Category: Politics

Fascinating testimony from four scientists yesterday at the Natural Resources Committee. Here's my take on the action:

The engineering team that built the MAPLE nuclear reactors at Chalk River, Ont., was four months away from fixing a technical problem that had kept them from getting a licence when the project was cancelled, MPs were told Thursday.

The MAPLEs are two brand new partly commissioned reactors sitting next door to the leaking, rusting NRU reactor that was shut down May 14.

That shutdown eliminated the source of 40 per cent of the world's medical isotopes, used to treat cancer, heart disease and other diseases.

One MAPLE, operating at 80 per cent power, could produce enough isotopes for the entire world.

Appearing before a parliamentary committee Thursday, the leader of the MAPLE team, nuclear physicist Harold Smith, and three independent academic nuclear scientists urged Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt to ask Crown corporation Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. to reconsider its decision on the MAPLEs.

“They're all saying the same thing basically, that the government has made a mistake and that it should reconsider its decision to cancel the MAPLE project,” said Liberal MP Geoff Regan. “It's a remarkable confluence of opinion we're hearing today.”

[Read the rest of the story]

Political types north and south of the 49th parallel are getting into Twitter, the micro-blogging service that lets you say whatever you want to say so long as you can say it in 140 characters or less. (That's my Tweetfeed, incidentally, over there on the left hand side of this page.)

If you want to see what official Ottawa is doing on Twitter, I'm trying to maintain a directory of what I call Political Twits. It ain't pretty, but there you'll find the Twitter handles of any MP I find on Twitter, any Parliament Hill staffer, Hill journalist, or Hill hanger-on. You'll also find a links to institutions in official Ottawa — the Canadian War Museum is a good example — as well as any hashtag I can find or create associated with the work of the federal government. My directory is not for people talking about federal politics, it's a directory of the people actually engaged in federal politics — the primary sources. As it says on the home page of that directory, if you've got something send it along.

There's a couple of other sites for Canadian Twit'n'Politics junkies. You should definitely check out the very nicely designed Politwitter and keep your eye on TweetCommons.com . I find TweetCommons fascinating because it tracks the comments directed at the politicians I'm following. One Twitterer aimed this at Michael Ignatieff:

@M_Ignatieff Are you following this or do you have aides who follow twitter? If I have questions for the Liberals, will I be heard here?

Another aimed this at Prime Minister Stephen Harper:

@pmharper Little agitated in the house today were we! Why so nice to @M_Ignatieff all of a sudden?

Now comes one of my favourite magazines, The Atlantic, with their annotated list of the Top 30 insiders in Washington, D.C.'s political culture that you ought to follow on Twitter. It's very heavy on new media/blogger personalities — personalities that, I'm sorry to say, I've just never heard of. So you need to be one super-duper-insider fan to want to follow Patrick Gavin, a writer at Politico for tweets like this:

self-pimp: Arne Duncan dishes on hoops with Obama

But I am pleased to find — and pass along — some Twitter accounts of the following, found thanks to The Atlantic piece:

• Israeli Consulate General of New York
• Howard Kurtz, Washington Post
• John McCain, Republic senator
• Mike Mullin, Chair, Joint Chiefs of Staff (I just can't see our equivalent, Uncle Walt, doing this, much as I admire and enjoy Walt's company)
• Barham Salih, deputy prime minister of Iraq
• George Stephanopoulos, Chief Washington Correspondent, ABC News (750,000+ followers!! About as many people who watch Peter Mansbrige every night!)
• Joe Trippi, Democratic campaign specialist. (Cool tweet which caught me eye: OK, count to 60… While you were counting, 20 hrs of video was uploaded to YouTube. Thats > 86k full length films evry wk ) I became Joe's 297,560th follower by the way. Wow.

Liberal MPs pressed Finance Minister Jim Flaherty Tuesday for more details about how he intends to eliminate the federal government's annual deficit once the recession ends as Conservatives and Liberals each tried to position themselves as responsible stewards of the public purse in a week which could end with a general election call.

The deficit this year will top $50 billion — a record — as the government tries to pump billions of stimulus dollars into the moribund economy.

Flaherty insists once normal growth resumes, tax revenues will naturally rise even as the extra spending required during a recession eases and that will let the government of the day balance the budget without tax increases or spending cuts. The government predicts a balanced budget by the end of 2014, a forecast Flaherty stuck to Tuesday.

“We have a plan. We're on target. The economy is actually looking better. Let's be positive about our country,” Flaherty said during a meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance.

The argument is crucial because it will affect some key decisions governments could have to make as early as the next budget year.

If Flaherty's view prevails, governments need do little to change basic spending or taxation plans. But if the opposition and some private-sector forecasters are correct, tax hikes or spending cuts will be required to eliminate the deficit. And, given that only three finance ministers since 1983 have actually managed to cut spending in any given year, forecasters who disagree with Flaherty believe some sort of tax hike will be required to eliminate the deficit. [Read the rest]

The chief executive officer of Nortel Networks Corp., has been summoned to appear before a House of Commons committee Thursday to explain how he and other senior managers qualified for millions of dollars in bonus payments as pensioners and employees were having their benefits cut or delayed while the company restructures under bankruptcy protection.

