Mr. Speaker, you will understand that I cannot start without warmly thanking my colleague from Laurentides for her question, which gives me the opportunity to give an update to my colleagues in the House.
I mentioned the issue of Tokamak, in Varennes, without any context. Obviously, it is important to understand what really happened.
The Canadian Centre for Magnetic Fusion, which ran Tokamak, in Varennes, was a joint partnership between Quebec and the federal government. God knows that there are not that many partnerships between Quebec and the federal government, and those that exist the federal government tries very hard to destroy.
In any case, the project was funded equally by the federal government, on the one hand, and Hydro-Québec and INRS, on the other hand, to the tune of $7.2 million each. A centre of excellence in nuclear fusion had successfully been established, a centre which, as I said earlier, was responsible for 1% of the world research on nuclear fusion, but which enjoyed 100% of the technological spinoffs, since there was an international partnership in which the Canadian Centre for Magnetic Fusion was a partner.
Over the years, we managed to build one of the best nuclear fusion reactors, the only one in Canada at the time, in fact. Currently, there are no nuclear fusion reactors, now that Canada has abandoned nuclear fusion, at least officially.
We also invested several tens of millions of dollars into the Tokamak and succeeded in forming a team of approximately 100 high level technicians and researchers with special expertise in the areas of plasma and microwaves.
Around 1994-95, the federal government suddenly and unilaterally decided to end its $7.2 million contribution, which led to Tokamak's closing in Varennes, and the waste of tens of millions of public dollars that we had invested to create Tokamak, money taken from taxpayers' pockets.
We also dismantled a team of high level researchers who, as I mentioned before, had no other choice but to leave the country to use their knowledge. These researchers, who developed their talents and knowledge in nuclear fusion in Quebec and Canada working on Tokamak in Varennes, now work on the development of nuclear fusion in Japan, Europe and the United States.
I cannot believe that for $7.2 million, when the federal government was getting back much more than its annual investment in Tokamak, this was a wise decision in terms of the management of public funds. No, this was not a wise decision.
At a time when we were fighting a deficit, it was not a wise decision in terms of public finance. Nor is it today, given that the government has some ten billion dollars, which it is using generously for its sponsorship programs, as we have seen.
This was not a wise decision because we destroyed equipment paid for by taxpayers. This was not a wise decision because it dismantled a team put together in large part thanks to the actions of Quebec government. This was in no way a wise use of public funds.
This was a purely political decision, as has now been demonstrated by the attitude of this government, which, through the back door, is supporting implementation of the ITER project in Ontario, a $12 billion nuclear fusion megareactor. We are not talking about a few tens of millions of dollars; we are talking about $12 billion for a project that would be located in Ontario. The federal government, which said that nuclear fusion was not among its priorities, is making annual investments in the Canadian consortium that wants to have the ITER project in Ontario.
We see that this was a political decision, as the Department of National Defence wants to emulate American experiments in nuclear fusion.
This was hogwash. This was smoke and mirrors. Meanwhile, a centre for research excellence—the most important energy research and development project in Quebec—was killed, was closed by the federal government.
The government hoodwinked people, saying that this was done because of its financial problems. In fact, it was a political decision.
As I was saying earlier, one will not be surprised that, with decisions such as these, many Quebecers have chosen to ensure that Quebec will become a sovereign state to take its future into its own hands.