POINTE-CLAIRE – The provincial government has given the Reliance Power Equipment company an extra 24 hours to devise a plan to clean up hazardous chemicals found there.
A report from the Journal de Montreal revealed the presence of the chemicals, known as Polychlorinated Biphenyls, earlier this week.
“People who have been exposed PCBs, even babies, developed developmental problems,” said Daniel Green, of the Society to Defeat Pollution.
The discovery has triggered a firestorm of controversy, with the public wanting to know who’s responsible. A spill at Reliance in March was known to authorities, but sufficient follow-up never occurred, Green said.
“The city of Pointe-Claire did what they could do within their jurisdiction, it was up to the federal government and the provincial government to do the rest,” he said. “They failed the people of Pointe-Claire.”
The province and the federal government did not return comment requests by deadline.
The city doesn’t believe Reliance is capable of meeting the deadline set by the province.
“We have absolutely no faith at all that they will comply with that by 10 o’clock tomorrow morning,” said Nicholas Bouchard, Pointe-Claire’s general manager.
The province has indicated it plans to take over the site and clean it up, a process that could cost millions.
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