Lisa Raitt

[Forestry Industry, June 15th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, in the unprecedented communications that we had during the build up to the economic action plan. we heard clearly from the forestry industry what it needed. It wanted help in marketing and help in innovation. Small industry towns wanted help with respect to difficulties in the forestry industry.

Since then, we have had difficulties with respect to the subsidy being paid in the United States. We have taken a look at it very carefully. We have been engaged with our stakeholders on the trade side and on the forestry side.

[Forestry Industry, June 15th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the issue to which the hon. member refers is a serious one and this government has taken action on it already, and we will continue to take action on the matter.

We have written to the United States with respect to this unfair subsidy. The Minister of International Trade is working with the United States on matters surrounding the trade issue. Internally, we are looking at options in order to help the forestry industry.

[Medical Isotopes, June 15th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, in conjunction with the Minister of Health, I too am pleased to announce that it is over 75% of medical isotope supply that is available to Canada this week. That is a direct result of the leadership that Canada has shown with respect to working with the Netherlands and South Africa to have them increase their production of medical isotopes and the Minister of Health working with her counterparts to ensure there are ways and means for those reactors to produce the isotopes to come into the country.

[Medical Isotopes, June 11th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, when the hon. member said that Canadians did not want more rhetoric, I thought he actually meant it. What we are having now is a lot of rhetoric.

AECL has world class scientists who worked for 12 years to get the MAPLEs reactors working. After 12 years and over $.5 billion not one single isotope was actually produced.

There was also careful deliberation by American and Argentinian experts and it was fully studied by the panel. Indeed, the key for this is that the minister of natural resources for five of these 12 years was the member for Wascana.

[Medical Isotopes, June 11th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, in terms of the increases in both the Petten reactor and the South African reactor, it is indeed based on those increases that we are able to say that we are receiving 50% of the orders next week. It has trickled through. We are going to be receiving technetium generators from those global operators in Canada and we will continue to work with the global reactors in order to do so.

[Medical Isotopes, June 11th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, this government has been working very diligently on this matter since December and indeed back to November of 2007.

Difficult decisions were taken in not continuing on with MAPLE-1 and MAPLE-2, but it was the right decision to make. In lieu of that, we decided to pursue an extension of the licence of the reactors that could continue to produce.

Again, we are faced with difficult decisions, but we also have a plan. We have contingency plans that are in place with the Minister of Health and we are seeking the globe to help us produce more medical isotopes, and it is working.

[Medical Isotopes, June 11th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I think it is really important to take a very clear look at this situation.

The reactor is on an extended safe shutdown for the reasons that it is unsafe to operate. It was something that could not be anticipated nor predicted. Indeed, this reactor has been producing reliably over 90% for the last number of years.

Indeed, there was another alternative in MAPLE-1 and MAPLE-2. It was cancelled in 2008 because it did not produce a single isotope. As indicated before--

[Medical Isotopes, June 11th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as we indicated yesterday through our conversations with the United States, the Minister of Health is working with the distributors of generators.

We do know that next week we will have 50% of the supply that we normally have in isotopes here in Canada and that has been communicated to the medical community.

As well, as the hon. member knows because he has been on the committee, it is a very complex chain in which we have isotopes coming from global reactors into the Canadian marketplace. We are working with all the parties involved in that supply chain.

[Medical Isotopes, June 11th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as is known by the House, there are five reactors in the world that can produce medical isotopes. One of them is the NRU here in Canada, which actually produced up to 30% of the global isotopes.

While we have had discussions with the other countries, and indeed Petten in the Netherlands has increased by 50%, and South Africa has increased by 30%, the reality is there is a shortage of isotopes in this country.

That is why the Minister of Health is working with her colleagues in the provinces and the territories and in the medical establishment in order to mitigate the shortage of supply.

[Medical Isotopes, June 11th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question, but after reading his statements in committee and after hearing him today, I can say that he is incorrect on the facts.

The reality is that an expert panel and experts did review the MAPLEs in 2003. That is exactly the point in time when the Liberals were in government. That is when the member for St. Paul's was the minister of state for public health and would have been made aware of the issues surrounding the MAPLEs and the decisions that would be going forward.

The most important thing for Canadians to understand is that all avenues were exhausted with respect to coming to the decision to discontinue the MAPLEs.