Madam Speaker, I am pleased to respond to the hon. member for Verchères--Les-Patriotes on behalf of the minister.
The Government of Canada has not contributed millions of dollars to the Iter project. The government agreed to contribute $1 million a year for three years, not $3 million, to Iter Canada to help it to prepare a bid for locating the Iter project in Canada. The federal funding will expire at the end of March 2002.
I want to emphasize that these funds are not for fusion research. Iter Canada has an annual budget of $5 million. The federal contribution is to help Iter Canada cover its operating expenses as it prepares its bid. Further, Iter Canada has pledged that its proposal will not require federal funding for the construction, operation and decommissioning of the project.
Iter Canada plans to fund its share of the project from contributions and loans from the private sector, $300 million from the Government of Ontario, and the revenue from facilities and services provided to the project. Iter Canada is convinced that it can finance its contribution to the project and obtain the project for Canada without any federal funding.
The government's contribution consists in helping this not-for-profit private sector consortium to establish this international project in Canada. This consortium comprises a number of prestigious Quebec organizations such as SNC-Lavalin and the Institut national de recherche scientifique.
From 1981 to 1997, the federal government has devoted some $155 million to research on fusion and related activities. Of that total, $109 million, or 70%, was invested in Quebec, and the remaining $48 million in Ontario.
The Government of Canada was asked to continue to ensure that Iter Canada retained access to the bidding process. To that end, it has given its agreement in principle to providing a Canadian site to the international components of Iter, namely the European Union, Japan and Russia, to carry out fusion research.
Given the infrastructural and cost advantages of the Canadian site at Clarington, Ontario over potential foreign sites, Canada has a good chance of winning the project. A decision by the Iter parties on the local will probably be made in late 2002.
If Iter parties were to choose a Canadian site, the effects would be the creation of jobs for qualified Canadians in the research area, and opportunities in terms of equipment, engineering and building services in Quebec and Ontario, as well as in western and Atlantic Canada.
According to Inter Canada's estimates, the awarding of the project to Canada would mean the buying of in Canadian goods and services over the ten year building period, and $3 billion throughout the 20 year operational stage. Iter Canada also believes that the project would create some 68,000 direct or indirect full time equivalent jobs in Canada, including several thousands in Quebec.
Last but not least, if the project was to be located in Canada, an environmental assessment of the project would have to be meet the requirements of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act as well as any other environmental laws and regulations.