Thank you.
My name is Dermot Murphy. I'm manager of the Nuclear Insurance Association of Canada, known as NIAC. As Mr. Chairman pointed out, I'm joined by Colleen DeMerchant, the assistant manger, and John Walker of Walker Sorenson, our legal counsel.
Under the date of November 23, 2007, we did submit a written comment document to the committee, and I hope you have had, or will have very shortly, an opportunity to review the same. In order to provide the committee with some basic background information, I point out the following:
The Nuclear Insurance Association of Canada was established in June 1958 in response to the need to provide adequate insurance cover arising from the peaceful development of nuclear power in Canada. As an approved insurer of nuclear liability insurance in Canada, as provided by the Nuclear Liability Act, NIAC provides the statutory cover required by Canada's nuclear operators, which presently is $75 million. NIAC is a domestic pool representing approximately 20 property and casualty insurers, both primary and reinsurers, who operate in Canada. For those risks requiring more capacity than NIAC has available on the domestic front, two other international pools are considered to be approved insurers to assist with capacity, as well as other technical issues. I will identify those pools in a moment. It is through these pooling arrangements that NIAC has access to worldwide capacity that is available for the nuclear energy hazard.
NIAC is an unincorporated, not-for-profit association formed by the members of the Canadian nuclear insurance pool. It underwrites nuclear liability insurance. It issues nuclear liability policies and inspects nuclear facilities. All of this work is performed on behalf of its members.
NIAC also assists in making the capacity of the British and U.S. nuclear insurance pools available to Canadian nuclear operators. It works closely with these pools by providing engineering inspection reports on Canadian nuclear power plants and establishing insurance rates for these facilities.
Our members comprise both primary property and casualty insurance companies and reinsurers, such as Royal and SunAlliance; Dominion of Canada; Lombard; Zurich; Temple Insurance, part of Munich Re; and Scor Re. All of this is through the Canadian nuclear liability insurance pool. Any additional capacity needed is accessed through the pooling system via the British and U.S. insurance pools.
This completes my comments, Mr. Chairman.