KITCHENER-WATERLOO –The horror that overtook Walkerton has deeper
roots than local incompetence and negligence, said Leah Casselman,
President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
"In a properly operating system, there would have been enough
checks in place that the local incompetence would have been caught."
Casselman said the measures being taken to prevent the highly
contagious foot and mouth disease from entering Canada show how public
services should deal with threats to safety. "It’s a completely
systematic approach.
"At airports across the country, public servants are doing all
they can to disinfect arrivals from afflicted areas. We may not succeed.
We may need to do more. But a large-scale response has gone into action in
an effort to keep out an animal disease that would devastate Canadian
agriculture.
"The measures being taken to prevent foot and mouth disease here
are expensive. It costs money to have sniffer dogs at airports, to beef up
inspections and so on. But the costs of failure are astronomical,"
Casselman said.
"Protecting our water supply is the same way. It costs money and
it takes staff to ensure we have a system that will deliver clean safe
water when we turn on the taps. But as Walkerton learned, the costs of
failure are far too high to countenance."
OPSEU represents 900 staff at the Ministry of the Environment and about
600 at the Ontario Clean Water Agency. "These are the people who do
the work, and the ones who know what should be done to maintain safe
water," said Casselman. "These people have important information
to share with the Walkerton Inquiry."
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For further information:
Katie FitzRandolph (OPSEU Communications) (416) 448-7440;
