Nuclear safety watchdog head fired for 'lack of leadership': minister

[daleo]

Federal Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said Wednesday that he fired the head of the nuclear safety watchdog for her "lack of leadership" in handling the shutdown of a medical isotope-producing nuclear reactor late last year.

Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission president Linda Keen was fired hours before she and Lunn were set to appear before a natural resources committee meeting in Ottawa on Wednesday.

Lunn, in his appearance Wednesday morning, told the committee that the closure of the nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ont., "threatened a national and international health crisis."

...

While Keen, who is to appear before the committee Wednesday afternoon, will remain a member of the commission, assistant deputy industry minister Michael Binder has been named as interim president.
...
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/01/16/keen-firing.html
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A big mistake, I think, on Lunn/Harper's part.

[JBoy]

1. This really pisses me off

This is, to date, the most brazenly Bush-like act of Harper's government.

Harper = Bush
Lunn = Gonzales.

I hope this story has legs.

[daleo]

2. I think Harper wants an early election, and is goading the opposition

There are a lot of ominous things on the horizon for Harper:
- the Mulroney stuff (can't help him, and is likely to hurt him).
- the economic slowdown (recessions are very tough on governments).
- Afghanistan (a decision has to be made soon, and I think he want to stay there in a combat role, contrary to the wishes of a majority of Canadians).

There are probably other things, but these three are enough - bad news on corruption, economics, and war. So, better he has an election sooner than later. Since he doesn't control the timing, all he can do is try to goad the opposition into going early.

Expect to see more of this sort of thing.

[CHIMO]

3. Well

It stopped her appearance before the committe today. Of course down the road we will have to pay for the firing.

[tuvor]

4. Toronto Star: Ousted regulator just doing her job

Stephen Harper's government says it fired the country's top nuclear regulator for not doing her job. The evidence suggests the opposite. Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission head Linda Keen was fired because she was doing her job.

Let us be clear what Keen's job was. She and the rest of her commission are not charged with ensuring that all Canadians lead happy and healthy lives. Even Harper might find that task difficult.

Rather her job, as specified in the Nuclear Safety and Control Act, was to ensure that radioactive material was created and used safely.

Two years ago, Keen's commission renewed Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.'s operating licence for a reactor at Chalk River that produces medical isotopes. As a condition of licensing, AECL was required to upgrade safety systems on the 50-year-old reactor by installing two new pumps.

...

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/294886

[Canuckistanian]

5. This is outrageous

I never thought the government would go this far. In fact, it surprised many political and civil service observers.

It makes the Harper govt. look like partisan bullies and weakens the international reputation of our nuclear regulatory agencies.

This wasn't just a "government employee", this was the head of a quasi-independent regulatory body.

It was as if the Bush administration "fired" a member of the GAO.

You can do it, but you'd better have a damn good reason, NOT that it was a "failure in a leadership position".

[tuvor]

6. Harper Index: Keen's firing highlights public concern about safety and Conservative bully tactics

Muzzling watchdog in isotope controversy could backfire on government and nuclear industry.

A HarperIndex.ca editorial

OTTAWA, January 17, 2008: Canada's natural resources minister Gary Lunn and prime minister Stephen Harper may have thought they were doing the nuclear industry a favour by firing Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) President Linda Keen, but the move looks likely to backfire in many ways.

The firing amounts to blaming the regulator, the CNSC, for a mistake made by the crown-owned Atmoic Energy of Canada Ltc. (AECL), the corporation that is being regulated. When it became known that AECL had failed to carry out a required safety upgrade to a 50-year-old reactor, the Commission acted properly by insisting that AECL come into compliance with its licence before the reactor was restarted.

The issue raises serious concerns. The apparent crisis may have been politically manipulated to satisfy the needs of private corporate health care giant MDS Nordion and to boost the asset value of AECL. It is also possible the government was trying to cover up for having very quietly joined the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership in November. They may have wanted to divert attention from a commitment that could result in Canada becoming a global nuclear waste disposal site.

John Ivison in the conservative National Post reports today that Keen was targetted for hurting the nuclear industry at a time it sees hope of expanding. He says she helped impose "tough new international standards on any new reactor built in Canada, in doing so hurting AECL's ability to sell new reactors to the government of Ontario. She has also ended 'pre-reviews' of new reactors, a process that warns operators if there are fundamental barriers to them being granted operating licences. Both measures have made AECL less attractive to potential investors at a time when the government is mulling whether to sell off all or part of the nuclear operator."

...

http://www.harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=00128

[Lisa]

7. if "lack of leadership" can get you fired, Minister Lunn should be the first to go

He didn't even give a murmur of protest when the Pacific Forestry Centre (which employs quite a number of people who live in his riding, including a couple of friends of mine) got slashed with budget cuts, scrapping a bunch of climate change research projects. (BC is heavily dependent on forestry, and the work they were doing on forest carbon budgets was crucial.)

[Bragi]

8. Macleans blogger on the curious role of the deputy minister

Writing about the role of the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources at the Committee appearance of Gary Lunn, and after analysing the few questions where the Deputy Minister was called on by minister-friendly Conservative MPs to respond, Kady O'Malley of macleans.ca writes:

Is there anything inappropriate or unseemly in Doyle's responses? No, of course not. As a civil servant, she is ultimately accountable to the minister and his government, and if he wants her to answer a particular question, that's what she' does. If there's one thing that Ottawa's mandarins have figured out since the Conservatives took power, it's that the best way to survive is to keep your head down and do what you're told.

What does seem vaguely unsettling, however, is the fact that Lunn would use his deputy minister as a sort of bureaucratic shield. By answering on his behalf, Doyle ensured that none of those exchanges would likely make it onto the evening news, or attract the same attention from the press as would his remarks. What's more, it seems to have worked, at least temporarily.

A Google News search fails to turn up a single reference to Doyle's testimony -- not even the fact that she confirmed that the Privy Council Office was involved in drafting the first Keen letter, or her claim that she alone was responsible for the decision to bring in a Conservative bagman and a former AECL employee as "independent experts" on whether to restart the reactor last year.

It's a fair bet that if the minister had admitted to PCO involvement in the file, it would have at least made it into the narrative, if only to show how the Chalk River controversy could ultimately be tied to the Prime Minister, or his office. But when it's a bureaucrat talking - even the most senior bureaucrat at the department - we journalists have a bad habit of zoning out. If this represents a new strategy on the part of the government, we'd best start paying a little more attention.


<http://forums.macleans.ca/advansis/?mod=for&act=dip&pid=100476&tid=100476&eid=48&so=1&ps=0&sb=1>

- b