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Last night I participated in the Pointe-Claire municipal council meeting in order ask mayor Morris Trudeau about why the city of Pointe-Claire has consistently refused to criticize the grossly inadequate response of the provincial government to the massive PCB spill on Hymus Boulevard between Sources and Saint-John’s that occurred in early 2013.
The Mayor’s response was not impressive. After repeating his pre-written talking points about how the provincial government’s response has been « excellent » he acknowledged, for the first time, that the city’s actions may have been sub-par. « Could we have done more? I don’t know. » he said.
When I followed up with a question as to why the government failed to uncover the toxic contamination in front of the building that was ultimately discovered by municipal workers doing road construction in 2014 he replied « If we weren’t redoing the road, when the core samples would have been taken they may have found it. »
The fact is, it’s almost two years later and the ministry of environment has yet to carry out their « core samples » beyond the property limits. The only reason that we know that these neighboring lots are contaminated is because the Journal de Montréal paid for testing earlier this month which revealed that the lots are in fact contaminated.
I suggested to the mayor that in light of the recent developments, the city should be defending it’s citizens interests, health and well being by hiring independent experts to hold the provincial government to account on their mismanagement of this situation. To that statement he replied « I have taken note of what you have said » before moving on to the next person in line to ask questions.
Let me make this clear; the provincial ministry of the environment, the liberal government and the city of Pointe-Claire are continuing to fail the citizens of Pointe-Claire by submitting local residents and workers to unacceptable health risks.
The response to date has been totally inadequate and people need to take a stand to make sure that our health and the environment is protected.
The Green Party of Québec will continue to follow this very important issue which has the potential to reform the way PCBs, illegal storage sites and toxic contamination is handled across the province.
Alex Tyrrell
Leader of the Green Party of Québec
