Mr. Peter Tabuns: My question is to the Premier. Why is the government of Ontario allowing Bruce Power to transport used nuclear steam generators which are former Ontario property, which are 50 to 60 times more radioactive than international standards, across the Great Lakes without any kind of environmental assessment?

Hon. Dalton McGuinty: To the Minister of Energy.

Hon. Brad Duguid: The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has indeed granted permission for Bruce to ship 16 decommissioned steam generators to Sweden for recycling. The member will know that this is a federal agency, and this is the responsibility that they’ve been charged with.

But I guess what I want to ask the member—I wrote to that commission to ensure that they’re taking the needs of Ontario into full consideration. Did he write to them? He may have, but I’ll ask him if he wrote to them to make sure the voice of Ontarians was heard. Or did his leader stand up and write to them? She may have. I don’t know. She may well have, and if she did, that’s good.

But we wanted to ensure that all safety and environmental concerns were being taken into consideration. I’ve been assured that they have. They’ve made their decision. They took deputations. They’re the experts on these matters, and I would suggest that the member might want to respect that a little bit.

Mr. Peter Tabuns: This is an astounding dereliction of duty. This is a minister who had the power to keep those radioactive steam generators in the hands of OPG. He didn’t do that. In the end, it’s on his hands, on his shoulders, on his head that this was allowed to go forward, and even now, not using the power of the Minister of Transportation to refuse transportation permits. The Minister of the Environment could demand an environmental assessment, not just the CNSC doing their little side show for this province.

The Quebec Minister of the Environment has publicly opposed the shipment. When will this government take on its responsibility, stop passing the buck to the feds and act?

Hon. Brad Duguid: Unlike those guys, we’re not all talk. I did write to the federal minister, and I did write to the CNSC to ensure that they’re taking all the needs of Ontario into consideration.

But, again, this is another anti-nuclear rant from the NDP. That party opposes nuclear, they oppose natural gas, they oppose renewables now, they oppose hydro, and they oppose our efforts in investing in conservation.

If they ever come out with an energy plan, I can tell you it’s going to have something very important that’s going to be lacking in it, and that will be power. In fact, I would suggest that the slogan for the NDP energy plan should be “NDP: no darn power.”