The Written Word
for July 26, 2000

When will the sad tale of Atomic Energy Canada, now disguising itself under the nom-de-plume AECL, finally come to an end? Since its inception in 1947 it has cost Canadian taxpayers billions of dollars in subsidies and is a classic example of how once a government starts something up that has not only taxpayer but lots of political capital invested, it simply cannot let go.

After the war there was much hope for nuclear power. There was, we were told, enough energy in a bus ticket to light an entire city. Because Nuclear energy was clean, we were told, and environmentally unintrusive, why it meant the end of fossil fired energy plants and probably the end of hydro electric schemes as well.

We now have but two nuclear power plants in Canada, in Ontario, and they are being phased out. AECL must sell abroad if it is to sell anywhere.

With that in mind, Canada sold aggressively in such bastions of democracy and peaceful intentions as Pakistan, India, China and Romania. To the concerns that this was selling nuclear weapons technology as well, AECL comfortingly told us that they had received promises in writing, cross my heart and hope to die promises, that this would never happen.

The business has been a money loser from the outset. Turkey just turned down an offer to supply from AECL after AECL had spent several millions on the sales pitch. They simply cannot afford what was supposed to be dirt cheap technology which would get even cheaper as time passed.

Over the years Canada has made an ass of itself. It stockpiled so much aluminum by the 1980s, anticipating a huge world-wide demand for it, that when in the early 80s the United States ceased buying from Canada, the Canadian government, led by now Senator Jack Austin, entered an illegal combine to fix the world price. We even had the ridiculous spectacle of then Governor-General Ed Schreyer personally peddling Candu to then then cruel communist dictatorship of Ceaucescu in Romania.

So we’ve lost Turkey as a customer and now are concentrating our efforts on North Korea, another one of those nice countries that would never use that technology for military purposes. In fact it doesn’t need to because it already has it from China thanks to Canada selling Candu to that country.

For some reason this enormous boondoggle has never been the scandal it should be. That’s no doubt because Brian Mulroney in 1984 decided not to look into Liberal shenanigans for fear that when his time came, the Liberals would look into his.

It’s a national disgrace but happily, like the family that hides drunken Uncle Charlie in the closet, we’ve been able to keep it under wraps. And life goes on as the federal government keeps pouring $100 million a year into the company that can’t even sell dirty power to dirty people.