1. CLEANING UP AFTER AECL
While ordinary citizens are asked to accept cuts in social spending, Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. (AECL), the money-losing Crown corporation, will require a $200 million to $300 million bailout from the federal treasury for the cleanup of potentially toxic hazards at old nuclear facilities.AECL was sharply criticized by Auditor General Denis Desautels following publication of the corporation's 1993-94 annual report because AECL's financial statements did not properly account for the cost of cleaning up its decommissioned nuclear plants.
He stressed that this oversight violates established accounting procedures which require companies to include foreseeable future expenses in their annual reports. This is the third time the Auditor General has chastised AECL management for distorting the organization's true financial picture.
Desautels insists that the corporation should immediately begin setting aside an annual fund for the cleanup of abandoned reactor sites, rather than receiving unconditional assistance from the federal govenment.
In a November press release entitled "Nuclear Nightmare in the Ottawa Valley," the Oshawa-based environmental organization "Nuclear Awareness Project" uses the 50-year-old Chalk River site to illustrate the hazards associated with radioactive contamination. It contends that toxic materials from this site are entering the nearby Ottawa River through surface and groundwater networks.
It also claims that "radioactive emissions from reactor operations are causing contamination of drinking water, precipitation, air and food." AECL has no clean-up plans in place at Chalk River.
AECL management acknowledges the need to address problems posed by aging atomic reactors, and that their cleanup will be extremely costly. However, it contends that uncertainty regarding the exact amount involved disallows the inclusion of these expenses in current annual reports.
The corporation's financial officers support this assertion by emphasizing that such liabilities have traditionally been covered by the federal treasury, and they expect this practice to continue.
AECL recorded a $155.5 million consolidated deficit for the 1993/94 fiscal year, a figure which does not include cleanup costs. Politicians from all levels of government have vigorously campaigned to convince Canadians that reducing the national debt is imperative to ensure continued economic stability.
Given the current political climate of economic restraint and deficit reduction, Canadian taxpayers may wonder why this clearly unprofitable Crown corporation merits such fiscal generosity from the federal government and why the potential "nuclear nightmare" at Chalk River is being resolutely ignored by the federal regulatory agency.
SOURCES
Author: Canadian Press
Title: 'Auditor general says cleanup likely to burn taxpayers,"
The Ottawa Citizen (also ran in Winnipeg Free Press, Montreal Gazette)
Date: 9 August 1994
. . . and
Author: Press release
Title: "Nuclear nightmare in the Ottawa Valley"
Nuclear Awareness Project
Box 2331
Oshawa ON L1H 7V6
Date: 2 Nov 1994
PCC researchers: Cindy Rozeboom, Karen Whale