Liberal leader Stephane Dion went thermonuclear for the cameras this week, accusing the Conservative government of hiding a damning auditor general’s report on the federally owned atomic energy company.
Seems the report made public this week has been around since last September.
Turns out that’s about five years less than an even more alarming report on the same nuclear agency by the same federal watchdog, buried by the Liberals since 2002.
In fact, the Liberals never did release Auditor General Sheila Fraser’s earlier bombshell. You are reading from it here first.
[…]
On Nov. 15, 2002, Fraser sent a copy of her report to then Liberal resources minister Herb Dhaliwal, along with a covering letter imploring him to meet to discuss her alarming findings, particularly “unresolved issues with the government” and their potential impact on “the management of environmental risks at AECL sites.”
Two months later, Dhaliwal replied, in part: “As your report was quite clear and acceptable to me, I felt no need for us to meet at this time. I was particularly pleased that you saw evidence of strong leadership … and found that good systems and practices existed in several key areas.”
h/t reader Al W.
It’s ELECTION time! right, little Steffi?
First rule of politics, when you get caught out for incompetence, start throwing mud at the other side. It will distract the public and make everyone look messy.
well – would’nt it be prudent for Lunn to have been briefed on his ministry – and collected AG reports for years previous?
He’s been in the job for 2 years – and had no clue.
Just because Libranos are incompetent sleaze, doesn’t mean this gerbil should get a free ride.
For two years he’s been in charge. Maybe we should get him a trainee badge.
You’re right, Ted…so stop throwing the mud, okay? Dhaliwal got caught being incompetent and you’re trying to slam Lunn! Shame on you.
Incidentally, if the reports are accurate, shame on Dhaliwal and Lunn, too!
Ted,
Were you directing that at the liberals? You do realize that fixes for nuclear reactors are decade projects and not 15 minute fixes?
This is a Liberal (and most likely also a Mulroney) problem being blamed on Harper because he didn’t do in 2 years what the Libs didn’t do in 13 and most likely Mulroney also didn’t do in 8.
Deflection is not necessary, a cessation is hypocrisy is. By both the media and the Libs – but I repeat myself.
Not too many ambulances out there today Ted?
Ted,
You aren’t a lawyer are you? oh no! A lib and a lawyer? two strikes!
That kinda makes my anti-edwards comment a bit too personal. I wasn’t meaning to lump you in (although with those two strikes… lol.)
All politicians in Ottawa are so busy being politicians in Ottawa that they don’t know shit about anything else.
I have no faith in any of them. They are all politicians and that describes their character.
Most of them are also Lawyers.
At least two of them are university professors and it doesn’t get worse than that.
I have no doubt that the Libs bungled this file, as they did many others. Still, Harper’s gov’t has been in place about two years, though and they absolutely need to get a grip on this file, first, because it is a seriously scary issue, and needs to be addressed for safety reasons that should be obvious to all, and second, because if something goes wrong, and even if there is no loss of life, the party in power will be blamed. Nobody remembers that the New Orleans disaster was largely the fault of decades of incompetent local and state Democrat politicans – they remember that Bush’s FEMA wasn’t there to make it magically all better.
As i said in readers tips Canadians should be Outraged that the government of the day(liberal) & minister in charge(dhaliwal)fluffed off this Report from the AG’s office, They put themselves ahead of Canadians Health & Safety by disregarding this important report.
And Dion has the audacity to make like he is mad as hell & call’s for Lunns firing! No Mr Dion what should be called is an Inquiry into this 2002 report from the AG. Just Who knew what? & what Crat knew about it? Why were canadians put at risk? Why was this report sludged? The truth about this serious matter is far more reaching then worrying about some crooked arms dealers extradition.
Holdfast, those with short attention span think that way.
Anything as old as Chalk River has taken years to get to it’s current state.
And John West nailed the Politician MindSet.
Harper should lay blame where it’s relevant. OTW it’s seen as deflection.
Two years in government isn’t that long. Have we had two Budgets yet?
I doubt Lunn got good info on the long brewing AECL/CNSC feuds.
The thing I was most pleasantly surprised by was Greg Weston coming out against the Liberals on this.
Normally the media turns a blind eye to gross Liberal incompetence.
Andrew Coyne cited a report a while back that estimated the public subsudy to AECL since its inception to be around 54 billion and that doesn’t include the funds that have been given it and are classified for Nat security reasons.
