Natural Resources committee  International discussions began well before now, I feel, well before the last service interruption in our reactor. In fact, the first discussions, in a major forum at the Nuclear Energy Agency, took place when the Dutch reactor was shut down and our reactor was filling the global demand.

Natural Resources committee  The dialogue that is going on in the Nuclear Energy Agency, and now in a new group that has been established to deal with this matter, is going to look at the short term as a priority and, in the long term, will make sure that there are no systemic obstacles to finding a new source of supply.

Natural Resources committee  I think that the minister was clear on that last week, but you can ask her yourself when she comes to see you. The restructuring of Atomic Energy of Canada was not proposed as a solution to the medical isotope situation, but as a response to other imperatives. As to the question of the last 18 months, once the failure of the MAPLE reactors was clear, in May 2008, the only way to ensure the supply of medical isotopes for the foreseeable future was to begin work on the NRU reactor in order that its licence could be extended.

Natural Resources committee  That all depends on how the different countries use their research reactors. The only reactor whose production could be significantly increased at the moment—though perhaps not to the level of our reactor—is the one in Australia. But not in the short term. In the short term, the most Australia can produce is about a quarter of the capacity of our reactor.

Natural Resources committee  On the NRU, AECL issued a release just this afternoon indicating that it can provide an update on its work. I don't have the text in front of me, but it's saying it's going to be at least three months. At this time, no further guidance can be provided. I now have the text in front of me, Mr.

Natural Resources committee  That's a very good question. Let me start with the first part of your question. One example of efforts being made to achieve greater substitutability was actually announced about 10 days ago by Lantheus, to say that they had now secured an agreement with NTP of South Africa and had made arrangements to be able to take the South African product in order to produce the generators for the North American market.

Natural Resources committee  There is a three-week planned shutdown at this time. Discussions are still continuing with regard to those plans. But that is where other reactors have to come into play, and the scheduling of the reactors has been an issue that was raised not only in the last few days but has been raised for the past month, including by the nuclear energy agency, to achieve the best possible balance.

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, I would like to say a few words about the global demand. We are going to focus on molybdenum and technetium. The global demand is calculated to be about 40 million doses per year. The distribution is on page 5. You can see that the biggest user is the United States, with about 44% of the total, followed by Europe, 22%, then Japan, 14%, with the rest of the world at 16%.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, it will be a lot better if you all have the material in front of you. Diagnostic imaging is critical to assess patients and to determine treatments and further testing. Nuclear medical procedures make up an important fraction of diagnostics, and the vast majority, more than 80%, rely on technetium-99m.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. If you'll allow us, we'll make this presentation. This is an issue that is obviously very serious. It is also a complex issue. We hope it will be time well spent for the committee to go through some of these slides, which represent a bit of what we have learned as we have approached this issue and that give a sense of the global background in terms of both the demand and the supply of medical isotopes.

Natural Resources committee  I would simply add, Mr. Chair, that although I certainly don't have consolidated numbers to present to you today, on a program-by-program basis, if one takes the ecoENERGY retrofit for homes program as an example, we've estimated additional amounts invested in Budget 2009 would represent the activity of $2.4 billion.

Natural Resources committee  As I've indicated, a report was provided in August. Additional work was conducted by National Bank itself, and then we have to bring that together with a number of other factors, and it is that collection of analysis and issues that is brought to the minister and to the government's attention.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for your question. This is a fairly complex issue. AECL does indeed have a contractual relationship with MDS Nordion. You asked if the situation has resulted in any disputes. In fact, MDS Nordion has already alleged that AECL was under the obligation to complete its MAPLE reactors.

Natural Resources committee  For the honourable member's information, there are a few provisions in the budget that are not specifically directed to the forest sector but are broadly available. There is additional funding available through the BDC for small and medium-sized businesses. Funding is available through Export Development Canada for exports, but also, as stipulated in the budget, in some instances for domestic financing or insurance.

Natural Resources committee  There was one report completed by the National Bank in August 2008.