NDP Catherine Bell, her party’s natural resources critic, tells me this morning that, after reviewing the Auditor General’s special examination of AECL, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn misled Parliament about the whole fiasco involving the shutdown of the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratory.
Her party, like others, is calling for Lunn’s resignation.
And, though Parliament is not set to resume its work until the end of the month, the opposition members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources hopes to convene a meeting of that committee next Tuesday in Ottawa and it wants Lunn to appear before that committee. Bell, though, recognizing that the AG report identifies problems at AECL occurred on the watch of the previous Liberal government as well as the current Conservative government, hopes to force the Natural Resources Committee to be as broad as possible in its probe of AECL’s failings.
Meanwhile, Lunn’s office tells me this morning that the Minister’s reaction to the AG’s special examination was to order a broad review of the corporate structure of AECL, which he did on Nov. 29. Lunn’s spokesperson also disputed the suggestion that the release of the AG’s audit was force by Liberal pressure on AECL. The spokesperson said AECL’s new board of directors met for the first time yesterday afternoon since the audit was delivered to AECL. The board wanted to review the audit before it was posted on its Web site.