CHALK RIVER, ONTARIO… Cheryl Gallant, MP Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, today defended the over 30,000 Canadians who work in the nuclear industry, including the 2700 workers and their families who work at the Chalk River Laboratories in Chalk River, Ontario, from Opposition Party attacks in Ottawa.

“The decision to attack the women and men who work at Atomic Energy of Canada (AECL) is wrong. Suggesting to the Ontario Government that it should buy foreign power reactors at the expense of Canadian jobs is reckless and irresponsible,” stated Cheryl Gallant, MP.

“I am proud of the women and men who work at AECL. The CANDU is the most sophisticated, advanced, nuclear power plant design in the world. As a proud Canadian, I have no hesitation in recommending that the Ontario government buys ‘Made in Canada’ over some inferior, foreign design. Frankly, I am shocked that a political party that purports to represent Canadians would recommend anything but ‘Canadian,’” remarked Gallant MP.

MP Cheryl Gallant was responding to a statement made by the Opposition in Ottawa that the Ontario provincial government should purchase a foreign-made power reactor.

“The recently returned to Canada Leader of the Official Opposition should be promoting the workers in our nuclear industry. It is unfortunate that while he was out of the country, his party did not provide the funding for the CNF that had cabinet approval as far back as 1997, or so we were told,” said Cheryl Gallant MP. “The voters of Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke were promised by the old government that a NRU replacement was approved; it was just waiting for funding. Either that was a broken promise or his party’s candidate was not being truthful.”

“If he had been in Canada, he would know that I have been championing a replacement for the NRU since I was elected almost 9 years ago,” observed Cheryl Gallant, MP. “As recently as March 9th of this year I rose in this House to support a plan put forward by the scientists who use the NRU to build a replacement.”

“I want to send a clear message to all the women and men and their families as well as the local businesses that rely on AECL that I will not sit idly by while the Opposition makes unsubstantiated attacks against their integrity. AECL has my full support as we work together to resolve the current challenges together,” concluded Cheryl Gallant, MP.