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For immediate release July 19, 2002
ARE YOU ONE OF THE
THOUSANDS IN DANGER?
OTTAWA
- More than 2,000 sites including airports, border crossings and entire communities have been identified as contaminated by the federal government. "You would think", stated Nycole Turmel, National President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, "that this would be the bad news". "Unfortunately," says Turmel, "the bad news is that the federal government has no real plan to deal with what could turn out to be a disaster for some workers and indeed unknown numbers of the Canadian public".In a letter to Treasury Board President, Lucienne Robillard, Ms. Turmel took great exception to the government’s not abiding by their legal obligations set out in Part ll of the Canada Labour Code. According to Turmel, "the government is not respecting provisions of the legislation that have been worked on jointly for a number of years to make sure that better protection is provided to federal sector workers".
Turmel called upon the President of the Treasury Board to immediately initiate a federal monitoring program to assess and track the health of any worker who may have been or continues to be employed at any of the identified worksites and to convene a meeting of the Government Wide Policy Committee which is required under law to meet without delay to deal with serious situations such as this.
Turmel concluded by saying, "the PSAC is prepared to work with all concerned parties in order to deal with this matter and to ensure the workers involved are provided the monitoring and care that they need and that a comprehensive clean-up programme is undertaken".
To view a list of the contaminated sites, go to
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/dfrp-rbif/cs-sc/home-accueil.asp?Language=EN-30-
For information:
John Baglow, Regional Executive Vice-President, NCR (613) 560-4380
Bill Chedore, Health and Safety Officer (613) 560-4309
Letter
July 19, 2002
The Honourable Lucienne Robillard
President of the Treasury Board
L’Esplanade Laurier, 9th Floor
140 O’Connor Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0R5
Re: Federal Contaminated Worksites
Dear Ms. Robillard :
As you are aware, your department has released a list of over 2000 contaminated worksites this past week. Many of our members are employed at those worksites. I want to voice our deep concern over the potential health risks to our members and over the unsuitable manner in which we were made aware of these federal worksites containing numerous toxins and carcinogens. It was totally inappropriate that we first heard of the magnitude of this problem through a media report in the National Post.
Furthermore, Treasury Board officials have violated numerous sections of Part ll of the Canada Labour Code by refusing to bring this matter before the Government Wide Policy Committee. The Code clearly indicates that this is the joint forum where serious health and safety matters should be handled. Representatives from Treasury Board participated for ten years in amending the Code so this should come as no surprise to your department.
We are now all faced with a situation where thousands of workers are fearful for their immediate and future safety and health. Moreover, in addition to the thousands of federal workers, there are some sites where the general public and entire communities may be exposed to very serious toxins and carcinogens.
This entire situation could have been avoided, to a great degree, if your department had followed the legislation which was designed to deal with such matters.
It is crucial that immediate steps be taken to alleviate some of the fear and concern which exists among federal workers.
We are requesting that you immediately act to:
ensure a program is set into place to monitor the health of all workers who may have, or are currently working at any of the contaminated sites identified to date, and
convene a meeting of the Government Wide Policy Committee as per Part ll of the Canada Labour Code.
Through the above process, we can begin the important work that will see the development of clean-up and remediation program for all sites.
Federal workers and the general public need to know that their government is concerned about the safety and health of workers and the public at large.
The PSAC is ready to work with you and all relevant parties to deal with this matter and ensure that the workers employed at these sites are that provided the monitoring and care that they need and that a comprehensive clean-up program is undertaken.
I look forward to your timely response.
Sincerely,
Nycole Turmel
National President
c.c.: John Baglow