Ontario’s move to explore building new oil and gas pipelines from the west comes as perceptions of pipelines have changed, Sarnia’s mayor says.

“Attitudes about pipelines, both nationally and provincially, (have) changed dramatically in a positive way,” Mayor Mike Bradley said after the province announced Thursday it has awarded a contract for a feasibility study into establishing a new Canadian east-west pipeline and energy corridor.

“It’s the safest way,” he said. “I think a lot of the hostility has diminished.”

The study, first announced this summer and expected to be finished next year, will include corridor and site options and a cost analysis of building of new pipelines to carry western oil and gas to new and established refineries in southern Ontario and new ports on James Bay,

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