Physicist Ginette Charbonneau, NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice, Liberal MP Jenica Atwin, Bloc Quebecois MP Mario Simard and Green Party MP Elizabeth May listen to Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick’s Susan O’Donnell speak during a news conference in Ottawa, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has asserted that Canada is “very serious” about developing nuclear technology across the country to meet growing power needs, but some members of Parliament are warning the technology could be costly and ineffective.
A Liberal MP is among the critics who say Ottawa is looking at an expensive investment into an unproven and potentially dangerous technology.
The federal government started actively exploring small modular reactor technology in 2018, and released an action plan in 2020 that dubbed them a strategic Canadian asset that could leverage significant economic, geopolitical, social and environmental benefits.
But Green Party Leader Elizabeth May says other renewable energy sources are getting cheaper, so there’s not much of a case for Canada to expand its capacity on that technology, which she said is being pushed by powerful lobbyists.
Liberal MP Jenica Atwin, who was first elected under the Green banner, said she is used to being an outlier in her caucus, but the party has allowed her to express her concerns about the unknowns of emerging nuclear technologies.
Four nuclear energy stations are generating about 15 per cent of Canada’s electrical grid today, mostly in Ontario and New Brunswick, and as the facilities age more attention is being paid to the potential of smaller, more-portable reactors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25, 2023.
