Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. I would entertain this motion being included with the other motions in Group No. 6. I believe that would be a great idea.
Lost his last election, in 2000, with 42% of the vote.
Nuclear Safety And Control Act February 4th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. I would entertain this motion being included with the other motions in Group No. 6. I believe that would be a great idea.
Nuclear Safety And Control Act February 4th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I rise to talk about Group No. 6 which includes Motions 10 to 15.
First I want to talk about Motions Nos. 13 and 14 which the New Democratic Party has put forward. In my critic area I feel these are very important.
Motion No. 13 refers to Motion No. 5, which we discussed earlier, calling for exempting no nuclear substances, or at least those which would be harmful to the environment or harmful to Canadians in the current situation. This basically refers to some of the exemptions and outlines some of the concerns that the govern-
ment had about the almost untraceable amounts of nuclear product in home smoke detectors or in wrist watches. Obviously these are not things that we want to totally regulate. Certainly we have to establish some minimum requirements regarding safe levels of nuclear fuel or safe levels of nuclear product, uranium product, that shall be provided to Canadians with respect to the products that they consume, purchase or have around their homes or offices.
Motion No. 13 is supportive of Motion No. 5 which the government opposed because it did not want to get into protecting Canadians. It wants to make sure that Canadians are subjected to very loose environmental and health regulations with respect to various nuclear products.
Motion No. 14 basically provides for Parliament to be given the final word with respect to the regulations. Regulations are usually made by order in council but they have to have some reflection of the changes in society in this country electorally and governmentally reflected through elections.
Members of the House of Commons are elected from time to time from different regions, from different occupations, from different mindsets as well as different political parties. They should have the final word with respect to what the regulations are when it comes to nuclear safety in this country.
Nuclear safety is something that is paramount in people's minds and in particular those workers who operate in the industry. It is also a very important issue as technology improves and as more information becomes available to Canadians with respect to the impacts of this particular product in our society and in the lives of the people who live Canada.
Basically we are saying give Parliament the authority to deem which regulations shall be good, bad or indifferent. Give Parliament, the representatives of the people of this country, the democratically elected people of this country, some authority into whether these regulations are satisfactory.
Nuclear Safety And Control Act February 4th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of Motion No. 9, which will amend Bill C-23 in clause 33 by replacing lines 15 to 17 on page 19 with the following:
While exercising any authority under the act, an inspector shall make all reasonable efforts to be accompanied by a member of a health and safety committee or an environment committee whose sphere of activity is affected by the authority exercised by the inspector, and the inspector may also be accompanied by any other person chosen by the inspector.
I guess this is very self-explanatory. What we are calling for is that when the inspection of a facility or a site is underway by the commission that somebody from the health and safety committee or the environmental committee of the working people on site be allowed whenever possible to accompany the inspector to provide the inspector with perhaps insight which the inspector would not have.
Obviously when someone is working full time in a workplace they have a great deal of knowledge of who they are working with and a great deal of knowledge about some of the problems they are working under, some of the opportunities the company has and as
well as some of the areas that may not be looked at by an inspector who may have other commitments and may be rushing through it. At least somebody will be there to accompany this person. I am not saying he or she should be instructing or advising the inspector but at least provide a balance which is what we need. We need a balance to this kind of system in Canada.
We are very supportive of this amendment and are asking members to consider that because it is very important to the safety of workers on the sites. We have had support from the workers in the nuclear industry on this issue. We have had the support of the trade union movement across Canada with respect to this amendment. Therefore we are asking the government to favourably consider this amendment which would, in effect, make the inspection system more efficient, safer and obviously more productive and helpful to those concerned.
Nuclear Safety And Control Act February 4th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of Motion No. 7 which the Bloc has put forward. This amendment would include more people in making the decisions that affect their lives.
We in this House often forget when governing this country that we have to be more inclusive. We have to include people who are affected by decisions taken by government. We have to include more people whose environment is affected by decisions of either the provincial or federal government, for example, to establish a nuclear facility or to have a nuclear mine in their communities. We have to include these people because they are the ones who live nearby; they are the ones who have experience with the impact of these facilities on their environment.
Therefore, Motion No. 7, put forward by the Bloc, will provide some transparency in the commission's activities. It will also protect those who are affected on the front lines. The NDP will support this and I hope the government will consider this kind of amendment favourably. I know it is always open to suggestions that
are positive in nature, and this is one that is very positive. It has a lot of support across the country.
