Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the environment committee, for the opportunity to participate today. It's truly a privilege.
In the spirit of reconciliation, I would like to acknowledge that while I'm coming to you virtually today, I am physically on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.
I'm John Gorman, president and CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association. I'm also former president and CEO of the Canadian Solar Industries Association.
The Canadian Nuclear Association represents the entire spectrum of the nuclear industry. That includes the mining sector, nuclear utilities, engineering, manufacturing and supply chain companies. We account for 76,000 direct and indirect jobs. It's a cornerstone of Canada's innovation system.
One of the reasons we're doing so much innovation in this very healthy nuclear ecosystem is the $26-billion refurbishment that is currently under way in Ontario, of the Ontario Power Generation and Bruce Power units, proceeding on time and on budget and allowing for this extraordinary innovation in the areas of small modular reactors and life-saving medical isotopes and nuclear medicine generally. As I'm sure all of you are aware, we're also the second-largest exporter of uranium in the world. Cameco is a key global player in our nuclear ecosystem.
Before I speak to the nuclear waste and by-product aspects of our industry, I would like to provide a little bit of context on how the nuclear industry contributes to Canada's key goals and priorities. As you know, Canada, along with the rest of the world, has been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, but we're also witnessing the long-term impacts of climate change. We saw in 2020-21 the acceleration of fires, floods and heat waves worldwide, and we experienced it here at home, all validating the UN IPCC's warning that this is a “code red for humanity”. In fact, as this government and all of us have noted, this is a climate crisis that we're experiencing here and around the world.
As world leaders concluded at COP26, there is an urgent need for an all-out effort to address the climate crisis. As part of that effort, all the tools at our disposal, all non-emitting and clean energy technologies, including nuclear, are needed to play a role in dramatically reducing emissions. This view is reflected internationally. The governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Finland and others have indicated that nuclear technologies, both large and small, will need to be part of the clean energy solution to address climate change. We saw that earlier this week as well, with the EU commission reinforcing this position when it issued its decision to include nuclear as a sustainable technology required for a net-zero future.
Emissions targets agreed to at COP26 will require a significant amount of new electricity, as we all know, an amount two to three times the amount of electricity generation we have here in Canada. Provinces like Ontario, which were able to transition away from coal due to nuclear, will also need significant amounts of new non-emitting electricity as we fuel-switch from fossil fuels.
We also see this interest growing provincially in a pan-Canadian way, with other provinces recognizing that they need small modular reactors. The premiers of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick have all identified new nuclear as needed to meet their low-emissions targets. They have signed a memorandum of understanding on this.
Some have raised issues associated with nuclear waste. I think this study provides an opportunity to give an overview about how robustly the nuclear industry and its products are regulated. Canadian nuclear waste is the most highly regulated and managed waste possible from an energy waste perspective. All energy sources, including renewables, generate waste. Nuclear is the only industry that can account for all of the waste, and of course we don't emit any pollution. Nuclear waste is regulated by our regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, and we're monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
It's important to note that not all waste is high-level. We tend to think of waste as spent fuel, but nuclear waste includes low-, medium- and high-level waste by-products in uranium mine and mill tailings waste forms. It's important to distinguish what we're talking about.
Canada has led the way in creating and supporting the efforts by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization to identify a suitable site for a deep geological repository, a DGR, for a permanent storage solution for our waste.
DGRs are recognized worldwide. I'd like to add that France, Finland and Sweden have all taken similar paths.