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.
debgris,I remember wondering about cbc reporter’scandal’ a while back,and if this all came about thru some pillow talk? Is the intrepid one,involved with the pretty boy Pablo?
Not all Crown Corps are losers, CMHC is one exception I know of. Even after pierre the pig saddled them with public housing they still pump millions into the bottomless pit. I might also add they compete with GMAC and a couple of the other big boys. For now anyway.
Zog what we have is the inmates running the asylum.
The Crown Corp is owned by the Government .. i.e. the taxpayer … patronage appointments to it are made by the government , as are the regulators to oversee what is owned by the government. That all adds up to conflict of interest.
This makes Enron governance shine in comparison.
It won’t work. We have to deal with these old, conflicted, socialist models of patronage and privatize them.
Stupidest poster today has to be Ted. Well done Ted you win the coveted dork award for liberal incompetance and dishonesty. At least your good at something, same as your dud buds.
Joe asks why Mo’s name pops up in so many slimey deals. It’s the OLD BOYS CLUB , In the club are the likes of , Strong, Trudeaue Chretien Mulroney , Martin ,John Rae (brother of Bob Rae) and a bunch of others who started their public lives under the control of PowerCorp’s Paul Demerias. “That is where the Public Enquiry should go”.
Jimbo writes:
“…yet all parties voted unanimously (I think) to reopen Chalk River. That’s nearly impossible to imagine, but they all agreed.”
Only because of the fearmongering about the lack of medical isotopes. I think an official inquiry would shed some light onto this issue. Let’s see if Harper is brave enough to call one. BTW, it’s not just me and Ms. Keen who think that safety is more important than politics.
Nice try Iberia. All too typically Liberal to try to change someone’s words and meaning, to whit:
What I said: “That makes you and Linda Keen as the only two people who believe the reactor should have remained shut down.”
versus: “BTW, it’s not just me and Ms. Keen who think that safety is more important than politics.”
Spin anyone? Are you really Ralph Goodale posting under an assumed name?
As for “the fearmongering about the lack of medical isotopes.”, I guess now it’s your opinion versus all of Parliament and the entire medical community.
You do know it’s not really a conspiracy if everyone’s in on it except you? It’s something else …
Jimbo:
I’ve provided links to back up my opinion…you’ve provided nothing, other than sycophantic support for the Cons. I suppose when Harper decides it’s safe to go skydiving without a parachute, you’ll be the first one out of the plane.
With iberias resoning,I guess that the NDP and the liberals gave syncopathic support to the cons also.All the opposition members will jump out of the plane first so you can have a coffee while you wait jimbo.
Colin: David Anderson IS the MP from Cypress Hills Grasslands; he is indeed a very competent MP and Canadians definitely know where he stands (on our side), he is deputy min. of The Canadian Wheatboard and he is a Conservative MP. Mr. Anderson has never held wing din Dallysworld’s job. Why did you make such an illogical comparison?
IMO, Mrs Keen is a Liberano hack who created this reactor crisis in collaboration with Liberano M.P.s and the msm to create a ‘scandal’ to keep the public eyes off Deyawn and his many shortcomings as leader of the opposition.
I watched the parliamentary emergency debate and Mrs. Keens responses to direct questions were devoid of concern for Cancer patients – she was only concerned about the RULES that the Liberano gov’t had ‘given’ her and her groupies. She appeared to know nothing but the ‘application was not on time so worker safety was ‘at risk’. ZERO concern for patients or the taxpayers of Canada or signed contracts with hospitals.
I never EVER trust the ‘opinions’ or ‘facts’ presented in anything G. Weston spews. There is a hidden smear against the Prime Minister in that article…just wait a few days and it will leap from his keyboard.
The Cons conned the public and other parties that there was a crisis. This is no longer an issue of a medical isotope crisis but of abuse of authority by a government minister.
lberia, you are a complete moron, you know that? The Conservatives conned Parliament? You mean, the Liberals, Bloc, and NDP get their information ONLY from the Conservatives? You mean that when my wife was laid off work because of the lack of isotopes, the hospital had been conned by the Conservatives, too? You mean that when newspapers wrote articles about all of the scans that had been cancelled/rescheduled due to lack of isotopes, it was all just a con job by the Conservatives?
