Secret federal documents reveal full AECL funding - CTV.ca

[Yrys]

Secret federal documents reveal full AECL funding

(binder no 008)

Graham Richardson, CTV News

Sensitive government documents left behind at a CTV News bureau reveal Ottawa has poured far more
money into the aging Chalk River nuclear reactor than the public has been told. The binder of documents
was left nearly a week ago at CTV's Ottawa bureau by either Minister of Natural Resources Lisa Raitt or
one of her aides. Some of the papers are clearly marked "secret."

Ontario's Chalk River reactor supplies at least one third of the world's medical isotopes, which are used
in diagnostic tests for some forms of cancer. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. shut down the reactor last
month because of a heavy water leak.

In documents headlined "Background for discussion with chair of Atomic Energy Canada," the government
lists funding for the Crown corporation at $351 million for 2009-2010. That figure was in the January
budget. However, it also lists $72 million to "maintain the option of isotope production." The public 2009
budget does not specifically mention funding for isotopes.

The documents also include a hand-written note that lists total funding for Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd.
since 2006 at $1.7 billion, and then a talking-point memo to characterize the spending as "cleaning up a
Liberal mess." The Conservative government plans to privatize AECL's nuclear reactor division in order to
boost sales of its CANDU reactors, as Ontario weighs whether to buy two new power plants.

Publicly, Ottawa has downplayed Ontario's interest in the sale of AECL's Candu division. But included in the
binder is background information for a May 25 meeting with Glenna Carr, who chairs the board of directors
for AECL: "The government continues to support AECL's bid in Ontario, but the announcement will probably
raise questions about this support. We will have to manage this very carefully."

Other documents highlight cost increases for AECL that have not been made public. In one document
headlined "Discussion with CEO Hugh MacDiarmid, CEO of Atomic Energy Canada," it lists $100 million
in supplementary funding to keep it solvent. That figure includes cost increases to refurbishing Ontario's
Bruce Power reactors and cost-overruns at Candu reactors around the world, according to the documents.

And in papers headlined "Minister Raitt's Discussion with Ontario Minister of Energy George Smitherman,"
it appears that AECL is far behind schedule on refurbishing two of the Bruce reactors: "Bruce 1 reactor
324 days late," and "Bruce 2 reactor 433 days late."



Patients starting to feel effects of isotope shortage, May. 26 2009
AECL rival offers help in Chalk River shutdown, May. 26 2009
Ottawa plans changes at Atomic Energy Canada Ltd., May. 27 2009
Feds announce major shakeup of nuclear agency, May. 28 2009

 

[Yrys]

Feds pick up AECL documents left behind at CTV

Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife hands
the documents labelled 'secret' that were
left at CTV's bureau in Ottawa to a
government representative.

A federal government employee picked up sensitive government documents Wednesday, which were left
behind at CTV News' Ottawa bureau for nearly a week.

The documents reveal Ottawa has poured far more money into the aging Chalk River nuclear reactor than
the public has been told.The binder of documents was left at CTV's Ottawa bureau by either Minister of
Natural Resources Lisa Raitt or one of her aides. "They've been here in the bureau for six days and we
hadn't heard from Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt or her office looking for them," CTV's Graham
Richardson reported Wednesday from Ottawa. Some of the papers are clearly marked "secret."

Last May, former foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier resigned after acknowledging he had left behind
classified government documents at the home of his former girlfriend Julie Couillard. "At that time the
prime minister made a point that Mr. Bernier had to leave Cabinet specifically because of the documents,"
Richardson said. Richardson said the documents left at CTV were marked secret and were numbered.

"If they weren't noticed missing, why is that? And if they knew they were missing why didn't they call
around?" Richardson questioned. "Did they not call around because they didn't want to alert the media
that they had lost some documents? Did they not know where they'd lost them?"

Details of the documents

Ontario's Chalk River reactor supplies at least one-third of the world's medical isotopes, which are used in
diagnostic tests for some forms of cancer. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. shut down the reactor last month
because of a heavy water leak.
...

The Conservative government plans to privatize AECL's nuclear reactor division in order to boost sales of
its CANDU reactors, as Ontario weighs whether to buy two new power plants.

Publicly, Ottawa has downplayed Ontario's interest in the sale of AECL's Candu division. But included in the
binder is background information for a May 25 meeting with Glenna Carr, who chairs the board of directors
for AECL: "The government continues to support AECL's bid in Ontario, but the announcement will probably
raise questions about this support. We will have to manage this very carefully."
...

 

[Yrys]

Secret papers left at news office, Globe & Mail

Gloria Galloway,
Ottawa — Globe and Mail Update, Wednesday, Jun. 03, 2009 08:37AM EDT

The federal cabinet minister responsible for finding a replacement supply of medical isotopes
after the shutdown of the Chalk River reactor will have to explain why secret documents about
the nuclear industry were left at a national television bureau.

