FREDERICTON, New Brunswick – Beginning next week, New Brunswickers who feel they were harmed by the use of Agent Orange and other defoliants at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown will be able to have their say at public hearings.

Vaughn Blaney, the federal coordinator examining herbicidal spraying at the New Brunswick military base, said Thursday he knows there is anger and suspicion about government efforts to get to the bottom of what happened at Gagetown in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. But he said a lot of people just want to know the truth.

“There’s skepticism which gives way to anger,” Blaney said. “Then there is a large element of people who simply want to know what the heck went on. As long as we can find scientific evidence and we can support the findings, those people probably will be satisfied that at least they know what did happen.”

Blaney said Ottawa has established an initial budget of about $800,000 for the Agent Orange probe that is expected to take at least one year.

Military and civilian personnel who worked on the base primarily in the 1960s believe their health was harmed by the use of chemical defoliants to clear brush from training areas.

In addition to regular spraying programs by the Canadian military, the U.S. military tested some of its most potent defoliants at the base in 1966 and 1967, including agents orange and purple.

Neil Munn of Saint John, New Brunswick, said he was a civilian employee at the base in 1964 when a form of agent orange was used to clear brush. Munn has filed a $2 million claim for damages with the federal government, but he said he is being ignored.

He said the federal inquiry spearheaded by Blaney, a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister, is a not going to uncover the truth.

“To me, it’s just a cover-up,” he said. “I think they’re just trying to find out how much public interest there really is and see how quickly they can get this thing buried.”

Blaney said he has no results yet from any of the initial tests done at Gagetown.

In addition, elements of the investigation such as finding out exactly who might have been affected by the spray programs and a human health study of the area, are not yet off the ground.