Is it health care, stupid?

If there’s been one challenge for the Liberal Party during these years in opposition … ok, scratch that. One of the many challenges for the Liberal Party during these years in opposition has been our inability to move past the tactical attack and build a strategic narrative.

By that, I mean we focus in narrowly and mightily on an ever-changing parade of stories of the day and scandals du jour, letting them dominate our time, our messaging and our media. We get ourselves psyched-up each time that this will be game-changer: isotopes, cancer is sexy, stimulus funding, giant cheques, H1N1, to name but a few. Inevitably, after an initial flurry of coverage, the story dies away and we’re back to square one, looking for the next home-run opportunity.

Governments, however, are rarely (if ever) defeated by home-runs, and a focus on tactical attacks isn’t going to score runs in the long-run. A death by a thousand cuts alone could take a thousand years. Tactical attacks are important, but without trying it into a larger strategy you’re not going to get anywhere. And we haven’t. We're just flailing about.

But take a look at many of the tactical issues where we’ve tried to gain traction over the last year: listeria and food safety, medical isotopes, preparing for the Chalk River shut-down, H1N1 and flu pandemic preparation. There’s a common thread emerging here: health care. It's traditionally a strong Liberal issue, and one that is still at the top of public concern.

Certainty, as the headlines show this morning the H1N1 issue is rife for tactical attack against the Harper government:

Flu 'fiasco' fault of feds
Minister unhappy over vaccine
H1N1 vaccine supplies slow
Long lineups, vaccine shortage beset Week 2 of swine flu campaign
Pandemic straining Canada's public-health services
Signs of frustration as Canadians seek H1N1 vaccine

And Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and the Harper government’s handling of the crisis is getting poor media reviews. From CTV’s Question Period yesterday:

JANE TABER: What did you take from the interview that Craig did with the Health Minister? What have we learned, anything?

GREG WESTON (Sun Media): I think the first thing that I was struck with, Jane, pardon the expression, is, I thought it was about as compassionate as a needle in the arm. You know here we have people who are standing in line for six, seven hours, being turned away, after months of being told that they had to get out and get the swine flu shot. Now we've had a couple of unfortunate deaths, parents who are understandably desperately worried about their kids, and they're being told that it's a jurisdictional issue, or they're being told, well, that's the provinces' responsibility, it's not the federal responsibility. I mean this is exactly what will make people throw things at their television, I think. You know, this is the worst side of government is a lack of compassion, when they get too locked up in process and they forget how do we help these people out there, and no government is answering that, and, frankly, the communications on this, as Craig pointed out on a few times, have just resulted in mass confusion and now panic.

So as I said, certainly an issue ripe for tactical attack. But without context, without placing this issue in a larger strategic picture, then H1N1 will join the long list of issues the Liberals huffed and puffed about for a few weeks that will simply fade away over time, leaving the Conservatives little to no the worse for the wear.

And there is a larger picture to be painted here, because there is a common thread to be identified here: health care. When it comes to issues of public health and safety the Conservatives just aren’t getting the job done. They bungled food safety. They knew Chalk River was on its last legs, but they did little to nothing to explore and secure alternative medical isotope sources. When it was unexpectedly (but inevitably) shut down, they had no viable alternative plan to ensure cancer screening continued. And with everyone knowing H1N1 was going to be a major challenge this fall, the government bungled the preparation despite months of prep-time, leaving us looking like boobs compared to our global peers.

It’s not enough to just focus on H1N1 and the government’s incompetence preparing for the crisis. Tie it into a larger historical pattern of incompetence and use it as a springboard to talk about wider Conservative inaction on health care and why and how a Liberal government will make it a priority. Talk about wait times and Conservative inaction on their infamous fifth priority, talk about defending our public system when Harper is unwilling to do so, and offer some health-care related policy tidbits as examples of what the Liberals would do differently.

For a change, let’s get strategic.

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Harper: So disapointed in the failiure of others

Dear nuclear people: Stephen Harper is very, very disappointed in you!

