Mr. Speaker, on December 13, 2001, I asked the following question of the Minister of National Defence here in the House:
Mr. Speaker, 45-gallon containers of PCBs and Agent Orange have been discovered on the old Tracadie-Sheila firing range in New Brunswick
Is this firing range a dumping ground for National Defence or is it really a Canadian Forces firing range?
Before I was elected in 1997, my predecessor, Doug Young, came to Tracadie-Sheila with $20 million to clean up the firing range. For the information of those listening to us, the Tracadie-Sheila firing range has been in use since 1942; DND conducted training at that range. The government decided to close it down and at the same time assumed the responsibility for cleaning it up. The amount allocated for this was $20 million.
I have done some research and found that I sent a letter to the Minister of Defence on April 20, 2000, another on July 4, 2000, another on August 11, another August 31 and another September 1, 2000. The regional press often writes articles about the contamination of this military camp.
It is not that people do not want this military facility; it represents one third of the land on the Acadian Peninsula. This site could easily be used for regional or economic development purposes.
Allow me to quote from the editorial of L'Acadie nouvelle , under the heading “Taken hostage”.
This week we learned that the decontamination work carried out on the site—remember that it covers one third of the area of the Acadian Peninsula—is a surface operation. Basically, it is a travesty of a clean-up.
These are not my own words, but those of the editorialist of L'Acadie nouvelle . After a little research, it has become clear that everyone in the region is concerned.
This is why I have raised this issue in the House, and more than once. I asked questions to the minister, who needs to take responsibility before someone gets hurt. We are told that there are bombs underground in this area, and that there could be PCBs and Agent Orange. Why is the government waiting for something to happen before doing something? The best thing that could happen would be for DND to send in experts to check the ground again.
Allow me to continue reading from L'Acadie nouvelle :
When it comes from a former Corporal in the Canadian Armed Forces, we should listen. According to Luc Perron, who knows the area like the back of his hand, an additional $20 million would be necessary to do the work properly after the scheduled 2001 deadline.
This is worrisome. The Minister of National Defence replied, and I quote:
Mr. Speaker, the Department of National Defence takes it environmental responsibilities very seriously.
In fact the reports from the environmental auditor have generally indicated that defence has been one of the leaders with respect to dealing with such matters. We will continue to do that on this site and on any other site. I would be happy to provide further details with respect to the Tracadie site to the hon. member.
That was on December 13, 2001, and today, March 19, 2002, the minister has yet to contact me to discuss the matter.
Again, I am asking the Minister of National Defence to take the Tracadie-Sheila issue seriously and do a complete cleanup. I would like to hear the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, because he certainly had time to review the matter, given how long we have been discussing it in the House.