COBDEN — Renfrew County Warden Peter Emon spoke to Whtiewater Region Township council about the restructuring of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) and what the county wants to see occur.
In a presentation to council at its meeting last week, Mr. Emon said the restructuring is now in its second phase of the process, which saw the sale of the CANDU power reactor division of AECL to a private operator and the creation of Canada Energy Inc.
Looking at the history of AECL, he noted it’s about 60 years old and it is now moving from government owned to a GoCo model (Government-owned, Contractor-operated), he said. The rationale for this is there has been movement for the government to become less involved in nuclear installations, he noted.
While it may seem strange he is talking about AECL, which is located in Chalk River, to council, Mr. Emon pointed out that many people in Whitewater Region Township work at AECL. He showed council a map that shows how many people throughout Renfrew County work at AECl. In Whitewater Region Township, there are a little more than 100 people employed at AECL. As well, there are also between 2,500 to 3,000 AECL retirees throughout the county, he added.
Mr. Emon reviewed a few facts about AECL, pointing out, “It has made a pretty significant footprint for Canada over the last 60 years.”
The future value of AECL will enable Canadian companies to increase their market competitiveness through applying science, technology and innovation to their products and services to make them more valuable, innovative and competitive, he said.
“Nuclear technology is not just applied in the nuclear energy sector in power plant reactors,” Mr. Emon said. “It aso plays a critical role in scientific research, diagnostic medicine, cancer treatment, materials research, space exploration and sterilization of health products for health care and personal use.”
The County of Renfrew recognizes the importance of AECL, and wanted to ensure it had a say in what it can possibly do for the future, he said. A delegation of himself, Deep River Mayor David Thompson, Laurentian Valley Councillor George Hodgkinson, Pembroke Mayor Ed Jacyno, as well as Paul Curtis of the Renfrew County Community Futures Development Corp and Alastair Baird, manager of economic development for the county, visited several nuclear industry host communities in the US. They met with representatives of companies engaged in nuclear operations and management; science and technology, environmental monitoring and remediation and manufacturing. They also focused on meetings with community leaders and learned about the municipal and community initiatives which were developed in response to contractors taking over management of various government owned nuclear facilities.
“It was four days of 12-to-14 hour days,” Mr. Emon said.
After returning, the delegation put together nine recommendations based on the unique situation in Renfrew County with AECL to the federal government for inclusion in the request for proposal for the AECL restructuring contract, he said.
Ending the presentation, Mr. Emon asked council if it would pass a motion asking the federal government to support the nine requests.
Mayor Jim Labow said, “Thank you very much for your presentation. It was very interesting.”
Councillor Joey Trimm said he had heard that McMaster University was going to be involved in development or manufacture of medical isotopes.
Mr. Emon said the university has had its own reactor on campus, probably for about 20 years. He believes the four consortiums that are vying for the AECL contract have approached various universities across the country to become partners in some way.
Reeve Don Rathwell said it’s important to keep the pressure on. When he was warden a few years ago, the Eastern Wardens Caucus made a presentation to both federal and provincial ministries regarding this issue
“We met with Mr. Baird (John) and I made a presentation on behalf of the Eastern Wardens Caucus, and they were all there supporting us,” he said. “At that time, there was no indication or a reply back of the future intentions.”
When he made the presentation to the provincial government, there were seven cabinet ministers in attendance, as well as the CAO, and they didn’t seem to be interested, he said. The presentation also included how important AECL is to the province, but there was still no interest, he added.
“What the warden is indicating here, is the pressure has to be kept on so I think anything we can do we should do,” Reeve Rathwell said. “I thank the warden for taking the leadership on this the past couple of years because we would not want to lose this to Saskatchewan or Quebec.”
Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MP Cheryl Gallant has been helpful, Mr. Emon said.
“She has a very difficult role,” he said. “She has taken some criticism, but the issue for her is that she has been instructed by the government not to become actively involved in the process and appear to make it a political thing.”
Ms. Gallant has received the information from the County delegation and has acted as a conduit to various levels of government, he said.
“She’s done what she can within the handcuffing that she’s received from the Prime Minister’s office,” he said. “I can’t say with all certainty that other members of the caucus have been equally as adept as following the rules, but we’ll just leave it at that.”
The motion that Whitewater Township council supports the nine requests made to the federal government regarding the restructuring of AECL as well as recognizing the importance of nuclear industry to Renfrew County was passed unanimously.
