Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon members of the committee. As the chair already mentioned, my name is Claude Lajeunesse and I am the chairman of the board of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, or AECL. Here with me this afternoon is Richard Sexton, president and CEO of AECL.

Public Accounts committee  Yes. The measures that were taken since the GOCO model was put in place were defined very specifically during the discussions that led up to the creation of GOCO. We put in place the systems that allowed us to ensure that the objectives in the agreement were reached. On that, I

Public Accounts committee  Yes, I would be very pleased to do that. First of all, for the four new board members who were appointed, it was a lengthy process, but I can tell you that the outcome was absolutely outstanding, because we appointed individuals who have the pertinent experience we were seeking.

Public Accounts committee  One of our board members—

Public Accounts committee  Okay.

Public Accounts committee  Martha Tory was appointed, first of all, on a one-year term and then was reappointed for the three years. Martha is an auditor. She retired from Ernst & Young, where she was a partner specializing in serving not-for-profit organizations. She also has served, and is continuing

Public Accounts committee  My understanding is that the bill is currently being discussed. Once the bill is approved, we will have to look at the implications. However, let's be clear: most of the impact of the bill will be on CNSC, which has the responsibility for the approval of the activities in the nuc

Public Accounts committee  I will let Richard answer in detail, but let me first of all say that in all of these activities the foremost intent we have is safety and security. We want to make sure this is always the primary consideration in anything we do. I'd like to ask Richard to move on from that.

Public Accounts committee  The program has been developed, and the Government of Canada approved substantial funding to allow us to conduct the decommissioning and clean-up operations. I'm going to ask Mr. Sexton to provide more detail, but the board of directors is well aware of the plans that were deve

Public Accounts committee  I can't tell you why, precisely.

Public Accounts committee  I think it fell somehow during all this restructuring and all the changes that had been made.

Public Accounts committee  Absolutely, and that's why we set up the public meeting last year, which I think was very well attended. This week, actually, we have our second annual public meeting in two years. We'll have that public meeting in Pinawa to allow the individuals in the Whiteshell area, and other

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. First of all, I think the other factor in the decision is safety and security. We don't want to give the impression at all that saving money is more important than safety and security. That's the first principle that I'd like to point out. On the second point you're

Public Accounts committee  Yes, I can. First, we had two external firms look at the salary structure that would be needed to successfully implement the concept of AECL as the entity that would be responsible for the eventual functioning of CNL and making sure that it does its work the way it should be do

Public Accounts committee  All the employees—3,200, I think it was at the time—were transferred to CNL. They're still there doing the work that needs to be done, perhaps with a different approach, with a culture that's perhaps more adequate for the needs of the organization. These employees have not disapp