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News Flash The National Post December 19, 2007 Meagan Fitzpatrick Liberals take aim at Lunn over Chalk River; Natural Resources Minister should have foreseen crisis: MPOTTAWA - The Opposition Liberals yesterday continued their attack on the federal government for its handling of the medical isotope shortage, taking aim at Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn. They say Mr. Lunn should have foreseen the crisis because he signed off on extra funding to fix problems at the Chalk River, Ont., nuclear plant weeks before it was shut down in November. Liberal MP Omar Alghabra, the Liberal natural resources critic, said a government document tabled on Oct. 31 is proof Mr. Lunn should have known "problems loomed" at the facility, which resumed operations on Sunday. The shutdown of the nuclear reactor at Chalk River on Nov. 18 created a global shortage of critical medical isotopes used in cancer tests and other treatments. Since the shutdown and shortage came to light in early December, finger-pointing and partisan bickering has been rampant between Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. -- the Crown corporation that operates Chalk River; the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which regulates it; and the government and opposition parties. Many questions have been raised about who knew what and when they knew it. During a debate to pass emergency legislation to get the reactor back online, Mr. Lunn said he first learned of the shutdown on Dec. 3 and Health Minister Tony Clement, the other lead minister on the file, said he was told on Dec. 5. Mr. Clement also told the House of Commons the isotope shortage was the result of decisions made by AECL and CNSC, not by the government, and that "we are in a bit of a situation that we did not anticipate." But in an interview with Global News yesterday, Mr. Alghabra suggested the government shouldn't have been blindsided and that Mr. Lunn should have known there were serious problems at Chalk River long before it came to the point of shutting it down. If Mr. Lunn had acted sooner, the crisis could have been averted, he claims. "What has happened should not have come as a surprise," Mr. Alghabra said. "We have evidence that tells us that the minister actually knew that Chalk River was behind meeting its obligations in October and that they should have been prepared, they should have acted much more decisively."
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