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is urging Canada's beleaguered nuclear agency to pick up the pace in repairing a leaky reactor at Chalk River, Ont., which won't be back up and running until at least next spring.

Harper said he's "disappointed" with the latest delay in returning the reactor to service, adding that Ottawa will continue to push Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. to supply isotopes as soon as possible.

"We do hope there will be more action, more quickly, on the part of Atomic Energy of Canada," he said Thursday in Kitchener, Ont.

It's just a shame that Harper is only the Prime Minister and the leader of the Canadian government, so there's nothing he can do about the isotope crisis other than express his disappointment in the failures of others.

And it's a shame his Natural Resources minister, Lisa Raitt, is equally powerless here.I mean, she's only the minister responsible for AECL. There's nothing she can do or could have done.

It's just all so ... disappointing.

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Compare something to the Avro Arrow again and I WILL go work at NASA

I once thought that making references to The Munich Agreement and Neville Chamberlain was the most over-used as an analogy for appeasement was the most overused reference in modern politics. But I think we may have a new winner, at least in Canada: the Avro Arrow.

Lately it seems like everything is being compared to the cancellation of the Arrow, which killed our nascent aerospace industry (sorry Bombardier), scrapped one sweet-ass airplane, and sent our best and brightest down to the U.S. to help land an American on the moon and do other cool stuff.

The Conservative decision to kill the new Maple reactors that could generate medical isotopes? A new Avro Arrow, we were told loudly and often, because it would devastate the Canadian nuclear research industry, an industry in which we're a world leader. OK, I can accept that analogy, and it is a bad decision with wide-ranging negative consequences.

But I draw the line at this, today, in the Toronto Star:

Nortel-RIM could be PM's Avro Arrow
Subsidizing sale of patents to foreigners would earn Harper ignominy to rival Diefenbaker's jet legacy

OK, that is a singularly stupid analogy. I really don't want to go into too much detail here because this begins to bleed into subjects I get into during my day job, and I try to avoid that on my blog.

But I'll just say this: yes, losing any jobs is a concern. But Nortel Networks is no Avro Arrow, it hasn't been close for many, many years. It's one player in a crowded global market for telecom equipment, it has been shrinking in size, breadth, and coverage for many years, and its heyday of the late 1990s is long-since past. Along with many Canadians' mutual funds.

You can try to make a case for government intervention that's jobs-based, but an Arrow-themed argument premised on global leadership in its field and unique and valuable intelectural property just won't fly.

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A question I'd ask in QP today

Mr. Speaker, on an audio recording the Minister of Natural Resources said that the isotope crisis was "an easy one" and that all that was needed to solve it was "money." And Canada has long been a world-leader in the supply of medical isotopes, crucial for the treatment of millions of cancer patients in Canada, and around the world.

Now we learn that the Prime Minister has decided to abandon Canada's leadership position, and get out of the medical isotope business, leaving Canada's medical system beholden to the whims of overseas interests for the supply of this critically-necessary resource.

Mr. Speaker, my question for the Prime Minister is, if this is an easy one, if it is just about money, why is this government turning tail and running on the isotope file?

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Move over Justin Timberlake, Lisa Raitt is bringing sexy back ... to cancer

Quite the day, yesterday, with the drama around the attempt to suppress the Lisa Raitt recordings, the drama as we waited for the court ruling, and then the revelation in the evening of just what the tapes contained.

I've on a brief visit to Ottawa, and the town was abuzz all day with the story. I attended question period in person yesterday for the first time since Jean Chretien was in the PMO. Unfortunately Stephen Harper wasn't in the house, but it was still a pretty raucous session. There was one or two questions from the Liberals on the tape injunction hearings, but they stuck mainly to the larger isotope issue, hammering Raitt relentlessly. Her friend the health minister did step in to take a few questions, though. That's nice of her. The NDP did press a little harder on the injunction, but I think the opposition was mainly waiting for the tapes to be out before hitting harder.

