

That number, however, rises to nearly 70 per cent in Quebec.

Trucks and oil tankers don't fare much better in terms of safety, at least in the minds of Quebecers.

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More than 62 per centdon't think trucks are safe to transport oil longdistances, compared to almost 55 per cent in the rest of Canada.

As many as 58 per cent of Quebecersshare similar opinion about oil tankers, again higher than the Canadian average of 49 per cent.

The CBC Ekos poll surveyed almost 2,100 Canadians between February 16 26. Ekosestimates the margin of error at +/- 2.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.