My friend says it is a little town in China. That sounds better.
Despite 50 years of massive government subsidies, being on the dole, asking for handouts, the nuclear industry still cannot stand on its own two feet. Should that not get all of our attention in this House? After 50 years of handouts, after 50 years of coming in here and begging for support, it still cannot stand on its own two feet. Should we not say it is time it reassess how viable it is in terms of the future of Canada?
This gets almost obscene. The federal government wrote off a $70 million loan to AECL for the Douglas Point reactor at Bruce site. Quebec's number one reactor never operated properly and had to be shut down. A $90 million loan to AECL was written off by the federal government.
Despite the failure of that reactor Ottawa has now financed a second one to the tune of $151 million. It gets worse. It is very embarrassing.
It is the standing policy of this government, the Tories before and the Liberals now, to finance one-half of the estimated cost of any province's first nuclear plant. That is policy. The Government of Canada has written off about $800 million in unpaid loans to Nova Scotia and Quebec heavy water plants. In 1977-78 the federal government wrote off about $190 million in loans to AECL.
Canada's Nuclear Liability Act limits the liability of nuclear operators to $75 million in the event of a nuclear accident. It has been estimated that a severe accident at the Darlington nuclear
station would cost at least a trillion dollars and could lead to over 200,000 fatalities.
I could go on and on. That brings me to an important point, whether the nuclear energy sector is safe? I think this is fundamental in people's minds. It is certainly not economical. It is certainly environmentally unsound and I think that is a given. Is it safe?
Mr. Speaker, I think you will be shocked. During 1993 the Atomic Energy Control Board recorded 700 "unusual incidents" at Canada's 22 operating nuclear reactors. That is almost two a day. You are astonished. I am too. These incidents range from spills of radioactive heavy water to unexplained power surges. Of these, 270 were serious enough to warrant a full report to AECB and a follow up investigation. That is incredible, two incidents a day that warranted full scale investigations.
The annual reports of the Atomic Energy Control Board provide ample evidence of the inherent dangers of nuclear technology. The following really got me riled up in terms of having to do something to prevent this catastrophe that is about to happen. It is reported that in August 1992 radioactive heavy water from the Pickering A nuclear reactor leaked into Lake Ontario downstream from the water supply plants for the communities of Ajax and Whitby, forcing a shutdown of the plants. This incident resulted in the highest single emission of radioactive tritium into the lake since the reactor began operating in 1971.
This goes on and on. No wonder those whales are whipping up on the beaches in Quebec all scarred up, sick and blue. We have nuclear waste draining into the Great Lakes.
The 1992 annual report, the one that really got my attention, states that in March 1993 Ontario Hydro discovered a serious deficiency in the analysis of an accident involving a large loss of reactor coolant. The analysis showed that the consequence of such an accident, if it were to occur while operating at full power, would be unacceptable. The term unacceptable is a euphemism for a disaster, probably.
They are not safe. They are not economical. They are environmentally unsound. They are a threat to our health and they are breaking the treasury. Why on earth would we continue on this sort of treadmill to nowhere, forking out that kind of taxpayers' money?
Mr. Speaker, my time is quickly coming to an end. So I will sit down now while I wait for my friends across the way to explain to the taxpayers of Canada how this incredible subsidy ought to continue.
Hopefully, a little lightening bolt will come out of the sky and give them a little snap so they will say: "Yes, tomorrow morning I am going to walk over to the Minister of Finance's desk, sit down beside him and say: "Mr. Minister of Finance, it is time to end this madness. Save the taxpayers of Canada hundreds of millions of dollars. Bring them a safer environment, a healthier environment and something that is economically and environmentally sound now". The only way we can do that is to stop funding Canada's nuclear sector.
