Dr. Walker.
Evidence of meeting #38 for Natural Resources in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was employees.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #38 for Natural Resources in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was employees.
A recording is available from Parliament.
1 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
Perhaps the issue here is whether the contractor will have the tools and ability to address this issue, which is one of how we put in place appropriate pension arrangements for incoming employees and not ultimately create two pension systems. The question at the heart is does that require legislation to ensure that this unfortunate situation results or can existing tools be available to the contractor to be able to achieve that.
1 p.m.
Conservative
1 p.m.
NDP
Mathieu Ravignat NDP Pontiac, QC
Chalk River is just across the river from my riding, so you will excuse the question, but it hasn't been all that successful with regard to performance. What is it about the Chalk River facility that will allow it to turn a profit?
1 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
Thank you. That's a very profound question.
First, national nuclear laboratories around the world do not work for profit and these are their customers. The fundamental change that the GOCO model implements is first and foremost it creates a customer-supplier relationship with its largest customer, the Government of Canada. It does that under the rigour of private sector management, focused on safety, results, and the bottom line. That model, looked at in other jurisdictions as delivering value at the appropriate cost, has been proven to work. We believe that moving to the GOCO model, establishing the customer relationship with the Government of Canada as well as growing our commercial business, which has been on a growth curve, are the ingredients for success. A big part of the solution is also to recapitalize the laboratories and to invest in the capital infrastructure, facilities, and municipal infrastructure needed to modernize the campus. The government has already signalled it intends to do so and believes that the delivery of that capital program under a GOCO model will be of a higher performance.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Thank you very much.
Just before I thank the witnesses, I want to say that on Thursday we come back dealing with the section on transparency for the extractive sector for an hour and a half, and then we have half an hour to put together a letter to send to the chair of the finance committee. Then, as agreed to by the committee, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources has gotten agreement from the minister to be here the Tuesday after, at committee, to deal with supplementary estimates. We have arranged that, so the committee has business for the next two meetings.
Thank you, gentlemen, very much for being here today, Jonathan Lundy, acting president and chief transition officer in the corporate head office of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited; from the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Dr. Walker, president and CEO; and from the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, Jonathan Fitzpatrick, president, Chalk River professional employees group, and Vince Frisina, vice-president, Chalk River professional employees group.
Thank you so much, gentlemen, for being here and giving us this information, which very helpful to us indeed.
The meeting is adjourned.