Environment committee  I don't know that the public's confidence in this would actually be swayed one way or the other, truthfully. I don't really see that's what's going to inform the public. Feelings are feelings. The facts are the facts, but the feelings are the feelings, and it feels like what you've asked me is how would the feelings be if the facts were slightly different.

Environment committee  The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which does report to Parliament but through Natural Resources, is a well-respected international body. I'm sorry, I don't actually know. I don't think there is a magical solution for just suddenly making everything fine. Perceptions take time to change.

Environment committee  Norway, Sweden, Finland and all 30-some countries that have nuclear power have to deal with the spent nuclear fuel, and not just the spent nuclear fuel, but the intermediate- and low-level wastes that have been produced as well. This is an issue. Every form of energy has waste.

Environment committee  Radiation is scary. It is understood within the scientific community really well and, as was said in previous panels, which I've watched, we just haven't talked about it terribly well. When you hear about radiation, which certainly relates to the waste that we're talking about, you hear about it in comics, comic book movies or on The Simpsons.

Environment committee  I think it's getting clarity about more jobs. The nuclear industry is actually facing a grey-out. That means there's an awful lot of people in the nuclear industry who are in the process of retiring, and so forth. It's getting conversations started at the technical schools specifically.

Environment committee  “False evidence appearing real” is a wonderful acronym for fear and that's what happens with nuclear. We hear “nuclear” as if it's the worst poison in the world. The phrase, “I wouldn't touch it like it was plutonium” speaks to our false evidence appearing real and we need to start facing everyone and responding.

Environment committee  I spend a lot of time worrying about that. Thank you for that question. There's a lot of misinformation about nuclear, and I think one of the reasons is that there are very few courses at universities or even high schools that properly deal with energy as an entire issue. With the exception of the courses that I have at the University of Calgary and a course at Mount Royal, I'm unaware of any university course in Canada that is talking about nuclear power as part of our energy mix for people outside of engineering departments.

Environment committee  Absolutely. We are facing a huge problem going forward in trying to eliminate carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere. This is a huge problem. It's actually almost beyond the scope of imagination how much oil, gas and coal gets used in putting C02 into the atmosphere.

Environment committee  Thank you, Madame Pauzé. I'll try to focus on that. All forms of energy production produce waste. Nuclear's waste is more hazardous on a per kilogram basis, but on energy delivered it is actually less hazardous. Coal produces tremendous amounts of waste. The amount of waste produced by our coal, our oil and our natural gas every week worldwide, if it were elephants, would stack from the earth to the moon.

Environment committee  Thank you. To open, in the spirit of reconciliation, I want to acknowledge that I live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy—the Siksika, Kainai, Piikani—the Tsuut'ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation region 3, and I want to acknowledge all who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of southern Alberta.