CONSERVATIVE INCOMPETENCE PUTS LIVES AT RISK
The Harper Conservatives have bungled Canada’s supply of medical isotopes, not once, but twice in the last 18 months.
For 50 years, Canada was the world leader in manufacturing the isotopes used to diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease and other life threatening conditions.
Every day, 5,000 patients need this care across Canada – tens of thousands world-wide. Half of the world’s isotope supply has traditionally come from Canada’s nuclear plant at Chalk River.
But the Chalk River reactor is old and must be replaced. That process is not simple, quick or cheap. But with proper advance planning, which began more than a decade ago, previous Liberal governments were preparing a new isotope production facility to replace the old one and secure Canada’s global leadership.
When we left office in 2006, this process was well advanced. Technology challenges were being overcome under the watchful eye of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission which had licensed the new operation.
But under the Harper government there have been on-going failures.
The old reactor was shut down for safety reasons in 2007, suddenly disrupting world isotope supplies. Stephen Harper’s response? Fire the safety regulator as a scapegoat!
In 2008, he abruptly mothballed the whole idea of a new Canadian isotope production facility – abandoning the field to the United States. It was another bone-headed Conservative decision akin to Diefenbaker killing the Avro Arrow airplane.
This spring, the old reactor failed again. The Harper government had no contingency plan. Health care procedures around the world were again jeopardized.
And all his pathetic Minister of Natural Resources can do is lose her briefing book, say stupid things on tape about radioactive leaks and cancer being “sexy”, and try to pass the buck.
But the reality is this – the trouble happened on her Conservative watch and nobody else’s!
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