FREDERICTON — Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson says the federal government is committed to compensating people whose health was harmed by herbicides at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, despite new reports that have downplayed the health risks.

Thompson said Friday the federal government understands there may not be enough hard data to make scientific decisions about events that happened as long as 50 years ago.

But he said that's where compassion and fairness will become part of the equation.

"The whole story will not come out on the testing simply because it happened so many years ago," Thompson said in an interview.

"All of those people can't be wrong; some of the evidence we know is out there can't be wrong and there's obviously a lot of evidence that would be missing simply because of the passage of time.

"At the end of the day, we will be coming up with a compensation package for those people."

People seeking either compensation or military disability pensions as a result of defoliant spraying at the New Brunswick base were disappointed by two reports this week that gave the base a clean bill of health.

The reports also concluded there were no long-term health problems as a result of U.S. military tests of such products as Agent Orange and Agent Purple during a seven-day period in 1966 and 1967.

There are more reports to come, including a study of the health impacts of all herbicide spraying at the base.

But Ken Dobbie, head of the Ottawa-based Agent Orange Association of Canada, said he is becoming increasingly skeptical of the federal government's investigation of the Agent Orange controversy.

Dobbie said there is no way the southern New Brunswick base should get a clean bill of health, especially when just four months ago three areas were declared off limits because of higher-than-acceptable dioxin levels.

"We have had this whitewash going on for 50 years and I would say there is a conspiracy to try and push this issue onto the back burner or off the stove entirely," Dobbie said.

Based on the latest studies, areas of CFB Gagetown that were closed have now been reopened.

Thompson said he is not questioning the studies that were released this week.

He said it is good news that the base, the largest military training facility in Canada, is safe for Canadian and allied troops to use.

Thompson said the health studies may indicate that fewer people will be entitled to compensation.

"It could indicate that the number of those who actually would be compensated is lower than what some might have thought from the get-go," he said.

It's estimated at least 200,000 people passed through the base during the years of herbicide spraying with dioxin-laden chemicals, roughly from the 1950s to the early 1980s.

Defoliant chemicals during that period were contaminated with a potent and highly toxic dioxin called 2,3,7,8-TCDD, which has been linked, at high exposures, to cancer, birth defects, immune system deficiencies and emotional problems.

Thompson said he hopes to have a compensation recommendation to take to the federal cabinet by late fall or the new year.

He said he is leaning towards a one-time, lump-sum payment following the example of compensation payments made to Hong Kong veterans.

In 1998, the Canadian government granted compensation of $24,000 to each surviving prisoner of war or widow for the forced labour Canadian servicemen endured while prisoners of the Japanese during the Second World War.

"That's the type of compensation package we would be looking at," Thompson said.

"It's not an admission of guilt by the government of Canada. It's based on compassion, not on raw data."