So, today's session of QP should be interesting. Watching QP in person, besides the heckling (which, sadly, they don't let visitors engage in) I was most interested in watching Michael Ignatieff. While most people of all parties generally read, blackberried or generally didn't pay attention, Ignatieff seemed to listen intently to every opposition answer (not just those to his questions) and would wave his caucus to shush when they got too loud with the catcalls. It's both nice, and a bit cute, that he still shows such interest in their non-answers.

I got news if the judgment while sitting on a patio on Sparks enjoying a beverage with some friends, who were quite jubilant, if not overly surprised, at the result. But when Stephen Maher's story showed-up on my BlackBerry, 'ho boy, I have to say we agreed that, despite a few grammar faux pas, it was the greatest story ever written.

I had some sympathy for Jasmine MacDonnell before, as a staffer unfairly forced to take the fall for her minister. The fact she left her recorder with a journalist for five months though, after leaving it in a bathroom at the press gallery, seems to speak to a pattern of leaving sensitive materials in public places that isn't a positive. I mean, she had five months to pick the dammed thing up!

But the how and the why of the recording is really secondary to the content of the tape, to what MacDonnell and Raitt are heard to say, and I haven't heard a denial of the content yet. No claims of editing, or demands to bring in American tape experts. No Gurmant Grewal sightings.

What she said about the health minister is certainly embarrassing, and could lead to some uncomfortable exchanges at the cabinet table. These two ministers need to work in tandem not just to solve this isotope crisis, but to restore public confidence in the health system. Her comments make that task more onerous.

But more damming are Raitt's comments about the crisis itself, and how it's an opportunity for her to make her political star and how she plans to take all the credit for fixing it, because this isn't a moral issue, it's just about money:

This is the really damning passage to me:

Ms. MacDonnell said the isotope issue is hard to control, "because it's confusing to a lot of people.""But it's sexy," says Ms. Raitt. "Radioactive leaks. Cancer."

"Nuclear contamination," says Ms. MacDonnell.

"But it's only about money," say Ms. Raitt.

I'm sure the people who are suffering from cancer, who are waiting for treatment and are facing delays because of this isotope shortage will be heartened to hear their cancer is sexy. That's it's not a moral issue, but it's just about money. Cancer is sexy? I'm sure cancer patients will be happy to hear that, and that this crisis impacting their health is an opportunity to boost Raitt's political fortunes that she's willing to "roll the dice" on. Roll the dice on sexy radioactive leaks? What the hell is wrong with this woman?

All the laughable Conservative conspiracy theories I hear floating around don't change the fact that RAITT SAID THESE THINGS, and that they're abhorrent. How anyone can defend such insensitive and callous comments is beyond me.

And if Stephen Harper stands by her, as in the early going he appears to be, it will speak volumes to his judgment and competence. I promise you, whether the election is next month or next year, no one will forget these comments.

I'm sorry Lisa, but cancer is not the new sexy.

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Video: It's a serious matter

A look back at the day in Ottawa yesterday in just over two minutes. And for the record, not one "seriously" was repeated in the making of this video. Each clip is a new and independent use of the talking-point. And for those Conservative commenters trying to dismiss the atomic docu-scandal as no big deal, clearly the government at least considers it a serious matter...



This is bigger, however, than the scape-goating of some poor staffer. It's bigger, even, than the embattled Lisa Raitt. As Michael Ignatieff said in QP yesterday, it's about the competence of this government. And increasingly, the Stephen Harper government is proving itself incapable of governing responsibly.

Despite knowing there were serious safety concerns at Chalk River for at least 18 months, and really much longer, the government has done nothing but develop talking-points to blame the Liberals while failing to develop a back-up plan for isotope production. It refused to see the economic downturn coming, then promised no deficit, then used a fical update to attack its political opponents instead of addressing the economy, then dramatically underestimated the size of the deficit to the point of absurdity by delivering the biggest deficit in Canadian history. It ignores a growing chorus of provincial leaders and a majority of MPs that want to fix EI. And now TD economists say its plan to get out of deficit is a joke, and we're in for years more of pain than Harper and Jim Flaherty are willing to admit.

