CANADA PAYING FOR U.S. CLEANUP?

[Polly Parks <pparks@igc.org>]

Transcript of Canadian Broadcasting Company news program, April 9, 1997

PROGRAM=THE NATIONAL NETWORK-CBC-TV
GUEST-SASA PETRICIC, CBC Reporter; AL GORE, US Vice President; SERGIO
MARCHI, Environment Minister; POLLY PARKS, Military Environmental Consultant
TITLE=Americans won't clean up.
HOST=PETER MANSBRIDGE
TEXT=PETER MANSBRIDGE: Good Evening. It is the deal between the United
States and Canada you didn't hear the country's two leaders talking about or
being questioned about during their summit in Washington this week. It was
a deal made quietly just months ago, and according to some, it is a very bad
one for Canada. It involves all the junk - some of it dangerous - left
behind when the US abandoned military bases in Canada. The Americans won't
pay to clean it up. Tonight, the CBC's Sasa Petricic has discovered what
they did agree to.

SASA PETRICIC: Everywhere he went in Washington, Jean Chretien was
welcomed warmly.

AL GORE / US VICE-PRESIDENT: We salute you and we thank you for being with
us this morning.

PETRICIC: Every deal his officials signed, including two relatively minor
ones on the environment, was touted as a sign of friendship.

SERGIO MARCHI / ENVIRONMENTAL MINISTER: And I think there's a lot of
synergy between both Mr. Chretien's administration back home, as well as the
Clinton administration on the environment.

PETRICIC: What he doesn't talk about, is another environmental deal
quietly signed between Ottawa and Washington last fall -- one that leaves
Canada paying for most of a massive US mess to clean up buried
million-gallon fuel tanks after the US military closed its base in
Newfoundland, for spilled lead and for poisonous PCBs leaking into this bay.
For the mess left behind by a string of abandoned early warning radar sites
in the Northwest Territories, a pipeline across the Yukon. Last year,
Canada went into talks with the US to try to get compensation for the
cleanup. This internal US government briefing note says "the Canadians
initially requested approximately $500 million US (that's well over
$600-million Canadian) which was reduced through the negotiation process."
In fact, reduced to $100-million US, to be paid out over 10 years; but it
can't be used for the cleanup -- it has to be used to buy US military
equipment. A deal this American analyst calls incredibly bad.

UNIDENTIFIED: How bad? I think you guys got snookered.

PETRICIC: Polly Parks is a military environmental consultant, who's
followed similar negotiations between the US and other countries.

POLLY PARKS / MILITARY ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT: The people who negotiated
this with you, I think, are laughing at this point, ok? Because they got a
deal where you are going to be buying US military equipment, which means
those dollars will be flow back into the US.

PETRICIC: And the deal doesn't even cover all the hundreds of other former
US military installations in Canada, listed in this Canadian Defence
Department document, which was obtained through Access to Information by the
CBC. Experts say many of these would also have left expensive environmental
problems.

PETRICIC: Canadian officials have done their best to play down this deal.
They wouldn't confirm the details until well after the US did. No one would
talk about it on camera, and they say they never really insisted on
$500-million US. They say since Washington wasn't legally bound to pay a
penny, even this much was achieved only because of our warm friendship.
Sasa Petricic, CBC News. Ottawa.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: IN FOLLOWUP TO THIS STORY, APPARENTLY THE YUKON PROVINCIAL
GOVERNMENT HAD NOT BEEN INFORMED THAT THE AGREEMENT WAS WORKED OUT.
Polly Parks