Mr. Chair, the essence of this amendment and a number of amendments coming forward relate to the concern expressed by a good number of the witnesses who appeared before the committee.
Mr. Kleinau said that Japan had a $1-billion package, which, after the Fukushima I meltdown, proved to be not even close to what the final costs were.
Mrs. McClenaghan expressed deep concern.
Professor Amos stated that the provision restricts the polluter pays principle, which the government is bound to whether they choose to put it in the legislation or not, which is reprehensible...by having an absolute liability of $1 billion and therefore is inappropriate, because what it does is it transfers the liability, then, from the operator to the Canadian public.
There was a brief provided by Dr. Gordon Edwards. He wasn't given the opportunity to appear. I understand the brief has been translated and distributed. Dr. Edwards shared with us that even by the most conservative estimates, the financial costs of off-site damages from Chernobyl are measured in the tens of billions. Some estimates of the off-site costs of Fukushima are measured in the hundreds of billions. It was his concern that to approve this limited liability is to agree in advance that the liability is passed over to the taxpayers of Canada. By imposing a liability of $1 billion we're, first of all, not even recognizing the reality of what the costs of these incidents have been in both Chernobyl and Fukushima, and the result is that Canadian taxpayers would have to pay.
Dr. Edwards also was concerned that there's no clear calculation provided by the officials on where the $1 billion comes from. It seems to be a figure pulled from a hat. There should not be any limitation whatsoever, given the significance of the potential damage from a nuclear incident. Why impose $1 billion? Why not just simply say absolute liability?
We are simply reiterating the concerns expressed by witnesses who came before the committee and the evidence of the scale of damage as a result of incidents that have occurred and that Canada could be susceptible to.