Walkerton: Harris is Scared

The Walkerton tragedy is less than a month old and the Harris government has already committed to a multi-million dollar compensation package.  For comparison purposes, how many decades did it take the Ontario government to compensate the Dionne quintuplets?

There is only one reason that the Ontario government has acted so quickly: the liability demons are knocking at their door. Already, law firms are signing up clients for class-action lawsuits (that's another story).  It seems that every day we hear another tidbit in the news that the Ontario government was warned about the risks associated with the way they were changing the water testing process in Ontario.

All of this is very good news for the residents of Walkerton.  If the Municipality was the only party held liable by a court for the disaster, then the only source of recovery for the victims (the residents) would be any insurance policies held by the Municipality. I would bet my house that the Municipality does not have nearly enough insurance to cover an award of damages in a case like this.

If the Municipality did not have enough insurance, then the Municipality would be liable for the difference.  How does the Municipality cover that difference?  Through taxes on the residents, of course!  So, we would be faced with a situation where a Municipality would be held liable for injuring its residents, and all the residents would have to pay the damages through taxes!

The way around this, of course, is to have someone else at least partly responsible.  This is called, in legal circles, the 1% rule.  If you can make a party even 1% jointly and severally liable for your damages, you can make that party pay all of your damages, whether or not the party that is 99% responsible has any money.  This is especially useful if the 1% party has oodles of cash. 

The Ontario government has oodles of cash, in a manner of speaking.  That cash comes from our provincial taxes.  The first thing you do if you are facing a possibly huge damage award in a potential lawsuit is try to settle early for less.

So, it is no surprise that the Ontario government is announcing a compensation package conditional on the residents waiving any right to sue.  The government is worried about serious liability and is in damage control mode.