Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise to present e-petition 6636, which has been signed by about 2,500 Canadians. I will summarize it, but the presentation deals with a slightly complicated transaction, in which Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, a former Atomic Energy of Canada Limited subsidiary that is currently managed and controlled by what used to be called SNC-Lavalin, now AtkinsRéalis, has entered into a relationship with a consortium of U.S. firms.
The petitioners explain that these are called the Nuclear Laboratories Partners of Canada, but they are U.S. firms scheduled to receive the largest public contract in the history of Canada, at $24 billion over 20 years, proposing to manage the facilities of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories and ancillary assets.
The petitioners also point out how many billions and tens of billions of dollars have been directed to Canadian Nuclear Laboratories since SNC-Lavalin took over.
The petitioners call on the government to ask and instruct the Auditor General to conduct an independent, objective and systematic assessment of how well AECL is managing its activities and responsibilities and to prohibit the agencies or other parts of this consortium from entering into contracts with the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Partners of Canada or any other private body until an audit is complete and results are publicly available and discussed in Parliament. I cannot call them “Canadian” because they are from the U.S.