Candu has been a gigantic prok barrel for Ontario from the very start and it is now so pathetically uncompetitive that even the gov’t of On is looking to pick another supplier for its next generator.
http://www.thestar.com/article/287950
The time is right to sell off AECL – something SH talked about doing before this latest thing hit the fan – as it looks like the oppostion Liberals (liberals were the biggest pigs to the trough on this over the years) won’t stand in the way.
And where is MSM in this story?
They are in the Liberal Puffin excrement pile , hidden!!
F@#$%^g Liberal corruption enablers!!
I’ve read Greg Weston for years, and while I don’t agree with everything he writes, to me he is one of the premier Ottawa reporters of today, who tells it like it is.
(Gee I wonder if he’ll send me a quarter?)
He makes the CBC/Red Star, etc look pretty nickey nouse.
As I said in the Reader Tips section yesterday, the 2002 AG report was mentioned in the CTV.ca article.
BUT it was in the 21st paragraph of the story, and it did not mention anything about the Liberals being the governing party at the time.
I think we all know why the story was structured in this manner.
Greg Weston has the ability to sling a well placed arrow every once in while.
Dion gets “Chernobylized”.
I hope he has got a supply of iodine pills to flood his thyroid glands as the Iodine 131 isotope tends to mess up your thinking.
H/T to AC at $54 Billion that would qualify as a financial meltdown. I wonder who did the actuarial accounting?
Cheers
Hey holdfast, Weston says that the CPC has had this report since September, a whole four months! Give them a little time to study the situation. The fact that the Liberals hid Mrs. Fraser’s damning audit from 2002 is incredible and shows the depth of corruption by that regime.
Funny, when Libs are in power, they hide everything that makes them look bad, obviously making the situation worse for the next government and Canadians. When out of power they are quick to complain about everything that isn’t perfect even though it was their incompetence and ineptitude that created the situation.
Typical socialists. Screw things up and blame someone else. Make that, typical gutless socialists.
Does anyone else here notice that amongst ALL the finger pointing….the problems themselves seem to go unaddressed?
Teddy, “Does anyone else here notice that amongst ALL the finger pointing….the problems themselves seem to go unaddressed?”
That’s because by definition the very nature of the behaviour of a Crown Corp is to do what a normal commercial entity would not do. That’s why it was created … to behave in a non-commercial way … i.e. political behaviour not commercial. And over time the Crown Corp has morphed into a shell where “the problems themselves seem to go unaddressed”
As Gord Tulk says at 3:46 , this AECL sucker is a massive drain on the taxpayer and the loses are even worse if you dig into the EDC which financed the sale of Candu reactors to third world countries that couldn’t afford them. Therefore we the taxpayer financed the purchase through yet another Crown Corp, the EDC. Thus the overall cost is never disclosed … it is swept under the rug at EDC in what they call the “Canada Account” … a sham for customer confidentiality. But it is really code for massive losses. It’s one big ponzi game.
We need a Parliamentary Committee set up with the simple request to all Crown Corps:
Tell us why you need to be government owned? What is it that you do that cannot be privatized and why?
Dion’s camera squawks all seem to blend into each other, is there a writers strike at the CBC too?
nomdeblog –
“We need a Parliamentary Committee set up with the simple request to all Crown Corps:”
So far so good, but who will be the Chairman of that Parliamentary Committee??
Szabo the Red Lib?
Libby the Red ND?
Gilles the Red Blockhead?
Geez, spare me!!
Warwick: “Were you directing that at the liberals? You do realize that fixes for nuclear reactors are decade projects and not 15 minute fixes?”
1st Question: most definitely both.
2nd Question: Obviously. I’m certain not criticizing the Conservatives for not solving the problems by now, like some here with poor reading comprehension are accusing me of doing. The fact is they are the government and they haven’t done a thing. So own up to that instead of lashing out at the people who report to you from AECL. It is shameful the way they have viciously attacked individuals instead of taking responsibility for their own government.
That kind of Ministerial responsibility to the public, which has been lacking for so long, is supposed to be one of the fundamentals of a Parliamentary democracy. Instead, you have Lunn, you have Tony Clement and even the bloody Prime Minister more interested in pointing fingers saying “not me, I’m not responsible”.
Why did Canadians switch governments if we were just going to get more of the same kind of crap. As other non-liberal commenters have said here too by the way.
Okay, so now that The National spent the better part of a week in December hammering on the Chalk River “scandal”, trotting out indignant Liberal critics like Omar Alghebra as well as a host of concerned environmentalists in the hopes of making the Conservatives look bad, surely they will now take the maybe five seconds it takes to point out that the Liberals received an “even more alarming” report on the same facility from the same federal watchdog.
