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Nuclear has a future in Ontario: energy minister

Despite its reputation, Thibeault says nuclear power is safe and cheap
nuclear-waste
Nuclear energy has a bright future, says Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault. More than half of Ontario's daily supply comes from nuclear power, and much of the world relies on the province to power their nuclear medicine facilities. (File)

More than half of Ontario's daily energy supply comes from nuclear power, says Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault, and much of the world relies on the province to power their nuclear medicine facilities.

"We are not only a national leader, but an international leader when it comes to nuclear power,” Thibeault said, in a year-end interview with sudbury.com. “We need to shine a light on ourselves.”

While many countries are dropping nuclear and going back to coal power, he said that's a step backwards.

"When you go to coal, you're creating more greenhouse gases, which is worse,” Thibeault said “Yes, we have to deal with (radioactive) waste, but look at what the science is telling us. There are ways this can be dealt with appropriately and at very low, low risk."

While high-profile disasters like the Three Mile Island in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986 and, more recently, the Fukushima Nuclear accident in Japan in 2012, nuclear power has taken a beating in the minds of the public. But the industry in Ontario has a clean record, and Canada is respected across the word in the field of nuclear power safety.

And there are big economic benefits, Thibeault said.

"We need to deal with the fear people have about that, and rightfully so,” he said. “But just with the Darlington (Nuclear Plant) refurbishment, we're creating 14,000 jobs a year and, according to the Conference Board of Canada, we're going to create a $90 billion increase to our GDP over the during of this contract. And it's keeping our electricity costs low."

Since 2003, the province has eliminated coal power and greatly increased the supply from clean energy like solar, water and wind. Any anyone who gets an MRI at health Sciences North has Ontario's nuclear industry to thank. 

"The one thing we overlook every time we go to HSN, is you go to nuclear medicine for your CAT scan and for your PET scan, soon, and your MRI," he said.

"Seventy per cent of the world's Cobalt-60 -- which is used in a lot of these types of treatments or in cancer treatment -- comes from Ontario's nuclear power.

"We need to look at what we have, and harness that and help it grow. When you look at the needs of the world, in terms of addressing energy issues, nuclear is one that's going to continue to play a significant role. Water, wind and sun (power) are always going to be around. But they don't provide a lot of the base power that nuclear can."

More broadly speaking, Thibeault says he's honoured that Premier Kathleen Wynne chose him to handle the controversial energy portfolio.

“It is one of the most important portfolios there is in government," he said. "Besides the political hot potato that is (energy) rates, you need to ensure you have power. If you're interested in the environment, it's important. If you're interested in health care. 

“Why health care with energy? Well, we no longer have coal, I've talked about that. It's saving $4.3 billion a year on our air pollution hospitalizations and our deaths. It's finance, it's all of them mixed together.”

His ministry has had some high-profile disagreements with Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk. One that grabbed headlines was her report that the Fair Hydro Plan was structured in a way to allow the province to hide $4 billion in costs by creating something called the OPG Trust.

That move allowed the province to claim it was balancing the books, Lysyk wrote, and appears to be the primary reason why the plan was structured that way.
Thibeault dismisses the disagreement as an accounting dispute.

"From our understanding, KPMG, Deloitte, PWC, all of them agree with what we're doing because it was with them that we were working on developing this," he said. "So the auditor and the treasury board don't see eye-to-eye on the accounting practice. It isn't anything other than an accounting practice piece that's there's disagreement on. Not that I'm minimizing that, but it's two different accountants saying it should be done differently.

"Ninety-five per cent of the issues that the auditor general has with the government are resolved and acted upon. And then, of course, there are a few that come out that are made high profile because we don't see eye-to-eye."

More recently, Lysyk slammed the ministry for lax oversight, allowing electricity companies in the province to charge $300 million for a range of ineligible costs, including “staff car washes, carpet cleaning, road repairs, landscaping and raccoon traps, which have nothing to do with running power equipment on standby.” 

There's no dispute there, Thibeault said, and steps have been taken to address the issues.

"While those were absolutely inaccurate claims that were deemed ineligible that never should have happened, two-thirds of all that money has been reclaimed,” he said. "We've changed the system to make sure that things like that will never happen again. We're acting on some of the recommendations of the auditor general to make sure that we fix those things."

"In a nutshell, we constantly work with the auditor general and take their recommendations appropriately and act on them to ensure that we can find ways to do better. There will always be disagreements. When those disagreements happen, we need to be respectful, which I believe we are, but then also put our point out there and the auditor can put her point out there."

While it's no ministry of money, as Northern Development and Mines is sometimes called, Thibeault said he's been able to “find a way to keep my sanity.

"We have dropped rates in the city by 25 per cent on average. Yeah, we had to stretch it out over a long period of time. But really, at the end of the day, this was the right thing to do."


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