Environment committee  I would simply say that the time doesn't allow me to answer that fully. I'd rather not.

Environment committee  I am not intimately familiar with the lash-up of responsibility in the Canadian Parliament. I believe there should be an independent oversight of the activities. I think it should be monitored by Parliament and it should be done in a way that perceived as being competent and free of conflicts of interest.

Environment committee  Absolutely. It's independent. It has to meet the licensing requirements of an independent regulator. It has a board of oversight and a board of directors. In my experience, it is at a place where the accountability is totally appropriate.

Environment committee  Thank you for the question. I would say the principle recommendation of the Blue Ribbon Commission was that in looking for a site, you needed to use a consent-based approach. You should build a site in a location where the communities that were going to be affected by it understand the implications and are willing to be the host voluntarily.

Environment committee  It would be somewhat inappropriate for me to try to drill down into the specific instances in Canada of the relationships, because I don't have deep experience in dealing with those communities, although I have visited a couple of them. I'm a strong proponent of the fact that we need to find ways to take extra measures to understand and respond to injustices that have occurred in the past that might translate into limitations on the ability of certain communities to participate fully or to understand fully, or to benefit fully from the prospects of a program like this.

Environment committee  In my experience, Mr. Mazier—I assume you're talking about the Nuclear Waste Management Organization—I have seen an extraordinary attempt by NWMO to engage with communities of interest over an extended period of time to educate them, inform them, try to understand their concerns and to try to establish relationships that will stand the test of time, because any ultimate partnership, which is required to develop such a facility, will have to span generations.

Environment committee  I can tell you in general how I think these things have to occur. I've often said that I think there are three things that are important if a community is going to have the kind of trust and confidence that they need in order to move forward in this. First, you have to believe that the party that you're dealing with is competent and has a track record of competence.

Environment committee  Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. I want to thank you for the opportunity to participate in this panel on nuclear waste governance in Canada. I'll try to be brief. My name in Tom Isaacs and I am a citizen of the United States living in sunny California. I worked on the program for the management of used nuclear fuel in the U.S.