This is an amendment to clause 21. It would add a new subsection reading:
(1.1) If a nuclear incident occurs and the operator fails to prove that the incident was not caused by its negligence, the liability limit referred to in subsection (1) is increased to three times that amount, and any compensation that is payable as a result of the incident shall not be provided for out of the Nuclear Liability Reinsurance Account.
This came from some of the testimony we heard, particularly from John Walker, counsel with the NIAC, that liability for accidents caused by negligence is normally unlimited. We got into this in some of the testimony with our witnesses, that if negligence is proven... Having limited liability always seems like a strange phenomenon in Canadian law. If it is proven that someone made a grave error that caused the accident, also affording them limited liability is a special provision that exists nowhere else.
This is very much like when we first moved—and allow the stretch here—to allow workers' compensation to exist. Up until the moment that companies could feel on their balance sheets the effects of having unsafe work environments, it was very difficult for them to change practices. When owners of companies were able to identity that there was a cost to having unsafe work places, they started to have regulations and improvements in the way their facilities were set up.
This is similar, to say that there must be some cognizance that if negligence occurs—and this only says if it's “proven”, not speculation—then certainly affording a limited liability gives protection to a company when it might not be deserved.
This is all about the negligence component, and I think it is one of those things that we have to build into the cost of doing the work. So I move amendment NDP-5.