Natural Resources committee  That's correct, Mr. Chair.

Natural Resources committee  That's correct, Mr. Chair.

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, just to clarify, on December 5 it was a phone call during office hours. There were a number of staff there. The minister started that phone call by saying, “Well, I guess AECL has dropped the ball, haven't they?” He just said, “Can you tell me something about what's going on?”

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much for the question, Mr. Chair. There were actually three comments in there, but I'll deal with the last, which is a question. The Significant Development Report was reporting the state of risk to people and risk to the environment because of the situation that occurred at that time.

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, there are two aspects there. First of all, radiation protection of people--the staff, the people in communities, the general public, in clinics--is the responsibility of the CNSC, and the CNSC has expert staff who are part of international organizations. The International Commission on Radiological Protection gets involved in this quite often.

Natural Resources committee  It's absolutely correct, Mr. Chair, that we recently put staff on site because of the significant regulatory oversight issues that we have had on that site. So it actually was a response to the ongoing difficult, complex regulatory oversight needed at that site. When the licence is given, the commission and the commission staff have the expectation that the licensee actually will put in those processes themselves to make sure that things are in place.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. In my letter of January 8, I specifically said I would be willing to subject myself to a review of my performance by an independent or international group.

Natural Resources committee  I have raised the issue of the problems that arise when a licensee and a regulator report to the same minister. I've repeatedly raised this with ministers and deputies as they've changed and I've done the briefing. In fact, this had been the source of several private members' bills.

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, that's correct.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, I'm quite well aware of what's going on around the world. Yes.

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, I probably should seek to clarify. The hospitals that were phoning us were all licensees of ours. Their licence could have specified a certain isotope, and in one case there was a company that wanted to import generators, etc. What they would be doing is phoning us saying that their licence specifies X and what they wanted to do was switch to Y, and they were asking, do you agree?

Natural Resources committee  Yes.

Natural Resources committee  I don't have those details with me, and unfortunately, because I'm not the president, I no longer can bring staff into this. That would be a question to the commission. But it would have been around that same time period, that really compressed week.

Natural Resources committee  This would have started probably the week of the 10th and 11th, when they really were seeking alternatives.

Natural Resources committee  My concern was that on the December 8 phone call that Minister Lunn requested—he requested this phone call, and I arranged for one of my staff to be with me on the phone call—it was the belief of both myself and the person on that phone call that the minister was telling us that we would bring the commission together and this is what the commission would decide to do.