CORNWALL, Ontario – Finger-pointing and some heated words dominated a fiery exchange over controversial chemical tanks on Cornwall’s waterfront at a federal election debate Wednesday.
Both Liberal candidate Bernadette Clement and incumbent Tory Guy Lauzon locked horns, with both suggesting the other was to blame on that file.
“One of the most disappointing files for our area was the arrival of those tanks,” said Clement. “The MP should be aware of those hopes and dreams for our waterfront. They should say ‘I want to be informed ahead of time on those projects.'”
But Lauzon was having none of it, suggesting the city knew about the arrival of the tanks nearly a year before their existence went public and suggested Clement, as a city councillor, was ill-informed when municipal officials finally waded into the debate.
“Twice we offered the whole harbour to the city, twice,” he thundered, pointing a finger specifically at Clement. “Some councillors made the decision about this issue without knowing how tall the tanks were. If I was a resident of Cornwall I would be upset with a councillor who didn’t know.”
Clement, though, held her ground.
“This is not a council issue, this is a federal government issue,” she said to applause from many of the 160 who attended the event at the Cornwall Civic Complex. “This is a failure on the part of this government.”
Patrick Burger, who is carrying the NDP banner heading into the Oct. 19 vote, suggested Lauzon and the Tories failed the Cornwall area.
“This goes into the culture of secrecy with the (Stephen) Harper government,” he said. “The secrecy was so much that Mr. Lauzon didn’t know this would happen – which is not the sign of a good government.
“This kind of thing has to go.”
Green party candidate Elaine Kennedy suggested communication was sorely lacking on the issue.
“One of the things we have to realize is when you communicate you have to communicate between departments…it seems (federal) departments don’t talk to each other and they don’t talk to the MPs about issues in their particular riding,” she said. “We need to find what is best on an issue and then work on it.”