CTV reported last night that Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt or a member of her staff left
a binder of sensitive material about the troubled nuclear industry with many pages marked
“secret” at the network's offices in downtown Ottawa. The binder was left almost a week ago,
the network said, but no one has called to look for it.

According to the CTV report, the document reveals much about the money that has been pumped
into the Chalk River and into Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the Crown corporation that owns it.
...

But Ms. Raitt will now have more than the reactor problem on her hands.

The mishandling of secret documents has already led to the resignation of one Conservative cabinet
minister. Maxime Bernier was forced to quit as Foreign Affairs Minister a year ago after admitting
he left top secret documents at the home of his girlfriend Julie Couillard, a woman with ties to the
Hells Angels.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will likely not be pleased that documents were left with reporters.
Calls to his spokesman were not returned last night. Nor did Ms. Raitt's communications director
return calls.
...

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff demanded to know yesterday why the government had not come up
with a plan for an alternate supply in the intervening months. “By week's end Ontario's isotope supply
may shrink to 10 per cent of need. There are isotope shortages in British Columbia and Saskatchewan,”
Mr. Ignatieff said. “The government has known about this problem since November 2007. The question
is, why does the government pretend they have a plan when they do not have any isotopes?”

Mr. Harper, who has large stayed out of the debate during the current shutdown said the current emergency
was unexpected. “That said, our government and the company has been working with isotope suppliers
around the world to attempt to manage this situation. Of course we are also in communication with the
medical community on how best to address this,” he told the House.

“The fact of the matter is the reactor had to be shut down for safety reasons, and those safety reasons must
be paramount.”

 

[Yrys]

Raitt won't resign but aide stepping down

(misleading title when compare to article)

Minister of Natural Resources Lisa Raitt will not lose her job but the prime minister's office says
one of her staff has resigned after leaving behind sensitive government documents at CTV News'
Ottawa bureau.

The documents were left behind for nearly a week without any inquiry from Raitt's office. Raitt
told the House of Commons during question period that she offered her resignation Prime Minister
Stephen Harper Wednesday. "Certain procedures were not followed in this case. Corrective action
has been taken. I offered to resign if the prime minister felt it necessary. He did not accept it,"
she said.

"The procedures in place were clearly not followed. Corrective action has been taken. And I have
accepted the resignation of the individual who is responsible for the documents." The staffer is
Jasmine MacDonnell, 26, Raitt's director of communications. "I offered my resignation," she said
Wednesday, as she left the prime minister's offices on Parliament Hill. MacDonnell also served as
press secretary to former natural resources minister Gary Lunn.

The opposition parties demanded that Raitt resign and said that she is ultimately responsible for
mistakes made within her department. "The issue here is an issue of competence and not just
competence in relation to this minister but competence in relation to the whole government,"
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said. "Canadians want competence in their government, when
are they going to get it?"

Last May, Maxime Bernier resigned from his post as foreign affairs minister after acknowledging
he had left behind classified government documents at the home of his former girlfriend Julie
Couillard. "Ministers are always responsible for the protection of classified documents," Harper
said in the House of Commons on June 2, 2008. "The minister admitted that he failed to protect
classified documents. That is why he offered his resignation and why I accepted it."

NDP MP Thomas Mulcair said the prime minister is not following his own rules in the case of Raitt.
"The rules say that she is the one responsible, not some underling. How is that acceptable?" he
asked during question period. "It's unacceptable. She should resign and leave immediately."

On Wednesday, a federal government employee picked up the documents after CTV reported Tuesday
night that they had been left behind for six days. The documents reveal Ottawa has poured far more
money into the aging Chalk River nuclear reactor than the public has been told.

 

[54/102 CEF]

Why is it a news agency can blab anyting they lay their hands on?

 

[Yrys]

I presume they would argue "freedom of the press" and
the "right of the people to know". In this case, they didn't
have to try hard to "get theirs hand on it". It was leave in
their office !

 

[40below]

Why is it a news agency can blab anyting they lay their hands on?

Because Canada does not have a system of censorship?

 

[54/102 CEF]

A small story

A number of years ago during the winter I was watching the lunch time crowd go across to a sandwhich joint.

As the light changes I see a guy drop a red "Secret" folder in the snow.

I ran down to grab it - many people having walked around it and to my surpise see its construction plans for renovations in one of our Embassies.

So I call the parent department and am told to bring it to an office in the building the next day.

Said office was behind a security barrier so I had the commissionaire call inside for someone to come and get the file

Someone did - I asked this $hitbird if he wanted any details from me - and he said - no thats OK.

