RNNR Committee Report

SUPPLEMENTARY OPINION OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF CANADA

The Conservative members on the Standing Committee of Natural Resources are pleased to submit supplementary opinions to the report “The National Research Universal Reactor Shutdown and the Future of Medical Isotope Production in Canada”.  The supplementary opinions are submitted in order to highlight areas where the Conservative members believe the report’s recommendations have erred.

The Government of Canada recognizes that Canadians want a secure and reliable supply of medical isotopes.  During the temporary shutdown of the NRU and the consequential shortage of medical isotopes it took significant measures to respond.

The Conservative members of the Committee do not support the report’s recommendation # 16 that states that ‘the provinces and territories are given compensation for the increased costs and additional management costs of technetium-99m incurred by health authorities as a result of the shortage of medical isotopes’.  The supply system for medical isotopes is complex and cuts across public and private sectors, as well as federal, provincial and international jurisdictions.  The hard work and resourcefulness of Canadian health care providers and the provinces and territories was key to the successful management of supply disruptions. They rose to this challenge impressively using mitigation strategies and contingency plans, such as maximizing available supply and the use of alternative medical isotopes and imaging modalities throughout the duration of the reactor shutdown to provide needed health services to Canadians.  The government is investing considerable resources to secure Canada's supply of medical isotopes, including the investments in returning the NRU to service and new funding of $48 million through Budget 2010 to support research, development and appropriate use of isotopes.  It is important to note that the contractual relationship for isotope supply is between the provinces and the various vendors as opposed to a direct supply relationship with AECL.  However, even through the global economic crisis, the government has increased health transfers to the provinces and territories, including an all time high of $25.4 billion this year and will keep increasing this by 6% annually to 2014.

In addition the Conservative members of the Committee do not support the report’s recommendation #17 which asks the Government to ‘issue a public statement to clarify whether or not it intends to get out of the supply side of isotopes production’, nor does it support recommendation #18 that calls for a ‘public statement and table a detailed exit strategy that includes its plans to keep the NRU reactor operating until 2016.’  The government favours a new paradigm in which Canadians benefit from Canadian-based isotope production, supplemented if necessary from the world market.  The government is relicensing the NRU till 2011 and investments are being made to relicense it till 2016.  The government has already stated that it does not intend to have the NRU produce isotopes beyond 2016.  The Government, in Budget 2010, invested $48 million over two years to support the research, development and application of medical isotopes.  The development of non-federal supply options will serve Canadians beyond 2016. 

The Government of Canada will continue to make the health and safety of Canadians its top priority.