Lisa Raitt

[Medical Isotopes, June 10th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, what I can indicate to the House today is the following. We have been in contact with industry with respect to the supply of medical isotopes.

I can tell the House that it has been indicated that hospitals will receive next week over 50% of their orders which is markedly up from what they had anticipated. As well, we have been working with the global network of nuclear reactors with respect to supplying even more.

OPAL has also indicated that it will be able to come on line sooner, as long as we continue to help it, which we have been doing.

[Medical Isotopes, June 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, it is the actions of this government that matter in dealing with the medical isotopes. Since November 2007, we have dealt with this issue in a forward thinking way. We have taken action, which is something that the Liberals did not do in 13 years in government. We are working with global partners. Indeed, we have a recognized leadership role in the world with respect to medical isotopes and we will continue to use that next week in Toronto when the world comes to Toronto to discuss the issue.

[Medical Isotopes, June 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, the one thing that is important in a crisis like this is for Canadians to understand the facts and not to have conspiracy theories or falsehoods put before the House and Canadians. The reality is that we are working with the global medical isotope community both in terms of the shortage here, but more important, in terms of increasing the supply that is so important and so fragile in the world. Australia is working with us. Petten is working with us. Belgium is working with us. Why will the NDP not work with us?

[Medical Isotopes, June 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as much as the hon. member wants to hide behind my skirt, the reality is that he was the one. He was the minister who held the same portfolio as I do. It is very important to recognize that the Minister of Health is a strong, capable Minister of Health who has handled the extraordinarily difficult issues of H1N1 and medical isotopes. I am proud to serve with her as part of this cabinet and I can speak for her personally.

[Medical Isotopes, June 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as we have indicated, we have been working on the issues of shortages of medical isotopes for a very long time, not just as a result of this unplanned, unexpected outage of the NRU.

We have actually put an action plan together. We delivered on a five point plan and we continue to work with our global partners, which is a far cry more than when the member opposite was the minister of natural resources, knew about the issue with the MAPLEs, knew about the difficulties we had with the MAPLEs and did absolutely nothing. What does he tell cancer patients?

[Medical Isotopes, June 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as we have indicated, we are working with the global partners. There are five nuclear reactors in the world that create medical isotopes. One of them is the Canadian one, which is down for the health and safety of Canadians because it needs to be inspected for potential repairs.

There are other reactors in the world. We have been working with the reactor operators in terms of scheduling maintenance and in terms of scheduling ability. In fact, we have had a breakthrough with respect to Petten increasing by 50%, South Africa increasing by 30%, as well as Australia hopefully coming on line sooner.

We are dealing with it. We are working on it. We are taking action.

[Medical Isotopes, June 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, this is indeed a very serious issue for the points put forward by the hon. member.

I can tell Canadians what we are doing. Since November 2007, we have put together a plan to deal with isotope reductions in terms of contingency planning as well as reaching out to the global community.

Currently AECL is undertaking an inspection, progressing to repairs of the NRU in order to start the process again there. Globally we are co-operating on increasing supply.

The Minister of Health has shown leadership on H1N1 and is showing leadership again on medical isotopes in working with--

[Minister of Natural Resources, June 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as we have indicated, this government has done much work on the issue of medical isotopes.

As the hon. members knows, the comments associated with me were made on January 30, well before this current issue that we are dealing with. What it does show is that we have been considering this issue in a very serious manner since November 2007. We all take it very seriously. Indeed, being an individual who has had to deal with cancer in my life as well in terms of my family members, I certainly feel the pain and I certainly feel the empathy.

[Minister of Natural Resources, June 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, for the leader of the NDP to indicate that we do not have any caring on this side of the House is simply a ludicrous statement. Every member on this side of the House unfortunately has been touched by illness, has been touched by sickness and indeed has been touched by cancer. That is what motivates us here in caring for the health and safety of Canadians.

That is no different in my portfolio. With my officials and the Minister of Health, we are working diligently and very hard on this issue to make sure that we get action instead of rhetoric, conspiracy theories and personal smears.

[Minister of Natural Resources, June 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. As we indicated, the only political opportunism that is coming out right now is that of the opposition. This government is working very hard with respect to the medical isotope issue. We are engaging globally. My colleague, the Minister of Health, is doing an excellent job engaging with her provincial and territorial colleagues in terms of the shortage of supply.

The NDP members, of course, are well versed in the land of conspiracy theories. That is indeed what they are putting forward today.