Cultural Ottawa?

I received an invite to a three-day symposium being held here in Ottawa beginning April 28, 2008. The Arts and Cultural symposium is being put on by Simon Fraser University in conjunction with the City of Ottawa. From the brochure:

"The international symposium includes keynote speakers, presentations, lectures, and various styles of workshops to examine the role and importance of cultural infrastructure in furthering culture and creativity in cities and communities. "

What I find unsettling is that of the invited speakers there are almost no arts or cultural folks representing Ottawa venues, like Arts Court or the Byward Market. There are speakers from Toronto's Artscape, Nova Scotia's Mermaid Theatre, a bunch from the US and Europe and other parts of Canada. The closest Ottawan, outside of federal political hacks and one city environmental sustainability rep, is the Manager of Manotick Mill Development Corporation.

What's wrong with this picture?

The Nuclear Conundrum

A conundrum is defined as "an intricate and difficult problem". Such is the case with the recent series of Canadian Political Bloopers tied to AECL, CNSC, Canada's Greatest Government (copyright PM Harper) and MDS Nordion.

The Atomic Energy Commission (AECL) is a crown corporation who designs and builds nuclear reactors for distribution around the world. They also do research into reactor technology and maintains a couple of their own reactors in Chalk River, Ontario. CNSC is the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, whose job it is to oversee AECL and to safeguard Canadians from nuclear accidents. Canada's Greatest Government (CGG) is... well, you know who they are.

MDS Nordion used to be part of AECL until it was sold off in 1991 (Mulroney era) to Medical Data Science, an Ontario based private company. Nordion buys radioactive isotopes from AECL, refines and packages them for sale (used in mostly diagnostic imaging and some treatment) across the world. About 93% of shipments are exports from Canada, according to Nordion.

OK, now that we know the major players, let's begin the tale.

AECL has a contract to deliver isotopes to Nordion. At this time, AECL uses a 50 year old reactor called the NRU for this job. This is the only job assigned to the NRU. Problem is that the NRU has some problems, including: in case of earthquake or terrorist attack, the NRU's cooling waters could leak out and set off a chain reaction that could wipe out multiple square miles of land and people, al la Chernobyl. Well, why not fix the reactor, you ask? Enter the CNSC.

The CNSC has been trying to get AECL to fix the problems for a couple of years but AECL keeps putting it off. In November of this year, AECL shuts down the reactor for some maintenance (not including the CNSC-required fixes) and CNSC jumps on the time frame and demands that AECL implement the fixes or they will not be re-licenced (another role of the CNSC) to bring the reactor back on line. In steps MDS Nordion.

With the reactor down, the supply of isotope flowing to Nordion begins to dwindle. Some of these isotopes have shelf lives of only days. MDS Nordion, and its customers, is crying that people are dying world wide because procedures and treatment are being delayed and cancelled due the shortages. In steps CGG.

"Safety be damned," bellows the government. "The CNSC are just a bunch of Liberal hacks, anyway," they continue to bray. "Get the reactor back on line and get those isotopes flowing!"

Yippee! The government, whose benches must be filled with nuclear scientists, as well as multiple space cadets, has come to the rescue of the downtrodden and the dying! All hail the CGG!

But hang on a bit... there seems a little bit more to this than meets the press. Seems that the problem is not the NRU or the CNSC, the problem is more to do with Nordion and AECL.

When MDS bought Nordion from AECL, the Mulroney government decided that, to sweeten the deal, two new reactors were to be built by AECL, to replace the ageing NRU. As part of the deal, the new reactors would be owned by Nordion! As well, AECL would look after (store, really) the waste products of the isotope production. AECL embarked on a plan to build the two new reactors called Maple for Nordion. Long story short - the Maples don't produce sap... they do not work. AECL has designed a reactor that is inherently unsafe and, having recognized that, Nordion sued the government, received $10 million in compensation and AECL had to take over ownership of the Maples.

