Instead of blaming Atomic Energy Canada for his own government’s inability to resolve the isotope shortage, Prime Minister Harper must compensate provincial governments for the increased costs they will continue to face to provide cancer tests, Liberal MPs said today.
“The federal government is responsible for this extended shortage because they never developed an alternative,” said Liberal Health Critic Carolyn Bennett. “They need to pick up the bill for the significantly increased costs of the alternatives hospitals are being forced to use.”
As expected, the Chalk River nuclear reactor that produced 40 percent of global medical isotope supply will be off-line until at least early next year, leaving hospitals working around the clock to minimize the effect of the isotope shortage on cancer and cardiac patients.
“The Harper government has lacked the competence to plan ahead and prevent this crisis from happening all along,” said Liberal Natural Resources Critic Geoff Regan. “New isotope sources should have been found years ago when the first signs of Chalk River’s aging were apparent. The government is now admitting that they lack the expertise to judge a good isotope proposal from a bad one.”
Earlier this week, the government posted a contract online to hire an outside consultant to judge proposals to their blue-ribbon panel, showing a lack of faith in the panel’s ability.
“Instead of working on backup plans to secure alternate sources of isotopes, the Harper government gave Canadians blind assurances that the NRU would continue to be a reliable source of isotopes, said Liberal Energy and Environment Critic David McGuinty. “Now, Ministers Raitt and Aglukaqq have no credibility when they claim that ‘international cooperation in the management of available supply has been effective to date.”
“The Dutch reactor is offline, isotopes can’t make it to Canada from Australia, and Belgium can only meet ten percent of global supply – leaving Canadian cancer patients vulnerable,” added McGuinty.
