After offering compensation to veterans and civilians who were exposed to Agent Orange at a Canadian Forces Base in New Brunswick, the federal government is now working to determine how other herbicides were used on military properties.
The government is set to pay Heritage Research Associates of Ottawa $190,800 to comb through government archives for information on how herbicides were sprayed on properties run by the Department of National Defence.
It's welcome news for people who have been fighting for compensation for military members and civilians who lived in the Gagetown, N.B., area.
"All of the bases across Canada should be ... investigated to find out what herbicide use was there," Art Connolly, a vice-president with the Agent Orange Association of Canada, said in an interview from his home in London, Ont.
"These soldiers were out in the bush or on manoeuvres, they were rolling in the dirt. They were ... living in the stuff."
On Sept. 12, the federal government offered a one-time $20,000 payment for people exposed to Agent Orange that was sprayed at Gagetown by the U.S. military in 1966 and 1967.
The money was far from enough to satisfy thousands of former Gagetown soldiers and civilians who say they were affected by a broad range of defoliants used at the base throughout the 1950s, '60s and '70s. They are part of a class-action lawsuit led by lawyer Tony Merchant, who views the new Heritage Research Associates study with caution.
"It may mean (the government) is finally going to accept that the damage that all the statistical analysis shows is true," Merchant said from his Regina office.
"But I've just been burned by them, in the way that they've abused the troops so often, that I'll wait to be convinced."
Merchant also wonders why the government is contracting an outside company to comb through the archives instead of doing the work itself.
The Department of National Defence said Friday it could not provide anyone to comment.
Defoliants used around the world in the 1950s, '60s and '70s contained a highly toxic byproduct called dioxin, which has been linked to human health problems. The most popular dioxin-laced ingredient - 2,4,5,t - wasn't banned in Canada until 1985.
Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson has said the federal compensation offer is specific to Agent Orange at Gagetown because it was the only unregistered product ever applied. Other herbicides were approved for use by regulatory bodies at the time.
But Connolly argues people who lived on or near any military base need to know exactly what they were exposed to.
"We need a public inquiry," he said.
"We need to find out the extent of the (herbicide) use, the amount used, how much exposure soldiers or civilians or wives, children were subjected to."
