Mr. Speaker, it is very hard to resume a speech after an interruption. I will pick up a bit of my first part and carry on from there.
In November 1999, during the meeting of parties to the convention on climate change in Bonn, Germany, Canada put forward a plan which would give emission credits to countries exporting nuclear reactors, thus allowing Canada to meet its objectives indirectly, without reducing its own emissions.
Despite growing opposition from the public, Canada is continuing down the nuclear path instead of promoting renewable energy and adopting strong policies for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
We know that Canada is way behind when it comes to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In order to remedy this, Canada is pushing nuclear energy, which does not give off greenhouse gases. This is a position which can even be found on the home page of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's website.
In fact, it reads as follows:
AECL develops, constructs and markets one of the best sources of clean electricity in the world, the CANDU nuclear reactor. Nuclear energy is the only source of electricity that does not produce greenhouse gases and provides a solution for countries making an effort to fulfill the promises of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change made in Kyoto in 1997.
Recently, there has even been an announcement of two new uranium mines to be opened in Saskatchewan.
Canada is a world promoter of nuclear technology. It provides 30% of the world's uranium production. In addition, on June 7, 2001, at a conference in Moscow attended by scientists from all over the world, it officially proposed to house the largest nuclear fusion research reactor.
Construction of the reactor, which should cost at least $6 billion, should take eight years, with work scheduled to begin in 2003.
Nuclear energy creates highly radioactive waste that is very dangerous to people's health, witness Chernobyl. We have now accumulated, on the sites of Canada's nuclear facilities, over 24,000 tonnes of radioactive nuclear waste.
How do you expect Quebecers to believe the double talk of the Minister of Natural Resources? Clearly, the Canadian government intends more than ever to head blindly into the production of nuclear energy. It is moving against the current of the anti-nuclear movement worldwide.
As an MP and a citizen concerned about the future of our environment, Canada should manage the waste we currently have here, stop all funding to the nuclear fusion industry and have the $150 million currently spent each year redirected to research and development for green energy.
Total elimination of nuclear energy would not be a first for the world. Just last year, Germany announced that it would abandon this type of energy production by 2021. Sweden wants to drop nuclear energy by 2010, and it looks like France will choose the same option in the coming months.
Naturally, Canadian taxpayers will have to foot the bill for our long years of dependence on nuclear energy. In its report, the Seaborn panel stated clearly in 1998 that the cost of long term management of nuclear waste would be between $8.7 billion and $13.3 billion. This is a considerable sum, but, at the outset of the Canadian nuclear program, people thought it would be a low cost and inexhaustible source of energy. However, today, we are awaking to a nightmare, because the radioactive waste we produced will cost some $13 billion to manage and store securely.
I believe this figure is astronomical enough and we should not invest another penny in anything related to nuclear energy. We should most certainly not continue producing energy with uranium or plutonium. Why not go the route of biomass energy or wind energy? Contrary to nuclear energy, they do not create radioactive waste that lasts for 25,000 years. Let us stop making future generations pay the price for the mistakes we are making today.
I would like to repeat that nobody can be against the idea of nuclear waste disposal management. It is high time we act on this. However, the process developed by the Minister of Natural Resources in Bill C-27 is inadequate, seriously flawed, severely lacking in transparency, and, contrary to what the minister says, is not at all in line with the conclusions of the Seaborn Report.
Take the issue of public participation in the decision-making process, as an example. On the one hand, the minister says that he will hear input from the public, yet on the other, the bill stipulates that decisions will be made by cabinet. Furthermore, the bill provides that the minister “may” consult the general public if he so wishes.
Finally, I hope the government will make amends and admit once and for all that storing waste accumulated over 40 years has already cost us enough, and that it will not contemplate producing even more. Nuclear energy is an obsolete source of energy with more liabilities than advantages. The considerable sums of money that the government sinks into it every year should be put toward research and development in green energy.
In closing, I would like to tell the residents of Saguenay--Lac-Saint-Jean that I have not given up my fight against importing nuclear fuel. I made a commitment to defend the interests of future generations. If we use this long term plan to manage nuclear waste as an opportunity to launch ourselves headfirst into nuclear energy production, it will be our children and our grandchildren who pay the price.
The time has come to switch to greener energy sources, and the minister should announce that the $13 billion to be invested in this project will be the last public money to be spent on nuclear energy.