A Northern Ontario lobby group says environmentalists claim the cancellation of the Energy East pipeline project is a victory. However the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities claims the reality is we’re putting the environment at risk. FONOM says companies will now have to ship their oil by rail and truck which statistically are less safe than pipelines where spills are involved. FONOM president Al Spacek says pipelines are safer because they have a higher safety standard to follow. FONOM goes as far as to say the decision is actually a serious detriment to the safety and security of communities. Needless to say FONOM is disappointed with the Trans Canada decision to cancel the project. It says the project would have had a significant socio-economic benefit for Northern Ontario. The lobby group says not only would jobs have been created, but local suppliers would also have seen goods and services bought from them as the project passed through their region. Trans Canada wanted to ship western oil to Eastern Canada for refining purposes. The oil would have traveled over 4,500 kilometres. Spacek says one other consequence with the pipeline not going ahead is Canada will continue to import oil from foreign countries. He says this includes those countries that have deplorable human rights violations.