I mean, they pretty much have to, right?
(cough cough)
Ted “It is shameful the way they have viciously attacked individuals instead of taking responsibility for their own government.”
The individuals = Ms. Keen, the management
Government = the shareholder = us taxpayers
I’ve lost confidence in this investment and want to sell it. It smells like Enron.
According to the AG reports it would seem this Crown Corp has been dysfunctional since at least 2002. As noted above, it pilled up loses of a staggering $54 billion. Last year AECL lost a quarter of a billion dollars and Ms Keen and her management, if in a real company, would be fired. Instead in this perverted Crown Corp operating model; the central planners like Ted want to blame the shareholders, i.e. blame us, for bad management.
This is like something out of the USSR.
Close AECL; stop the blaming and the massive leaching this anachronism has become on taxpayers. Then close the CBC and save me another $1.2 billion a year.
Joe , you’re right, forget the hearing, just close all the Crown Corps. Why do they still exist after the Berlin Wall fell?
Sent this e-mail to Greg Weston, great column.
“Greg, congratulations on an excellent column. I couldn’t believe it was you writing it and reread it several times trying to find the usual Harper attack line. Even praised you on Small Dead Animals. Hope you continue to move away from the “Dark Side”.”
Ted, how can you continue to defend the absolute stupidity of Liberal ministers like Dhaliwal? Those that follow liberalism/socialism are truly, truly blind.
Dave: where have I defended the former government?
Agreed, nomdeblog.
It’s not we, the shareholders (the govt)who are operating and running Chalk River. It’s Ms Keen and her management. And, they are doing a bad job. Therefore, we, via our government, have every tight to criticize them.
That report of the AG was sent, not only to the shareholders (us, via the govt – who, under the Liberals, kept the report hidden). It was sent to the Chalk River management. They did nothing.
If they were a private corporation, the management would have been fired. Instead, management are public civil service, with their jobs protected by the massive public service union, and their incompetence ignored and hidden.
Privatize these public corporations. Save us, the public, the billions in costs that these ‘corporations’ are costing us. They have long ago moved out of their original purpose and have become comfortable jobs for huge numbers of public service employees – who are unaccountable, indifferent to their employers (the taxpayer) and interested only in their pensions and benefits.
And ted, stop blaming the Conservatives. Try to focus on the real agents in this fiasco – the Chalk River management. They should have been brought to ‘heel’ long ago – by the Liberals. We have a chance to do it now – Will the Liberals and NDP allow their precious Crown Corporations to be made accountable? Heck – we all know the answer. NO.
The Liberals, after all, rely on the CBC as their free advertising. The Liberals, taking taxpayer money to pay for their campaigns in Adscam. And using taxpayer money now, via the CBC, which acts as the Liberal Mouthpiece.
Will the Liberals demand accountability of Chalk River? No – too many of their friends have patronage jobs there.
Will the Liberals demand accountability of the CBC? No – it’s their propaganda site.
Will the Liberals demand accountability of the Senate? No – it’s yet another of their patronage sites and extremely useful to them in blocking Conservative govt agendas.
The Liberals – corrupt and incompetent and with one agenda. Power.
How much money was given to chalk river for upgrades, improvements, repairs and whatever, that they instead used for other things. Lets have a complete forensic audit from day one. How many staff wage increases were given, how many new computers, (that probably didn’t work) and how much actually went to the stuff it was supposed to go to.
Taking four months to review and study a report, and take action is not a long time.
It took those imans over two years to get upset with Steyn. Hey, maybe Herb is still studying the report he got. There were lots of reports that the liberals never made public. I am sure someone is out googling them now.
Too funny. Now out of power, the loyal opposition is opposing, criticizing, scandalizing all the stuff they themselves had full care, custody and control of for the last decade. Phony Puffins.
There is a lot of blame to go around on this issue. My issue with Ms Keen is that, in my view, she made a terrible decision which potentially could have had an extremely negative health impact on hundreds, or thousands, of Canadians, and people around the world. Then, when asked by government (the people) to reconsider, she refused. It took Parliamentary (all parties) to overule her.
The “excuse” she was “doing her job” irks me. We don’t need to pay someone a 6 figure salary to make “if ‘A’, then ‘B'” decisions. Machines can be programmed do that. Monkeys can be trained to do that. Even I can do that.
We need someone competent in that position, able to weigh all the facts and risks involved, consult with experts, and make the right decision, without political interference. She was allowed to do that, she clearly made the wrong decision, and was intransigent in the face of all evidence, prefering to assert her authority, even as she clearly put many people’s health in jeopardy.
