They're not, so in adjusted dollars we're talking about a $19 billion investment since the early 1950s. The notion that the government would then put the sale of such an asset into a budget, excluded from any sort of consideration of the net benefit for Canada, should be offensive to anyone who ever contributed a dollar to AECL over the last nearly 60 years.
Mr. Regan asked earlier about the various status updates on this repair. I'll take us through a little memory lane here, and these quotes are all directly from your updates, so I'm not putting anything in here. In May 2009 the anticipation was for more than one month, so that pushes us forward to June 2009. At least three months was the update in status report number six, pushing us to September; then a month later, in July, “it is now clear that the NRU will not return to service before late 2009”. That's another adjustment; we're now looking at maybe November or December. Two months after that, in August, you say “the NRU will return to service during Q1 2010”, so that's another adjustment.
Then status report number 34 in December, several months after that, says we're pushing it right to the very end of that quarter, meaning the end of March; in early January we hear it could extend to April, and two weeks after that, status report number 40 says NRU's target return date is confirmed as April.
Then in February, a month later, we learn it will be the end of April; in March, it will be during the second half of May. On March 17, a week later, you say AECL is currently revising, so just a week went by between the update to the public saying it would be May for sure until you were saying to hold on because you were revising. Then the most recent announcement, on March 25, which was update number 48, says “NRU will resume isotope supply by the end of July”.
It's 700% over budget. I fail to see how this doesn't affect the reputation of the organization in its ability to make accurate predictions about its own viability. Today you've informed us that it's 60% finished, yet the most challenging work is still ahead.
I'm deeply concerned. Neither of you is in the health field, nor are many of us, but we understand the impact on Canadians of not having a reliable isotope supply in order to be able to access reliable and safe diagnosis.
The record I just read is not one to be proud of, I would suggest. It's 700% over budget. There have been constant delays, and announcements of further delays. Canadians are feeling the impact and the concern when, as they saw just last week, operations and procedures are cancelled. I don't know how this does anything but hurt the reputation of this organization.