Mr. Chair, following up what was said by the member for Vancouver Island North I think we need to have this matter, whatever happens tonight, referred to a committee for adequate follow-up because there are obviously many questions about whether or not the ministers were notified in time and what action they then did or did not take.
Here we are at the eleventh hour with a crisis and there are a whole bunch of questions that we do not really have the answers to. I think it just reiterates our request that this must go to a committee for a full follow-up and review about exactly what took place here.
I want to come back to the central question. I have been listening to the discussion all night and there have been some very good questions and some very good observations. All members of the House, no matter what party they are from, have two overriding concerns. One is the safety of the operation of the nuclear reactor and the other is the safety and the health of Canadians who desperately need these isotopes.
I think it is fair to say that we have it clear on the record tonight that the role of the commission is intact. I think there was some questioning here that suggested that somehow everything would be thrown out the window and we would have no regulatory oversight.
We have established that this legislation before us tonight exempts AECL only for up to 120 days, so it is a maximum of 120 days. It could be less than that depending on how long it takes to get up and running. It is only an exemption for the motor starters and the connections to the emergency power supply. It has nothing to do with the rest of the operation. It is that limited basis that we are talking about tonight, and that has been put on the record.
We have also had an agreement from the government that it will agree that there should be regular reports from AECL every 30 days, hopefully it could be more frequent than that, to the House so that there can be a regular updating of what goes on.
The issue comes down to this. How quickly is this operation going to get up and running, and whether or not this legislation is required? We have heard the questioning from the Liberals sort of trying to explore whether or not in and of themselves they can get this going. I do not think that has been fully answered.
We have heard that as of Thursday evening there could be a safety plan put forward, but we have not yet had a clear answer from the commission as to how long it would take it to deal with that safety plan and then how long would it take after that to actually get that plan operational, and get this reactor up and running so that these isotopes can be in full use for Canadians. That is the question we have to get at.
If we are told it is a week, or maybe it will be nine days or maybe 12 days, I do not know, but if that does not happen, what will happen next? This House will have to be reconvened. At that point we will have an operator that is not within the licence requirement and there will be nothing to allow it to get up and running.
I feel that is the question we have to get at here. We have to find out precisely what the shortest time and the longest time frame is that without this legislation this operation can get up and running. More exactly, with this legislation we at least have a precaution and an allowance in place that if it does not happen, this legislation would at least allow up to 120 days, including the regular oversight that the commission has.
I would like the commission to be much more forthright and clear in its answer as to what the timelines are that we are talking about in terms of what can be done if this legislation is not approved tonight.