I see this kind of “just following the rules” excuse used all of the time – by beurocrats, management, and employees. It bugs me. It’s an entirely different level when our health is involved. She made a poor decision on a very important issue. We can’t afford her making another one.
Ralph Goodale led the charge against the Conservatives on this issue. Ironically, he was also the person who appointed her. That makes it political.
(sp?)
Liberal application form.
If you cant lie, do not apply.
Ted
why would “enable” the management of Chlk River by critizing the present gov’t, they (management has had 5 years to do something, and the liberals failed to address the situation for 3 years. Actually the gov’t should only set broad guidelines , and managment should achieve goals on their own, they are paid well enough to do the job without their hand being held, or they should be held accountable (fired).
It’s a scary thought that someone with your attitude has an equal value vote at election time!!
If this Ms Keen is in charge of the AECL,then why did she have to shut it down? Was’nt she in charge and wasnt it beholden on her to keep that facility running? Was she in some ivory tower that she didnt know what she was being paid for? Is she going to refund her salary and resign? The person sweeping the floor would have done a better job.
AECL should have “nuked” years ago. Just a giant Suck-Hole for tax funds.
Do you think AECL would still be sucking money out of the Treasury if Ontario had as much Hydro potential as Quebec.
Not a frik’n chance.
Ergo . . . . is Ontario’s fault. 🙂
Gord Tulk 3:46 points to a reliable Coyne. .
Andrew Coyne cited a report a while back that estimated the public subsudy to AECL since its
inception to be around 54 $Billion and that doesn’t
=================================================
include the funds that have been given it and are classified for Nat. security reasons.
Candu has been a gigantic pork barrel for Ontario from the very start and it is now so pathetically uncompetitive that even the gov’t of On is looking to pick another supplier for its next generator.
http://www.thestar.com/article/287950
The time is right to sell off AECL – something SH talked about doing before this latest thing hit the fan – as it looks like the oppostion Liberals (liberals were the biggest pigs to the trough on this over the years), won’t stand in the way.
Posted by: Gord Tulk 3:46 PM
==============================
In tips and energy threads,
I too have mentioned this funding disgrace to those who think Nuke is clean economic power. The public just has no idea of the hidden subsidy wealth pit Nuclear power really is. = TG
Herb was an idiot when he was the DFO Minister, at least with David Anderson you knew where you stood.
AECL is an elderly corporation, it needs upgrading, everyone knows it’s been neglected and ignored for decades, just ticking along, it is however safe in spite of the neglect. The Harper government has taken action, the old “Plant” has had an infusion of something like $200 million, it’s a start.
This prattling on and on, trying to make political hay with this serious issue is beyond reason. It’s desperation politics at it’s lowest ebb.
Without knowing what Ms Keen’s credentials are, she sure showed very poor judgment. She should be fired, it’s that serious.
One would think all governments of the past would have kept that facility up to the highest standards in all respects,upgrades as needed, etc.
A Nuclear facility in a Country like this should not be getting this kind of untoward publicity.
All members of the Opposition acting like buffoons, in the name of desperation politics are doing great harm to Canada in the eyes of the world. They’re not fit to be siting in our HOC.
And of course the biggest “purchaser” of Candu:
Ontario hydro
who was their long-time Chairman:
Maurice Strong
“to those who think Nuke is clean economic power. The public just has no idea of the hidden subsidy wealth pit Nuclear power really is. = TG”
TG , I think you are talking about 2 different kinds of “clean”
One is about corruption and the other environmental.
On the corruption , if we can expose it, then we would discover clean nuke (uncorrupted) makes even more economic sense provided we get good management in to bring nuke projects in on budget. One way to do that would be to let the private sector do it instead of the usual pigs from Animal Farm in the bureaucracies like AECL.
I am waiting for someone to break the story of who the MP who is Krista Erickson’s boyfriend is… apparently all of Ottawa is a buzz with this… Rumor is Stephen Taylor has the exclusive info and will break all open tomorrow!
Guess what, when the media (or at least the vast majority of it) works for the other party, you HAVE to be cleaner than clean. It’s not fair, it’s just the way it is. Harper needs to get out in front, be a leader and announce how he is immediately taking steps to address a problem resulting from more than a decade of neglect. Firing some lib appointed swivel servants could not hurt either.
