Mr. Speaker, a man whose story touched thousands of Quebeckers died on Saturday in l'Enfant-Jésus hospital in Quebec City. He had become the symbol of the battle for recognition of the connection between the presence of TCE in the water in Shannon and the development of multiple cancers in residents of that small municipality.
I am raising this matter this evening in order to talk about a scandal. The Shannon scandal concerns water contaminated with TCE. It was known as long ago as 1978 that toxic wastes were going into a pond dug in the sand, that is now dubbed the blue lagoon. That lagoon contaminated the water table. Those toxic wastes have been present in Shannon since 1944. National Defence and the Department of the Environment are both involved in this scandal.
A report on Radio-Canada's program Enquête told us what happened in the small town of Shannon. Everyone was transfixed by this story as well as by the turmoil and worry caused to the citizens of Shannon because their groundwater was contaminated by solvents containing TCE. For 30 years, the citizens of Shannon have been fighting the complete indifference of governments to solving this problem. We will soon be told that they were given $13.3 million to make their water safe. Wells were located in the mountains and $13.3 million was needed.
If not for the Radio-Canada program, which caught the attention of all Quebeckers, this government would never have taken action. I asked questions in this House and was told that it could not be discussed because the case was before the courts. The only way for the citizens of Shannon to defend themselves was to create a citizens' committee and to go to court, even though the citizens' committee had asked this government to settle the matter by providing compensation and, most important, by decontaminating the soil that is completely saturated with TCE.
The response was to hide. The minister responsible for the Quebec City area hid behind the argument that the matter was before the courts. It is no longer before the courts, but there is an appeal. This government must take action. It must compensate the citizens of Shannon and assume responsibility for contaminating Shannon's water. We can see that once again they want to let the citizens go to court.
We know the energy that takes and the stress the citizens of Shannon must contend with. We know that brain, kidney and liver cancer is proliferating in Shannon. We would like to know the exact link between the contaminated water and the incidence of the cancers. In the United States, 1 in 25,000 are affected by the brain cancer that caused young Alexandre's death; in Shannon there are 8 cases in fewer than 5,000 citizens.