| BY EMAIL The Honourable Joe Oliver
Minister of Natural Resources
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Email: joe.oliver@parl.gc.ca October 12, 2011 Dear Minister Oliver: Re: Press Release, “Minister Oliver Announces New Chair and CEO of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited” We are writing to correct a serious error in a recent statement made via press release from your office. The October 7, 2011 release entitled, “Minister Oliver Announces New Chair and CEO of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited”, states: The Minister expressed his confidence in the contribution of this transaction to a vibrant Canadian nuclear industry that can meet the needs for non-emitting electrical power in Canadian and export markets [emphasis added]. This characterization of Canada’s nuclear industry is false. Nuclear power plants are not “non-emitting”. In 2010, Advertising Standards Canada formally decided that advertisements making this claim were inaccurate, unsupported, and misleading. ASC’s decision was based, in part, on documentation proving that CANDU reactors at nuclear plants such as the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station emit many different contaminants, including: 2-propenoic acid, ammonia, aromatic hydrocarbon resin, benzene, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrazine, morpholine, nitrogen oxides, phosphoric acid, quarterly ammonium compounds, sulphur dioxide, suspended particulate matter, total hydrocarbons, and tritium. Advertising Standards Canada posted a decision to its website declaring that the unqualified phrase “emission free” is inaccurate and unsupported. This extends to any statement indicating that nuclear plants are non-emitting or pollution-free. In its commentary, Advertising Standards Canada stated emphatically: “… it is misleading … for an advertiser to categorically promise one thing when, by its own admission, it can only deliver something that is significantly less”. We respectfully request that a correction be made on the Ministry’s website and that the Ministry refrain from referring to nuclear power as “non-emitting” or “emissions-free” in the future. Please contact Joanna Bull, Counsel for Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, at 416-861-1237 if you have any questions about this matter or would like further information about emissions from nuclear power plants. Sincerely, Mark Mattson
President and Waterkeeper
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October 17th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
they keep trying it to dumb down the public, can they hide behind their ignorance?
let’s send them a bunch of CNSC statistics!! (or fire them).