Terry Corcoran on open manholes, losing $30 billion and the the Uzbekistan Securities Commission

I have no time for people with double standards. That puts Terry Corcoran near the top of my list of people for whom i have no time, and even less respect. In today’s article (below), Terry is taking a shot at Lisa Raitt and her taped claim that “money” is the simple solution to Canada’s isotope crisis.

This "only money" argument gives Terry Corcoran license to bemoan the fact that (apparently) Ottawa has pumped $30 billion into AECL and taxpayers have received virtually no disclosure from Ottawa on AECL’s finances, which Terry argues is in keeping with the disclosure standards of Uzbekistan Securities Commission.

He also wants taxpayers to get upset over pumping $30 billion into AECL over several decades with little to show for it?

Why do Terry Corcoran’s statements of today only serve to highlight the hypocrisy of his blind support for the income trust tax, whose central premise of tax leakage was “proven” by 18 pages of blacked out documents that even the Uzbekistan Securities Commission would find unacceptable? And somehow 2.5 million Canadians losing $35 billion into an open manhole is something to be glossed over, but all taxpayers losing $30 billion (apparently) is an outrage. How do you spell “double standard”?


The barriers to Isotopia

Terence Corcoran,
Financial Post
Thursday, June 11, 2009

Of all the things Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt had to say in her accidentally taped conversation with an aide, the most alarming may well have been her analysis of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's isotope fiasco. "You know what solves this problem?" asked Ms. Raitt, rhetorically on the brink of educating her aide in the ways of federal politics. "Money. And if it's just about money, we'll figure it out." The aide, being only 26 years old, would not know that Ms. Raitt was about to step into the biggest open manhole in Ottawa, the AECL money pit.

Money has never solved AECL's problems, and never will. The present value of all federal cash thrown at AECL over the decades exceeds $30-billion. As for AECL's isotope operation, numbers are hard to find thanks to opaque federal reporting standards. The Uzbekistan Securities Commission wouldn't approve AECL's annual reports. It would appear, though, that AECL's isotope business, the crown jewel of Canada's non-energy nuclear industry, is a giant money loser, with Ottawa subsidizing isotopes that are used by medical service providers in the United States and elsewhere.