Saskatchewan's environmental review system is very transparent when it comes to reviewing the environmental implications of mining. It works very well in Saskatchewan as it includes those people who would otherwise be excluded. If the bill is passed unamended, in respect of motion No. 7, it will continue to exclude a lot of Canadians whose lives are very severely impacted by nuclear development.
Nuclear Safety And Control Act February 4th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased on behalf of the New Democratic Party caucus to rise and give our position with respect to Bill C-23, an act to establish the Canadian nuclear safety commission and to make consequential amendments to other acts and, in particular, motion No. 4 and motion No. 5.
Motion No. 4 basically calls for the deletion of clause 6, which exempts nuclear submarines. We feel that any vessel, whether it is fixed or moving in the water, should be very stringently subjected to regulations under the Canadian nuclear safety commission and that is what motion No. 4 calls for.
Motion No. 5 would in effect delete clause 7. Clause 7 gives the commission the power to exempt certain nuclear substances. It is our view that no nuclear substances should be exempt under the provisions of this act, the Canadian nuclear safety and control act.
This bill is an update and replacement of the Atomic Energy Control Act. It is supposed to modernize the statute to provide for more explicit and effective regulation of nuclear energy. It deals with regulatory and development aspects of nuclear safety. It establishes a basis for implementing Canadian policy and for fulfilling Canada's obligations with respect to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. It increases the number of members of the commission from five to seven. The commission is more powerful, with the ability to hear witnesses, to gather evidence and to control its proceedings as well as to call witnesses to hearings.
We are very concerned, since we have an obligation as a country with respect to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, that submarines are included, that they are not exempt under this bill, and we are asking for support from other members with respect to that.
We are concerned about the harmonizing of the federal and provincial regulations in the private sector. The bill decentralizes nuclear regulations and in some cases provides more powers to the provinces, which in the case of the major uranium mining province of Saskatchewan is probably good news. This bill provides minimum levels of protection for workers and minimum requirements
with respect to how nuclear fuels and uranium are handled. In Saskatchewan's view, we have always maintained that uranium mining is a beneficial livelihood. It is beneficial to those who work in the industry, but only if there are very stringent, high level health and worker protection laws, which we have in Saskatchewan. Ours are very stringent. We hope that a bill like this will raise the level of health and worker safety. However, Saskatchewan has a higher level than this bill calls for.
We are also very concerned about the impact on the environment with respect to uranium mining. Saskatchewan has been able to establish and prove over the long haul that its environmental regulations with respect to uranium mining are the toughest anywhere in the world. We are very proud of that.
This bill provides the province of Saskatchewan with the flexibility to continue to lead with respect to worker and health safety in this country and also in the world. It provides us with the flexibility and the opportunity to continue to have the highest environmental standards with respect to the mining of uranium.
I would ask all members of the House to consider these two very important amendments, not exempting nuclear submarines from the provisions of this bill and not providing any exemptions of any nuclear substances which the bill, without amendment, is suggesting.
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moved:
Motion No. 13
That Bill C-23, in Clause 44, be amended by deleting lines 15 to 19 on page 30.
Motion No. 14
That Bill C-23, in Clause 44, be amended by replacing lines 14 to 17, on page 31 with the following:
"(5) The Governor in Council may, subject to affirmative resolution of the House of Commons, make regulations generally as the Governor in Council considers necessary for carrying out the purposes of this Act."
Nuclear Safety And Control Act February 4th, 1997
moved:
Motion No. 9
That Bill C-23, in Clause 33, be amended by replacing lines 15 to 17, on page 19 with the following:
"33. While exercising any authority under the Act, an inspector shall make all reasonable efforts to be accompanied by a member of a health and safety committee or an environment committee whose sphere of activity is affected by the authority exercised by the inspector, and the inspector may also be accompanied by any other person chosen by the inspector."
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moved:
Motion No. 4
That Bill C-23 be amended by deleting Clause 6.
Motion No. 5
That Bill C-23 be amended by deleting Clause 7.
Statements By Members December 11th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, out of respect for the institution of the House of Commons and out of respect for the Speaker, I withdraw remarks in reference to the broken promises of the Liberal Party. The remark was specifically the word "lies". I also withdraw the remark that I made subsequent to my statement which made reference to that very same word.
The Prime Minister December 11th, 1996
Canadians on television said he lied, Mr. Speaker, and I agree with them.