Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister, again I think your plea of ignorance is not acceptable here. The interesting part is you're blaming an independent quasi-judicial body over whom you have no authority, but you have yet to do anything with AECL because you know that if you put the blame on AECL senior management, you are accepting responsibility yourself.
By the way, I had two calls from two separate employees of AECL. They told me the morale at AECL is low. They told me that the government has been neglecting serious issues at AECL.
Minister, you need to accept that responsibility. When you talk about holding people to account, why don't you start with yourself first? Why don't you accept responsibility that your inaction has forced Parliament to intervene? Your inaction to resolve this issue has forced Parliament to pass a law. If you had acted sooner, we wouldn't have had a shortage of isotopes and we would have been still in compliance with the nuclear safety regulator on the standard that is accepted. And let me tell you, if there is a regulator that I expect to adhere to the letter of the law, it is the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
Minister, your inaction has put us in this position. It's unfortunate that you blame someone else for your failures.