My first point on this subject is this report “Harper troubled by nuclear watchdog”, you can read it here: http://tinyurl.com/yopkq3
Notice in this sanitized version of the story there is no mention of the Auditor General’s report being well known to the Liberals while they were in power. Secondly, I would think the head of the Nuclear Safety Commission should at the very least be someone possessed of a stable mind with their feet solidly on the ground. Remember she was appointed in 2005 when the Liberals held the reins of power. Now if you read what I found by Googling Linda Keen http://tinyurl.com/22n8ck you will certainly understand why Harper has every reason to be worried!
The Globe and Mail January 27/2006
First order for new PM: Chainsaw the deadwood Crowns by Harry Koza
…If instead of being dumped into the black hole of AECL, that $75-billion of taxpayers’ money had been invested in the Canadian economy, Energy Probe contends, it would be worth $194.6-billion today. That calculation assumes that all the cash pumped into AECL was borrowed money instead of tax revenue (like there’s a difference? It’s still your wallet), and uses 7.5 per cent as a rate of return….
….Of all the myriad wayward Crowns, AECL is one of the federal government’s more egregious money pits, which is really saying something….
http://www.energyprobe.org/energyprobe/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=14669
The Report
http://www.energyprobe.org/energyprobe/reports/AECLsubsidies.pdf
I’m no fan of AECL or the CNSC. The CNSC reminds me of the board appointed by Ralf Klein to run CKUA radio. They paid themselves handsomely until the network ran out of money and they shut down the radio network.
These arms length boards sometimes need to have the government’s arm extended to where the board receives a slap on the back of the head.
AECL has been up to their eyebrows in corruption since they were first thought of and their best before date was before they were established. BTW Why does Mo’s name keep coming up in all these shady deals. Isn’t KHS set up to be the slimey wheeler dealer?
A few years ago the Cross Cancer Hospital in Edmonton bought the technology and has since been making their own isotopes. Maybe the rest of Canada should do the same so Chalk River can dry up and blow away.
Is it my imagination or am I seeing more and more challenges of the MSM’s leftist protectionism coming from their very own pundits and editorialists.
Maybe they are trying to scoop Kate before she scoops them for a change.
Linda Keen is not the head of AECL; she is the head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The AECL Chair was Michael Burns, a Harper appointee.
AECL shut down Chalk River after suddenly “discovering” during a four-day maintenance shutdown that it had been running the reactor for almost two years without the safety upgrades required under the operating licence issued by the nuclear safety commission.
At a hearing before the nuclear safety commission, AECL vice-president Brian McGee said the company had voluntarily shut down the reactor because safety was the highest priority, despite disruption to world isotope supply.
“Two other concerns likely figure in the government’s decision to do an end run around the country’s nuclear safety watchdog – the impending privatization of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), a federal Crown corporation, and getting regulatory approval for a new generation of Candu reactors.
“The prospects for both are improved by undermining the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the independent body that regulates all nuclear matters in the country…”
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/285210
Moreover, MDS, the company that makes medical isoptopes was concerned that it would lose customers to US suppliers.
http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2007-12-13T180254Z_01_N13216955_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-MDS-ISOTOPES-COL.XML&archived=False
What it comes down to is that for Stephwn Harper, safety is outweighed by monetary concerns.
Top Story headlines from the propaganda arm of the liberal party – CBCpravda. 7 months of job growth and a liberal critic line in the headlines. sell them to Fox Stephen , give them a taste of the “Harper Regime”
Top Story Headlines
PM calls for public inquiry into Mulroney-Schreiber affair
Harper ‘trying to stall for time’ with Mulroney-Schreiber hearings
Loonie slumps on feeble jobs report
nomdeblog at 5:14
Hey, Keen has nothing to do with the management of AECL, she’s head honcho at the regulatory agency (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission) which oversees safety conditions for all things nuclear, all over Canada – even the radiometric survey gear in the oilpatch. The CNSC will still be in place even if AECL is privatized. Her call was technically correct but lacking common sense under the circumstances.
With respect to Lunn, his only offense in the fiasco is continuing to breath – a classic example of a less than mediocre MP appointed to cabinet for reasons of “regional representation”. Harper can’t get rid of the sod anytime soon without losing face. Pity.
Re: “What it comes down to is that for Stephen Harper, safety is outweighed by monetary concerns.”
Posted by: lberia
I think most would agree this is one of the most fractious Parliaments in years – yet all parties voted unanimously (I think) to reopen Chalk River. That’s nearly impossible to imagine, but they all agreed.
That makes you and Linda Keen as the only two people who believe the reactor should have remained shut down.