Mr. Speaker, the opposition is fond of claiming that backbench government MPs are afraid to criticize government bills that are before the House. We have just had an example of an opposition member making it very difficult for a backbench MP on the government side to express his criticism of legislation. What I have to say is important. It is important to this piece of legislation and it is important to the entire House. I hope that I can continue without these continual interruptions because I do not use printed text and I do not use notes and it is very difficult with interruptions to maintain one's line of thought.
That line of thought deals with the fact that what we are talking about here is legislation that basically requires nuclear production authorities to set up regimes whereby nuclear waste will be properly disposed of, and moreover, that financial instruments will be in place to ensure that this is done in a responsible fashion. What is missing is that there is not the level of transparency on the part of AECL and the other corporations that are affected by this document that we as parliamentarians and all Canadians must have. I will give the House an example.
What this legislation proposes is that these authorities, AECL or whomever, are required, after this legislation passes, to submit proposals, studies first and foremost that deal with the disposal of nuclear waste or that may involve collection on site or the deposit of the nuclear waste in deep geologic formations. Once those studies are prepared and they are required to consider the risks and primarily the socioeconomic impacts, this legislation, just for starters, does not specify the kinds of risks that these authorities are supposed to be assessing. We do not know whether it is long term environmental risk they have to report on. There is no parameter explaining what AECL or any of these authorities have to describe. The study is produced and then submitted to the minister. The minister decides whether or not the study is adequate.
There is no legislative requirement for the minister to release that study. Because AECL is outside the Access to Information Act there is no requirement for AECL to release the study. So we have a situation where the minister will make a crucial decision and we have no right in legislation to see the basis on which he makes that decision. Once the minister has given approval to whatever process is proposed to him, not until three years later does the organization that is depositing the nuclear waste in a geologic formation or wherever, not until three years later does the corporation, be it AECL or whomever, have to do a report to the minister on the progress with respect to the deposition of nuclear waste under whatever plan is going forward. Even that report is inadequate because the report says that the corporation is required to give the minister a summary of its activities respecting nuclear waste and its social, cultural and economic impacts on the nearby communities where the waste is deposited.
Mr. Speaker, the requirement says nothing about an environmental assessment, nothing about scientific impact. There is no requirement in that report after three years to the minister to tell the minister what the environmental or scientific consequences are of whatever choice of nuclear waste disposal we are talking about.
The public has access to that report but it is not going to be an adequate document to tell us whether or not in the decision to bury nuclear waste underneath Sudbury or wherever else in the world that nuclear waste is leaching into the environment. It does not make a requirement that tests have to be taken.
In my view it is totally inadequate to give this kind of authority to Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, any crown corporation or any corporation whatsoever that is engaged in an activity that has a profound effect on public safety and on the environment, without a reasonable level of legislated scrutiny.
At the very least I think that whenever this government does come around to reviewing the Access to Information Act, there is no more eloquent an example of why crown corporations like AECL ought to be under the Access to Information Act. However, that does not deal with the other corporations affected by this act, so I really think that the committee, when it comes to review this legislation, needs to put in proper instruments of transparency and accountability.