Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I work for Bruce Power, which is a privately owned nuclear operator located in Bruce County in Ontario. We operate six CANDU units, and two other units are currently under refurbishment at our site. The six units deliver approximately 24% of Ontario's electricity. We have roughly 3,800 people working full time on this site, and roughly another 3,000 are engaged in the refurbishment project, so you can see that there are a considerable number of employment opportunities at our site. We continue to be a very strong part of Ontario's economic activities.
We have submitted a letter dated October 27, 2009, to the committee through the clerk. I will not refer to it except to highlight a couple of features of it, Mr. Chair, knowing that you've had a chance to take a quick look at it.
I will start with one of the side issues, the availability of liability insurance. I raise that issue because it was part of the presentation I made in this committee in another capacity in November 2007, when we dealt with Bill C-5, a bill this committee, although composed of different members, saw fit to pass. Were it not for an election intervening, Bill C-5 probably would have made its way through the Senate for final passage. That did not occur; hence, we're back here today.
I raise the issue to bring it to your attention and to say that very slow progress has been made with respect to the availability of liability coverage, although we continue to work not only with the department but also through other avenues to find suitable liability insurance competition so that we can get the best rates possible.
On the second point I raise with you, I would agree with Mr. Lees that we are looking for a piece of legislation that would be compliant with the Convention on Supplementary Compensation. We have written that clearly to you. It is one of those issues on which, by now, after appearing in 2007, we as an industry would have thought there would have been progress made. I think at the end of the day any progress is obviously welcome for most of the industry, but for some of us, making sure that we can actually access the international market is a very important opportunity for us as an industry. This committee, I think, has recognized the nature of the evolution of this industry in its very recent sittings, in which you dealt with the issues of the future of the Canadian nuclear industry. Obviously compliance with the Convention on Supplementary Compensation would provide us with a broader range of opportunities than we now have.
I would confirm for you that Bruce Power does support the limit set out in the amendment, the $650 million, but as I said, in looking for that higher limit of coverage and the costs associated with the insurance premiums, we are looking for competition to help us get the best deal that we possibly can.
As we move forward, if there are not amendments proposed to us, I think it's important for us to know of the opportunities available for the government to bring us into compliance with the Convention on Supplementary Compensation and to be permitted to work hand in hand with the committee. If you would like to take a look at the types of amendments that might make this legislation compatible, in our view, we are prepared to bring those resources to this committee and to work with the members if you would like to see the amendments we have proposed in our letter.
I won't go into those changes in depth. You have in front of you a table that sets out some of them, but I would be happy, as I said, to bring resources of the company with me to Ottawa when you go through the bill clause by clause, if you decide that you would like to look deeper into the wording for such amendments. With a little bit of notice, we could bring ourselves in front of the committee when you needed us.
With that, I too look forward to answering some questions. I would just reiterate that it was November 2007, and now it's November 2009, two years later. We would prefer, for efficiency's sake, that we not be back here in November 2011 to do another presentation. Although I love you all dearly, and I like the idea of being in front of a microphone again, it would be nice if we could just do this in one kick at the can, as opposed to having to come back again.
But I do thank you, Mr. Vice-Chair, for your attention.