Thank you, Mr. Chair. A number of people around this table seem to be uneasy about the limit of $650 million. Among our witnesses was the mayor of Port Hope, who represented all the municipalities with nuclear facilities nearby.They also feel that $650 million is not enough to compensate for the damage caused by a nuclear incident.
The mayor of Port Hope painted a picture for us when she talked about all the municipal infrastructures, contaminated water, devalued property, the loss of tourism and so on. The damages made quite the list. I think that, if we want to be fair, we should accept that the total could be more than $650 million. The bill looks like it is drafted to accommodate the financial means of the insurers rather than to deal with the harm an incident could cause. That is my feeling, and I think it is shared by my colleagues.
You say that, in Europe at the moment, the coverage is somewhere around a billion dollars, but their act cannot go into effect because the insurance companies cannot come up with a billion dollars in coverage. What happens in Europe now? What amount of coverage is legally required?