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance had invited CEO Mike Zafirovski and others to appear before it, along with representatives of pensioners and employees, but Nortel declined that invitation earlier this week, saying executives could not discuss these matters with the MPs while the company's restructuring is before the courts in Ontario and in the United States.

MPs, though, cited “the supremacy of Parliament” Tuesday morning in voting to summon Zafirovski to appear Thursday morning.

“I would think that he would be in the right position to explain the corporation's side of the story when it comes to severance payments, pension packages and how former employees are being treated,” said Liberal MP Massimo Pacetti.

“It's not a witch hunt. It's kind of strange. I would think that they would jump at the opportunity.”

A Nortel spokesman said Zafirovski will testify at the committee.

[Read the rest of the story]

A research reactor at McMaster University in Hamilton could be producing all the medical isotopes Canada needs — and then some — in as little as 18 months, the manager of the facility told a House of Commons committee Tuesday.

But Christopher Heysel said a speedy transformation of the McMaster reactor from a multi-purpose research machine to a high-volume isotope producer needs co-operation of other “stakeholders,” including Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the federal government and the nuclear safety regulator. The transformation would be relatively cheap as well, just $30 million over five years, Heysel said.

The option Heysel presented to the House of Commons natural resources committee represents the nearest thing to a silver bullet to solving Canada's isotope shortage, a shortage doctors have said is putting the health and safety of cancer and heart-disease patients at risk. The world is experiencing a critical isotope shortage since the shutdown last month of the 52-year-old NRU reactor at Chalk River, Ont., which makes nearly half the world's supply. [Read the rest of the story]

A couple of data points which may grow into stories about the shutdown, on May 14, of the NRU, the nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ont. which provides 40 per cent of the world's supply of medical isotopes and 80 per cent of the Canadian supply.

First, here is Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt, speaking on Jan. 30 to one of her aides during a conversation she did not know would be made public:

“You know what solves this problem? Money. And if it’s just about money, we’ll figure it out.”

Fast forward a few months — before the tape becomes public but after the NRU has shut down. Right next door to the 52-year-old NRU are two brand-new nuclear reactors, the MAPLEs, built for no other purpose than to produce isotopes but which have never made it through commissioning because the builder, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., could never fix a problem in which it predicted the reactors would do Y under certain conditions but did X when the machine was actually turned on. These MAPLEs, despite what you might hear from the government, have in, fact produced isotopes and produced them safely.

The chief financial officer of AECL, a Crown corporation, appeared recently before the Senate committee on finance. Given that the Minister of Natural Resources said, in an unscripted moment, that finding a long-term solution to the old NRU is “just about money”, consider this exchange:

Senator Catherine Callbeck (Lib – PEI): You mentioned Maple reactors. They are for the production of isotopes, but they have been cancelled; is that right?

Mr. Michael Robins (Chief Financial Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.): Correct.

Senator Callbeck: When were they cancelled?

Mr. Robins: They were cancelled in May 2007.

Senator Callbeck: Why were they cancelled?

Mr. Robins: That decision was a difficult one based on a lot of different factors, economic and technical, which all led towards shutting down that project as the best decision for the taxpayers of Canada.

Senator Callbeck: The decision was a financial one?

Mr. Robins: Yes.

Senator Callbeck: What was the cost to be?

Mr. Robins: All in, the cost was in excess of $1 billion.

Senator Callbeck: How much?

Mr. Robins: I do not recall off the top of my head how much it would have been, but it would have been a significant dollar value.

Senator Callbeck: Did you say $1 billion?

Mr. Robins: Yes.

Senator Callbeck: It was that high?

Mr. Robins: If not more.

As a point of reference, if the government spent $1 billion to fix the MAPLEs, the government would have fixed a reactor which could supply 100 per cent of world medical isotope demand. The NRU does less than half of that and still provides isotopes which helps 2 million Canadian cancer and heart disease patients a year and 20 million patients in 80 countries around the world.On the other hand, the government spent $9 billion plus to buy a car company which may help save a few thousands jobs.

Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page says tax hikes or deep spending cuts are the only way the federal government's finances can return to a surplus position.

Page is the latest economic expert to suggest Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's plan to eliminate the deficit is unrealistic.

“Based on our analysis, even the analysis we did a few months ago, it will be very difficult to see a surplus within the next five years without significant discretionary actions,” Page said in an interview with Canwest News Service and Global National.

Flaherty, on the other hand, believes the natural growth of tax revenues when the economy returns to normal growth will be enough to clear the deficit.

“As we come out (of recession) and the revenues get better, as they will, as the economy starts to grow, we will be able to work our way out of deficit, into surplus,” Flaherty told reporters before leaving for Italy to attend meetings this weekend of G8 finance ministers.

