Madam Speaker, those watching this debate today should be thanking a nuclear worker.

We thank the nuclear workers for keeping the lights on. Nuclear energy is the one technology that we have that has proven to have zero emissions, and it is low in cost and reliable. It is because of the workers, the men and women who work in nuclear, that this is possible. I thank them from the bottom of my heart. It is the technology that is going to get us through the challenging times right now with the Liberals.

We have a lot of things to be thankful for when it comes to nuclear, the supply chain that we have in Canada and the CANDU technology. Lights are on right now in this building, and 60% of electricity in Ontario comes from nuclear. It is true that we were able to phase out coal in Ontario and eliminate smog because of nuclear, but there are still some radicals who do not like nuclear. Some people just never change.

However, it was nuclear that got Ontario off coal. Nuclear is in a renaissance right now because of security. We have war in Europe and hot spots around the world. Its energy security is what future societies will need. Nuclear is positioned well to take advantage of that.

Another great benefit of nuclear is medical isotopes. There are literally millions of lives saved because of nuclear, and we are very grateful for the medical isotopes and the research that is done at facilities across Canada, especially at Chalk River. Some of the breakthroughs out of Chalk River have been a game-changer, as described to me by oncologists and other specialists in the medical community.

We have a debt of gratitude for all the workers in the nuclear supply chain as well. It keeps the lights on and drives our economy with powerful paycheques. It is something that should be championed, not disparaged.

Those same workers have been getting a little whiplash with the current government. Sometimes, it is very cold to nuclear, calling it a sin stock and refusing to fund nuclear in the ways that it should be funded. It is typical.

Something was mentioned earlier in the debate about SDTC, which is the Sustainable Development Technology Fund from which the Liberals got caught funnelling $400 million to Liberal insiders: Those dollars were to go to technology. I cannot think of a better one than nuclear. Whenever we have an election and there is a change in government, the workers out there will be respected for the good work they do in providing clean, affordable electricity for all Canadians. We will see that change as soon as we elect common-sense Conservatives in the next election.

Another big change that is going to happen is for Conservatives to get rid of the carbon tax. People have probably heard this many times: It is technology, not taxes. There are a lot of different technologies to pick from. Renewables have a place in our grid, but there are issues with renewables. The waste that comes from renewables is the biggest issue, but we will get into that in a bit.

A newly elected Conservative government will axe the carbon tax and invest in such technologies as nuclear, which has emissions-free electricity that has powered Ontario for decades. Now, with the right support and environment, I believe that nuclear can make the next renaissance here in Canada.

This is a stark difference from what the NDP-Liberal government is promising to do. It is talking about quadrupling that tax to 61¢ per litre. When that happens, there will be economic carnage from coast to coast to coast. We are all suffering in a cost of living crisis, and they are planning to quadruple the tax. A better solution would be to invest in nuclear. We should be having the conversation on what is the best way to encourage more nuclear power production across Canada. It is happening.

Today, the Liberals might be a little bit warm on nuclear; I know that many mistrust them in the industry, and it is for good reason. There is a long history of a lot of lip service from the Liberals but not a lot of the action that is required to fully fulfill the promise that is nuclear in Canada.

We talked about the SDTC green slush fund the Liberals set up. Right now, we have such companies as Cameco and Westinghouse out of Saskatoon developing an eVinci microreactor that could be used in northern Canada to meet the electrical needs of industry or consumers, or for security. If we only had a government that believed in nuclear, it would have allowed an eVinci reactor to access some of those funds; instead, the funds went out the side door. Some funds went to the chair of the board itself. A Liberal insider gave money to herself, which is just horrendous when we know that there are solutions out there.

There is great hope at Darlington with GE Hitachi and the SMRs. I am really excited to see how they come onto the grid scale. That is a technology that SDTC could have helped bring to market quicker; instead, the money went to Liberal insiders.

There is the CANDU reactor itself, the Canadian-owned pride of the nuclear world. Our contribution is CANDU. What could we do with that technology if, instead of utilizing the green slush fund for Liberal insiders, we actually invested in CANDU? Could members imagine, for the men and women who work on that reactor, the refurbishments and the supply chain, if we had a government that actually had common sense and used a fund like the SDTC not to get their friends rich, as the Liberals have done, but to invest in technology? That is where this has to go.

We talked about waste. There is waste. Roughly, if we used nothing but nuclear electricity for our whole life, on average, it would be enough. The waste would be only one cupful. That is a concern. We have technologies for how we properly store that, but we do not have a proper way to recycle some of the other technologies out there. We know that solar panels are mostly created in China and shipped over to North America. They may be assembled on a structure or a house here, but that is not really helping the economy in great numbers. However, it is a technology that, in remote areas and for select grids, could provide a solution. I would say that the worst thing about it is that there is no way to recycle the panels, which are the waste that comes from solar. We have to compare that to alternatives, and we will get to nuclear waste in a minute. However, the panels are just buried. The leaching of the chemicals found in the solar panels is a real concern; we should be debating that, talking about it and figuring out how to fix it. For some of the other renewables, such as the blades on wind turbines, there is no way of recycling them. We dig a hole in the ground, put the blades in there and cover them up. That is the end of life for those renewables. It does not have to be that way.

How did nuclear get it right? There is a service charge embedded in our power rate. In Ontario, a portion of the rate we pay for that power goes into a fund that takes care of the waste. That sounds pretty good versus renewables. It is probably going to come down to the taxpayers or the environment that will pay if we rely solely on them. There has to be a balancing act. One is not better than the other in all circumstances, but for baseload power generation, there is nothing that beats clean, reliable nuclear.

The debate today is a bit about what we do with Chalk River. It has managed our nuclear research. It has facilitated breakthroughs in medical isotopes. The smartest people working on nuclear are working at Chalk River. They live in and around that area, upstream or downstream, and they know the positive impacts that the Chalk River laboratory has had on the environment, not just locally, but internationally.

Earlier we heard another speaker talk about the export of the CANDU technology, which is wonderful. We should be encouraging more of that.

I want to come back to the workers in nuclear and make this commitment to them. The new, common-sense Conservatives respect them and their technology, and we appreciate the work they do. We thank them for keeping the lights on.

Corey Tochor

$464,685.00