Mr. Speaker, If there truly is political will to listen to the communities most directly affected by these issues, then they must be given the consideration they deserve.
If proponents of nuclear industry development want to earn social licence, we think it would serve their cause to improve their decision-making procedures and waste governance. With that in mind, we expected members of the government and the official opposition to look more closely at the challenges of developing the nuclear sector as they relate to the radioactive waste governance issue that such development entails.
First, there is an apparent conflict of interest between the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, or CNSC, and Natural Resources Canada. Earlier this year, the CNSC decided to authorize the proposed near surface disposal facility, or NSDF. In light of that decision, along with the irregularities that were identified and publicly condemned, it would have been advisable for the committee to take into account more of the concerns raised by witnesses and detailed in the briefs. Issues raised in most of the written submissions were an alleged lack of transparency on behalf of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, or NWMO, the Crown corporation Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, or AECL, and its supplier, privately owned Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, as well as the inadequate approach in the maintenance of national inventories, the lack of transparency in accessing these data, and the appearance of an alleged conflict of interest with the NWMO structure and between the CNSC and Department of Natural Resources.
There is still a lot of noise, Mr. Speaker.