But Page said the Canadian economy is experiencing “massive structural changes” and, even when the recession ends, growth rates likely will be slower than Flaherty has predicted. Page cites the changes in the auto and forestry sectors as examples.

“It may be that our potential growth rate is lowering, and we need to look at that,” Page said. [Read the rest:]

Yesterday in the Senate, Senators held a Committee of the Whole session with aboriginal leaders, including retiring AFN Chief Phil Fontaine, participating in the debate from the Senate floor, as part of ceremonies marking the National Day of Reconciliation. Apparently Senator Patrick Brazeau, who, prior to his appointment to the Senate by Stephen Harper, was chief of the Congress of Aboroginal People's which was often was at odds with the Assembly of First Nations, is not ready for reconciliation with Fontaine for yesterday, Brazeau, in the Senate, accused Fontaine of using his position to benefit family and friends. Here is the exchange:

Senator Brazeau: My second question deals with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Obviously, we had some good news announced yesterday with respect to the commission having different individuals named so they can start the important work that needs to be done. However, if we go back a little, we had a credible and capable individual step down, former Chief Justice LaForme, who was applauded by the Aboriginal community. He indicated that one of the reasons he stepped down was political interference by the Assembly of First Nations.

Having said that, everyone knows that your former chief of staff was also the executive director who was fired by Justice LaForme. Some have suggested as well that perhaps the interference was by yourself in trying to have family and/or friends hired on to this commission. I ask you this question with all due respect. Can you comment on that, please?

Senator Carstairs: Colleagues, I have known Phil Fontaine in several incarnations, both as the Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs

Senator Brazeau: No answer?

Senator Carstairs: — and also as the Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. I want my colleagues here in the Senate to know that his legacy will be that it was never about Phil. It was always about his people, and particularly the children and his desire to have Aboriginal children have appropriate housing, education, health care and children's services.

Meegwech, Phil.

I want to ask a question about children's services. The Wendy Report was clear. The amount of money given to Aboriginal people, whether Metis, or off-reserve or on-reserve persons, is far below the amount of money that is afforded to any other people when their children need to be in care. At the same time, there are greater numbers of children in care than in the general community. I would like to hear from Chief Daniels, Chief Fontaine and Mr. Chartier about what we need to do to ensure that your children receive the services they require.

Mr. Fontaine: I am not aware of the rules and procedures of this place and whether one has immunity from making certain accusations about individuals. What I have heard from Senator Brazeau is defamatory, and I need to protect myself.

Some Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

Senator Moore: Absolutely!

Mr. Fontaine: One would make such arguments when one does not understand the settlement agreement or has never read it. The fact is that there are six parties to the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. The Assembly of First Nations is one of those parties, in fact the only party that has a clear and explicit role in terms of an ongoing responsibility for the implementation of the settlement agreement.

For example, on the recent appointment of the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and two other commissioners, the Honourable Minister Strahl consulted with me because that is one of the provisions in the settlement act.

I consider myself one of the architects of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. When we were fighting for this issue, we were a lonely voice. I never heard Senator Brazeau raise his voice once — not a single time — to talk about the great importance that the fair and just resolution of this matter meant, not just for the survivors but the for entire country. It was only after we had completed the difficult and complicated negotiations that people started complaining. Until then, we met with silence.

I am quite disappointed that Senator Brazeau would make those kinds of allegations. They are completely uncalled for but very consistent with Senator Brazeau.

I want you to understand that that is the settlement agreement, and I would urge you to read the provisions of it. Then, you will understand why the Assembly of First Nations had a strong interest in ensuring that the provisions of the settlement agreement are honoured and that everything proceeds in the best interests of not only the survivors but of the country. This is about Canada.

Do we have any regrets about the past? Of course. Will we be stuck in the past? No. We are moving forward with the government on the implementation of the settlement agreement. This very important undertaking will be before us for five years. It represents not only a tremendous opportunity for the country but also a tremendous challenge to get it done right.

The Chair: Witnesses and honourable senators, I am sorry to interrupt but the committee has been sitting for two hours. In conformity with the Order of the Senate of June 9, I am obliged to interrupt proceedings so that the committee can report to the Senate.

Honourable senators will join me in thanking most sincerely the witnesses for being with us today.

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

A brand-new backup nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ont. produced enough medical isotopes during some test runs to supply the needs of every Canadian hospital and clinic, a parliamentary committee was told Thursday, putting a dent in one argument the Conservatives have been using to defend their decision last spring to mothball that backup plan.

The revelation that the MAPLE reactors at Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.'s Chalk River Laboratory did indeed produce the isotope Moly-99, the key ingredient used in pharmaceutical radioisotopes, came on the same day doctors in Quebec said as many as 12,000 patients there have had their cancer and cardiac tests put off because of a shortage of those isotopes…

[Read the rest of the story]