It is a serious matter. When will we have competent government indeed?

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Caption contest: Lisa Raitt and her ex-staffer

This picture from the archives of Macleans's Mitchael Raphael is just priceless. It's embattled Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt and her recently ex communications director, Jasmine MacDonnel.


This pic just begs for a caption contest. Leave your entries in the comments!

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Lisa Raitt is twisting in the wind

I do have work to do today, but I did need to take a brief break this afternoon to catch the beginning of question period, where, as you can imagine, Lisa Raitt and the atomic docu-scandal (how’s that for a potential name?) dominated.

Stephen Harper had a previously scheduled engagement in Quebec, but the senior ministers that were in the house left Raitt to fend for herself as she faced a steady barrage of questions from all the opposition parties, until Joe Volpe finally took pity and asked one about all that missing gold at the Royal Canadian Mint (there’s a 24 karat story that’s been overshadowed today).

What struck me was that the other ministers left Raitt to twist in the wind and take every question. Someone is the designated In Charge when Big Daddy is away, but no one stepped-up to take even one question for Raitt and express the government’s confidence in her. Very telling.

As for Raitt, she repeated the same question time and time again, with only minor variations, such as when she outrageously accused the NDP’s Thomas Muclair of sexism. Basically, her lines were its serious, it’s the staffers fault, the staffer resigned, I offered to resign but Harper said no.

She almost seemed a little peeved at times at Harper for now letting her quit. One wonders how much longer they'll let her twist in the wind.

Here’s her first answer, which is pretty representative of all of them:

Lisa Raitt: Mr. Speaker, this is a serious matter. Correct procedures were not followed in this case. Corrective action has been taken. I offered to resign if the prime minister felt it necessary, and he did not accept it. The person responsible for handling the documents offered their resignations.

Speaking of Big Daddy, Harper was in Quebec today, and took a few questions from reporters. Here’s what he had to say on Raitt:

Well, as regards Minister Raitt, she has worked diligently on her files. She was with her employee. She had a reasonable expectation that her aide would look after her documents, and that that person would be responsible for the documents and deal with them if they were missing. Obviously this is a serious question. There should be changes because of this, but it's not the fault of the minister's staff. Bernier, the situation was quite different. But I should also say that i believe Maxime have learned a great deal from that incident. He remains a very important part of our team today and I expect that to remain the case in the future.

Well, I think it's a matter of personal action. As I've said, Minister Raitt was working at the time she was undertaking employment activity, ministerial activity in the company of her staff who were responsible for these documents and certainly for accounting for these documents later, and as I say, I think she had a reasonable expectation that that would be done. This is a serious matter and there will have to be changes as I've said, there will have to be an examination of this, and this kind of thing cannot re-occur. That said, in the case of minister Bernier, his actions were much more personal in nature, and that was the difference in the responsibility. That said, as I said earlier, Maxime think has learned a lot from his own experiences. He is a valuable member of our team, and I anticipate him playing a valuable role in our team in the future.

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Reports that reports of Lisa Raitt's death was premature may be premature

All morning the speculation has been will Lisa Raitt resign/be fired for leaving a binder full of secret documents on the Chalk River file at CTV, and not noticing it was missing for a week, or will the Conservatives try to blame it all on some poor staffer (who I'm sure will be rewarded with a nice private sector gig for taking the fall).

Well, unsurprisingly, with accountability being just a buzzword for the Stephen Harper Conservatives, just after lunchtime they opted for door B: let the staffer take the fall. Harper spokesperson (I'm assuming he's on the PMO payroll today) Kory Teneycke went on CTV (hey, why not them?) to break the news:

Well, let me first start by saying that this is obviously a very serious incident. Our government takes the handling of confidential documents very seriously and we have very clear and very firm procedures in place to prevent these sorts of incidents from happening. That being said, an incident obviously did occur where some documents were left at the ctv studio here in Ottawa. And as alt, the prime minister and our office have taken a very careful look at what did occur. It's our assessment that while this was a serious breach, it was not breach by the minister herself. And as such, we expect the minister to continue the good work she's doing on behalf of the government.