You are the definition of partisan…with the exception that the label “idiot” needs to be added in, too.
Equipped with their endless lack of logic and constant displays of outright stupidity, we couldn’t ask for better recruiters for the Conservative party than Ted and Iberia.
Go Ted and Iberia!
Iberia’s lame comments are the reason I rarely respond to anything that fool says. I love his argument that the moonbats (Dion Grits, NDP, Bloq) were “conned” or “bullied” in a MINORITY PARLIAMENT, to vote for reactor startup. OTOH, maybe they’re afraid to vote against Conservatives, because then they run risk of facing electorate and having to actually formulate policy instead of their devoid of substance emotionalism and fearmongering.
Yes, Iberia is an idiot (oops, don’t have a link to back up my opinion, oh my!). Nothing new here folks.
nomdeblog,
I agree that it’s time to privatize AECL (past time actually) but are you seriously suggesting that the CNSC be privatized too? Hell, if that’s the way you feel, how about privatizing the Transportation Safety Board? Or the RCMP? For that matter, since no official entity in this country is less efficient or more subject to small-time corruption than Parliament itself, why not go whole hog and privatize that too?
AECL workers went on strike in 1997 and 1998–on each occasion for six days–without causing any apparently serious impact on the health of Canadians. But last month it was a “crisis”. Either AECL manufactured this crisis, or the Conservatives did, take your pick.
I am a little tired of all the complaining about the MSM. it doesn’t get much more main stream than CTV and they are great to us. Bob Fife must have Sandra on speed dial– he always has all the “good” news first and knows just how to give it the push we deserve. Kudos to Bob and CTV!
Zog “but are you seriously suggesting that the CNSC be privatized too?”
No, we need government sponsored regulators. But (as with all Crown Corps) the regulator and AECL are both financed by the taxpayer. The fox and the chickens are all in the same hen house, indistinguishable; if there’s a problem, just shut it down, what’s a few more billion dollars down the drain? Everybody gets paid for incompetence anyway.
Having both the regulator and AECL under the same owner causes 2 problems.
1. A conflict of interest because they are both politically appointed. They are both reporting to the same owner .. .the government. This inevitably leads to “politics” in times of trouble or crises.
2. Because all are emplyoyed by taxpayers, there is insufficient incentive to perform, to produce, profitably. Also as noted above, government unions go on strike a lot.
Therefore by privatizing AECL we solve both 1 and 2.
That doesn’t guarantee there won’t be any more problems.
But it does mean that we will introduced a commercial aspect that behaves more rationally and for which there is commercial law , outside legal council and especially in this case; outside “shareholders auditors”.
Shareholders auditors would have been a blessing. Particularly, since we now know that this problem was swept under the rug by the Hon. DillyDally in 2002.That would have been disclosed in an Annual Report to shareholders in 2002 and accountability would have kicked in because investors would be putting pressure on the stock.
Just a thought here, but for $1,000,000, I would have a back up diesil powered generation system to power thier pumps. You would think that these high powered educated types would have thought of this. Merle Underwood
….The AECL Chair was Michael Burns, a Harper appointee….
Burns was appointed in 2006. Prior to Burns the AECL Chair, who was on the board at the time AECL had apparently reported the work to the reactor had been completed in 2005 had been appointed and reappointed by the Liberal government.
And neither of these guys were the CEO/President of the company responsible for the day-to-day operations of running AECL.
“…Moreover, MDS, the company that makes medical isoptopes was concerned that it would lose customers to US suppliers…”
The issues surrounding the problems with the late construction of these reactors has been going on for years. If anyone knows AECL’s track record in delivery of services or products it would be MDS. That’s why AECL now owns the reactor instead of MDS. I doubt that this is the first time they’ve been concerned about losing market share to foreign competition.
…Either AECL manufactured this crisis, or the Conservatives did, take your pick…
I would pick AECL.
They want and need government handouts.
And they want to get rid of the head of the CNSC, because she doesn’t have a PHD…she’s a woman…and she’s not an-inner-circle-nuclear- appointee.