Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome, Minister. You are here for the second time in a fairly short period. I would like to remind you that, during your last visit, we asked your department to provide certain documents. We have not yet received them, however. That means either that your visits are too close together, or that your department people are too busy. I will let you draw your own conclusions. We are eager to have the documents.
Minister, the decision to terminate the MAPLE project was made on May 16. In February, I was present at the Canadian Nuclear Association annual seminar. In the hallways, I was already being told that the MAPLE project would never see the light of day. Industry people as well as the people I spoke to told me that quite frankly. It seemed to be a fact. I think the industry was waiting for AECL's decision. My reaction as a citizen and as a member new to nuclear issues was to wonder why it had taken so long, why millions of dollars of Quebec and Canadian taxpayers' money had been sunk into a project that no one, it seemed, actually expected to see implemented.
You also say that nuclear energy is clean energy. But in my view it is also very expensive energy. In your comments, you say that hundreds of millions of taxpayers' and private sector dollars were sunk into the project and spent needlessly.
I would like to know the exact amount that taxpayers and the private sector were obliged to invest in this project, which will never see the light of day. This is a very short and succinct question. Do you have the figures, Minister?