Monsieur Lemieux, that's a very interesting couple of questions that you've asked. I want to deal with them separately, but head-on.
The origin of nuclear power specifically in Ontario was driven by a series of both historical and geographic factors that emerged at the end of the Second World War, and those factors have not changed one iota in the previous half-century. That's a very long discussion, and I'd be happy to address it at some future date with you or the members of this committee.
With respect to the appearance of the lack of support for nuclear power, this is something of a myth. I spent nearly two decades at the Canadian Nuclear Association prior to my role here at the Canadian Nuclear Society, and we made it our business every year to sample what Canadians thought about nuclear power, both in general and in specific provinces across Canada.
Nuclear is not unpopular. That is something of a myth generated in the media. What we found year after year—and this goes back to the early 1990s—is that, in general, citizens in Ontario are divided into three groups. There is a very small and vocal group opposed to nuclear power. There's a somewhat larger group—but again, very much a minority—of those vigorously in support of nuclear power. Then there's the vast majority of citizens in the middle who are mildly supportive, who don't know much about it, and who aren't much interested unless something hits the headlines and causes a big sensation.
As we look at the development of nuclear power in Ontario, I'm going to refer specifically to the nuclear refurbishment projects that are going on right now. These have been fairly extensively surveyed in terms of “does the public support them or don't they?” The public is rather lukewarm about the whole business of building new reactors. This arose about 10 years ago when Ontario was considering this. Mostly, it was not because of fear of nuclear power or its consequences. Mostly it was concerns about how much it would cost. However, with refurbishment, it's a very different thing. Year after year, survey results have consistently shown that support for refurbishment of Ontario's existing nuclear power plants runs well above 80%.