CFB Gagetown veterans are split on their support for an Agent Orange fact-finding task force set up by the federal government.

Before he became Prime Minister, Stephen Harper promised money for people affected by spraying of the toxic defoliant at the New Brunswick army base in the mid-1960s.

Yet the more time goes by without a compensation package from Ottawa, the more skeptical some veterans, like Jim Cadger, become.

Cadger, who belongs to the Agent Orange Association of Canada, says he's lost all faith in the fact-finding task force.

"They have a script to read, they read the script," he said Wednesday. "There is no deviation, they don't look for truth. It's not there, as far as they're concerned."

But John Chisholm, a veteran who's been involved with the task force, says veterans need to trust in the process.

Chisholm hasn't always agreed with the health-risk studies commissioned by the group, which have reported the long-term risk to most people who were exposed to spraying is not significant.

But he's sad that veterans now appear split into two camps.

"I always thought that we should be all doing this here together, instead of fighting with each other, one group trying to outdo the other," he said.

Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson says strong emotions don't surprise him, and he hopes to announce a compensation package before the fall.

Agent Orange is infamous for its use in the Vietnam War, and has been linked to cancer, leukemia and other health problems.