 

[Rifleman62]

Another case of CTV manufacturing the news. (CTV or any other member of the media for that matter.) Would it not have been ethical to get a hold of the Minister's office immediately the file was discovered??? No, wait for a week to see if the Minister's office contacted the CTV studio and asked "Did you see a file that might have been left in your studio?" And Robert Fife getting himself into the story. At least CTV did not phone their friends in the LPC to announce they had the file.

Puke.

 

[retiredgrunt45]

Just a tad bit of sloppiness on the governments part and to blame it on the aid, well that's just weak.

What happened to "taking responsibility for ones department" that means everyone who works under you. These people need some work ethic and character training.

This is just one more example that todays politicians would throw their mother under a truck to save their own selfish skins.

Makes me sick.

As for CTV, good on them, I applaud them for making an example of sloppy self serving politicians.

 

[Retired AF Guy]

Just a tad bit of sloppiness on the governments part and to blame it on the aid, well that's just weak.

Actually, no its not. I spent five years in DGINT/NDHQ and was present at several meetings/briefings that involved senior staff/bureaucrats and I can say that the only thing they carried were their own briefcase. Any briefing material was carried by their staff whose responsibilities is to hand out any material and to retrieve the material afterwards. the same principle applies here, the aide is responsible for the handling of the binder. She (or another flunky) left it behind and forgot about it and has paid the price. In fact, there are pictures of Raitt leaving a meetings with the aide following behind carrying, which I assume, is a briefing binder (see link below).

What happened to "taking responsibility for ones department" that means everyone who works under you. These people need some work ethic and character training.

Raitt offered to resign and the PM said no.

This is just one more example that todays politicians would throw their mother under a truck to save their own selfish skins.

Won't get any argument from me: it just doesn't apply in this case.

As for CTV, good on them, I applaud them for making an example of sloppy self serving politicians.

Actually, what CTV did was irresponsible and possibly criminal. When they realized what they had they should have contacted Raitt's office and returned the documents ASAP!  They didn't. Instead they hung unto the binder for a full week. A binder which contained secret information. Here is the Canadian defination of Secret information:

"Secret. This applies when compromise might reasonably cause serious injury to the national interest." (My emphasis.)

In other words CTV was in possession of classified documents that could affect Canadian security interests (assuming of course that the media reports about secret documents are actually true). Apparently, CTV's handling of the documents  leave something to be desired. Not that it mattered since they went and publicized the information.

Which is not to say that Raitt's office should get off scot free. Obviously someone screwed-up. First off, why were classified documents taken to a conference with people uncleared to see the documents? That's a no-no. Secondly, why did no one notice that the binder was missing? Especially if it contains classified information; shades of the Bernier affaire. Again, someone was not doing their job.

My take. Normally, a binder (file, package, etc) containing a mix of classified/unclassified documents, is classified according to the highest classification contained; in this case Secret. Apparently this did not happen: a serious security breach resulting in the present kerfuffle. To me how this happened is the question that people should be asking.

A final observation: The fact that Fife and CTV held unto these documents for a full week when they knew they were classified could result in them being charged under the Section 4.(4)(a.) of the Security Information Act . A possibly big price to pay for scoring some cheap political points.

 

[Rifleman62]

CTV will never be charged for all the obvious reasons. CTV/CBC/NBC = no credability.

 

[dapaterson]

Actually, what CTV did was irresponsible and possibly criminal. When they realized what they had they should have contacted Raitt's office and returned the documents ASAP!  They didn't. Instead they hung unto the binder for a full week. A binder which contained secret information. Here is the Canadian defination of Secret information:

"Secret. This applies when compromise might reasonably cause serious injury to the national interest." (My emphasis.)

Given the contents of the documents that have been released, I question whether they should ahve been classified at all.  Perhaps designated, but not classified.  "Embarassment to the government" does not constitute "serious injury".

To my mind, we've lost the bubble on security; classifying and designating items that do not need it leads to a culture of disdain for designations and classifications.  Get back to more robust use of them, and more robust enforcement (including holding the Minister accountable for the actions of their staff).

 

[Retired AF Guy]

Given the contents of the documents that have been released, I question whether they should ahve been classified at all.  Perhaps designated, but not classified.  "Embarassment to the government" does not constitute "serious injury".

To my mind, we've lost the bubble on security; classifying and designating items that do not need it leads to a culture of disdain for designations and classifications.  Get back to more robust use of them, and more robust enforcement (including holding the Minister accountable for the actions of their staff).

Appears that you are right. According to various news reports the "secret" information wasn't all that secret. Politically embarrassing yes, but hardly a threat to national security.  You're also right about the over-classification of information. Sometimes its done so that politicians/bureaucrats don't have to release politically sensitive information to the public.  Other times its so people can look important because they have a "secret."  The result is a bunch of information that has to be properly stored and handled which creates extra work for the people responsible for security.