Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, Mr. Minister and Ms. Doyle.
When one looks at the file and the sequence of events, Mr. Chairman, one realizes that this matter is extremely complex. There was a fair bit of electronic correspondence and a number of meetings between your department, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).
My first comment concerns your behaviour as minister, aimed at undermining the credibility of the CNSC. In my opinion, if Canada gave itself a quasi-judicial body to protect Canadians where nuclear safety is concerned, and made it an independent body, it was for the good reason that Canadians had to be protected from political interference with a tribunal with a very specific mandate. According to what one reads, the pressure you brought to bear on the president in order to have the reactor restarted may indeed be perceived as totally unacceptable interference. We understand that you may have been very torn in your position, but the commission has a very specific mandate.
Yours is different. Given that this reactor is the largest producer of medical isotopes in the world and produces 50 % of them, and in light of all the warnings you received, as Minister of Natural Resources, it is inconceivable that you did not concern yourself with what would happen in case of a shortage, Minister.
How can that be? How did we wind up without sufficient reserves to cope with such a breakdown? We could not have foreseen the breakdown, the prolonged shutdown, but as minister your responsibility was to ensure with AECL that we had sufficient reserves to cope in the eventuality of such an event.
The reactor has been operating for a long time with a single pump. It was conceivable that there would be a shutdown one day or another. How is it that you did not concern yourself with making sure that Canadians had a reserve of isotopes? How is it that you were not aware of this? Why was Minister Tony Clement notified so late of this matter?
I would ask you to be brief so that I have some time left to ask other questions, Minister.