Monday, January 8, 2018

LOCAL RESIDENT CONFRONTS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR CLEANUP HELP



The September 18, 2004 Woolwich Observer carried the following story titled "Calling on feds to join the party". Dr. Henry Regier, current member of both the EH-Team and CPAC, sent a report to the Auditor General of Canada titled "Elmira's Legacy of Agent Orange and Related Tragedies". Henry's report states that the Canadian federal government has a responsibility to clean up the property. This is due to Uniroyal's production of Agent Orange for use in chemical warfare by the Americans against the Vietnamese. The American government had the tacit if not explicit concurrence of the Canadian government for this production here in Elmira.

Lynn Myers, Liberal MP at the time agreed with Henry by stating " ...it was government agencies... that requested these materials be produced. " "...And in my view, the responsibility has to be partially borne by the federal government...in terms of cleanup.".

CPAC members at the time were supportive of Dr. Regier's report asking for federal assistance. Henry stated that Auditor General Sheila Fraser wouuld have 120 days to respond with comments or suggestions to his report. Unfortunately we now know that our federal government did what all governments are experts at; namely bobbing and weaving and passing the buck on to others.

6 comments:

  1. Why would responsibility it fall to a Federal Conservative Government when it is a Provincial jurisdiction and your favorite Department MOECC?

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  2. Besides producing Agent Orange for the U.S. federal government (Defence), Uniroyal also produced aniline and diphenylamine which are explosive stabilizers, for the Canadian government (Defence) to help with the war effort. This occurred from 1941 until 1945 and those chemicals to this day are ubiquitous on and around the Uniroyal/Lanxess site.

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  3. Right forgot that but why does that make the Feds responsible as they were just a customer that Uniroyal supplied a product to. Cleanup of the site is a Provincial issue if they did not follow guidelines of MOE in those days and back in 1945 I don't think MOE existed let alone none of your issues were a priority. Again just my opinion.

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  4. Dr. Regier suggests that as the Canadian government approached Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira and asked them to do specific war effort manufacturing then that may well suggest that Uniroyal is a former military supplier and federal governments including Canada bear some responsibility for inducing companies to produce cheaply and quickly often without thought of the long term consequences (ie. environmental). Yes the M.O.E. didn't come about until the 1970s. Formerly they were known as the Ontario Water Resources Commission (OWRC).

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  5. Thanks for the history lesson and remember I started with the Feds in 1972 when MOE was OWRC but I still disagree that way back then during the WW11 era that the Federal Government even thought of environmental issues as again Uniroyal was just a supplier. Some day I will give you a history lesson of the early years Pre Environment Canada. In my opinion again you keep flogging a dead horse to try to attach blame. It is what it is and hopefully the is doesn't ruin the Canagagigue Creek.

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  6. Here's another history lesson. Way back, possibly around 1972 or a little later you were the first person who told me that the Canagagigue Creek was dead. It's no longer dead but the life forms including fish are highly stressed with Dioxins, PCBs, Mercury, DDT and more routinely above all sediment and fish tissue criteria.

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