Thank you, Chair.
Minister, it's clear that you are working really hard to cover for AECL senior management, because they fall under your jurisdiction and you know you're ultimately responsible.
The more you highlight the urgency of the medical isotope, the more you clearly highlight your incompetence in not knowing what has happened over the last year and a half. And you admitted that the NRU had 50% of the international and domestic markets. You should have known about this. This was within your ministerial jurisdiction.
We now have the Auditor General's report. In the cover letter it says:
...it is our view that this report contains information that should be brought to the attention of the Minister of Natural Resources.
Minister, we have a quote from you, from November 22, in front of our committee:
The NRU reactor there produces medical isotopes. There are some health and safety issues there that have been overlooked for some time. They require some funds to meet those regulations, and as a government we have to provide the resources to do that. They've been ignored for a long time.... Obviously they meet minimum safety standards, but they need to become compliant with other health and safety standards, and we have to address that.
We have Mr. Burns, who was appointed by you and who is a former Alliance fundraiser, saying he briefed you on this matter on November 22. He says he also submitted his resignation on November 29 in frustration because of your inaction. We also know that you left AECL without a CEO for at least a year.
There were ample opportunities for you, Minister, to act within 18 months to prevent this problem from happening. Your plea of ignorance is not an excuse. You should have known, Minister; this was within your ministerial jurisdiction. It's even worse if you knew and didn't do anything, because it's negligence.
Minister, how can you explain, knowing how serious the production of isotopes was? How can you claim that you didn't know until November 4, even though you had such ample opportunity to do something about it? We have much evidence to tell us that you knew about it or you were briefed on it.