So let's get this straight. AECL decides that they do not need to perform the safety upgrades to its NRU reactor in order to comply with the licence they have from the CNSC, the commission whose job it is to ensure that nuclear safety is job #1 at AECL. AECL are using the 50 year old NRU to deliver on their contract because the replacement reactors they designed do not work. Nordion and their customers complain when the reactor remains off line, with a campaign of "shock and ouch"! (It is never mentioned that a major complaint by Nordion is that their fourth quarter profit is taking a hit.) CGG steps up to the table and declares that they know better than the CNSC and the Liberal hacks that run it. (No mention is made of the fact that the head of the CNSC claims that she has no political affiliation and that before heading CNSC she has an illustrious career in the public service.) The NRU must come on line without its upgrades and start producing money making... oops, I mean, life saving isotopes for MDS Nordion.

Wow, that CGG! What a bunch of take-charge people. They put those stupid CNSC people in their place and then...

They fired the head of AECL.

I have a bone to pick with "Eye on Ottawa"

After the last municipal election a group was formed to be a "watchdog" on the current Ottawa city council. I offered to join the team but was rebuffed because, as I was not a candidate in the election, I am a nobody. It is kind of interesting that when the team formed in 2006, there were a whole host of names of defeated candidates. Here we are in 2007, one year later, and the membership is one. Luc Lapointe was defeated in the downtown Somerset Ward (14), which is the 25 year (and counting) fiefdom of Diane Holmes.

I am less annoyed that I was not good enough for the "Eye on Ottawa"; I am more annoyed at all those former candidates that dropped away from the organization. If you are going to be a candidate for a council seat you had better be more than "just a candidate". You had better be dedicated enough to stick around, after your election loss, to act as a critic.

None of the original members of "Eye on Ottawa" who have since dropped out had better put their names forward at the next election. They have not earned the right.

But with all this said, that is NOT the bone I have to pick with the "Eye on Ottawa".

The "Eye", in its latest news release (December 13, 2008), slams the Ottawa Mayor for not delivering on his "Zero means Zero" election promise. Our "all wise" city council, not giving two hoots about fiscal discipline, is about to deliver a 4.9% property tax increase, plus a 2% surcharge for infrastructure maintenance, plus a 7.5% increase in bus fairs, abd including a 9% police budget increase... and they are not yet finished the process.

If the council had listened to Mayor Larry, and I do admit that Larry's message was not very succinct, they would have taken some firm stances on items such as the police budget and city staffing levels and forced some of the costs out of the system to save taxes. Could they have gotten to zero? Bloody right they could have!

The "Eye on Ottawa", and it appears that there is only one "eye", should be slamming councillors and backing the mayor rather than the other way around.

Larry's been charged

Mayor Larry O'Brien has been charged with two criminal counts with respect to the Kilrea misunderstanding. Should he step aside as mayor until this case winds its way through the courts?

According to the voice of raisins (correct spelling), Michael Harris at CFRA, he should resign. On his program this afternoon, Harris, cited case histories from Lower Podunk and East-Central Mongolia, to support his assertion that Larry is guilty until he is proved innocent.

I disagree, as usual. What Larry does is entirely up to Larry and only Larry.

While on the Larry subject, does anyone else notice the number of Cons being mentioned in this investigation.

John "the screamer" Baird's lunch habits are up for examination. He was apparently having lunch with a constituent at Hy's when he was seen in the presence of Mayor Larry. How come we can't know the identity of the constituent? And who paid for lunch?

Pierre Poilievre's communication guy's name has been raised as someone who might know something in the case.

Now it appears that Lisa McLeod, the mighty Con MPP, may be an accessory after the fact in this affair. According to the Ottawa Citizen, she knew about a $20 or 30,000 offer to Kilrea by Mayor Larry, but forgot to mention it.

I wonder if the Ottawa Citizen has calculated how many extra newspapers have been purchased since they broke this fetid story?