Madam Speaker, my friend for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan is a dear friend in this place, and I am glad to see him back. I am so glad to see we continue to disagree on just about everything.
The best thing ever said about nuclear power was said some time ago by a critic named Fred Knelman, who said that nuclear was “a future technology whose time has passed”.
We in the Green Party have broken down what it will take to get to 60% reductions in carbon dioxide by 2030 in this country. We do not propose shutting down existing reactors, to be clear, but a single new one makes no sense at all. They are very capital intensive. They cost a great deal, produce very few jobs and reduce very little carbon. On the other hand, solar, wind, district energy, geothermal, all of the other options are cheaper and more readily accessible.
I have one last thought for my friends on the Conservative benches. The sweetheart deal of all time, after all the subsidies to AECL, is that the nuclear facilities in the country are now owned and run by SNC-Lavalin. I am very dubious about going that route.