moved for leave to introduce Bill C-419, An Act respecting the notification of former residents and former employees of Valcartier military base concerning contaminated water.
Mr. Speaker, I am introducing a bill concerning the contaminated water in Shannon. This Bill requires the Department of National Defence to identify the former residents and former employees of Valcartier military base and to notify them that they may have been exposed to contaminated drinking water.
When we are aware of the consequences, we can only condemn this serious negligence. The people identified would be given the option of completing an epidemiological questionnaire, and Health Canada would analyze the questionnaires and publish the results within 18 months of the coming into force of the act.
The Department of National Defence can no longer remain passive in light of the tragedy affecting all the victims of this contamination, for which it is partly responsible. It must inform everyone who drank this contaminated water, as the American navy did in a similar situation.
I thank Charles Veilleux, a lawyer from Quebec City, and I encourage all of my colleagues, here in this House, to vote in favour of this bill.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)