(snip)

The minister did offer her resignation if the prime minister felt it appropriate. For her to step down. He obviously did not. And as such, she's staying on. However, I would like to point out that the staff person responsible did offer their resignation and it was accepted.

So, Raitt offered her resignation but Harper said no, some poor staffer resigned instead, and this is different from the Maxime Bernier cause because it just is so leave me alone. And with that, the Conservatives seemed content to ride this thing out.

But then, mere minutes later on that same CTV, reporter Bob Fife reports:

I can report, dan, ctv news has learned that the aide who was walking the plank for the minister is Jasmine McDonell who I think we have a picture of her going in with the minister this morning in from the back way of the house of commons. She's a young aide, press secretary. I can also report sources telling CTV that that briefing document actually was the minister's document. Now, they're going blame this aide for having it. But there's going to be a lot of questions that will be asked here, dan. The minister -- if it was the minister's briefing document, which is what I am told it is, the question would be why wasn't the minister -- why'd the minister ask, hey, where's my briefing document? Why is it missing? In and the same thing would apply to the aides. Any of these documents, they're supposed to be under lock and key because they are marked " and when they are brought out of the office they're supposed to be in a briefcase under lock and key and taken out with somebody watching. When it goes back into the evening it it is supposed to be put back into a safe in the minister's office or at a safe in the minister's home. So there's a lot of unanswered questions here. It's fine and dandy for the prime minister's office to try to have some young 26-year-old walk the plank for this, but the buck stops with the minister.

(snip)

I'm getting this from sources, dan, that i believe to be reliable, who have talked to me in the last little bit. And who say that not only were -- that is the minister's briefing book, but there is essential active commercial information -- sensitive commercial information in that document which we have not reported that would be very advantageous to some of the people bidding on some of our reactors in ontario, and in fact the information that the ontario government would not be very pleased with if it got out. The issue here is the government trying to deflect the blame by blaming some young 26-year-old girl. Other issue, this is we're told the minister's document. And the other factor is sensitive commercial information which ctv has not reported that somebody has to take account for. And it certainly can't be some young kid.

(snip)

The duments that the ctv had and which graham richardson reported on last night were " and they were numbered. And so they are very sensitive documents and these are the kind documents that are traceable. If they're not reported immediately, there should be an automatic trace of what happened those documents. Ctv got these documents late thursday evening. We've had them since tuesday until graham reported on the national last night. So we understand there is an investigation going on now from the privy council office, but every rule in the book was broken as far as I can see in terms of security.

Question period starts in a few minutes and its going to be a doozy. Fife's report kills any chance Teneyck's interview had of ending this thing with the staffer's resignation. This is bigger now, with the commercial aspects, and with the revelation these actually were the minister's own personal briefing books, the PMO and Raitt look like heartless, unprincipled tools for trying to blame this on some young staffer.

What's more, by releasing that Raitt offered her resignation and HARPER refused, this is now bigger than Raitt. Harper gets to wear this now. This whole sorry episode, from the firing of Linda Keen to the complete inaction on the Chalk River file over 18 months to the lack of an isotope backup plan to this pathetic attempt to save the hide of Raitt and not Bernier for the EXACT SAME OFFENSE because he likes Raitt while Bernier was an embarrassment to trying to blame it all on some young kid, it all comes back to the incompetence of this government and Stephen Harper's lack of leadership.

Lisa Raitt's resignation, which is even more necessary now that it was, will be all the more embarassing and painful for this government now because of this pathetic manuvering.

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Maxime Bernier on Lisa Raitt's misplaced documents

I'm sure this will endear Maxime Bernier to Stephen Harper all the more, no?

“I think she has good judgment. She must use her judgment like I did in my circumstance,” Maxime Bernier said Wednesday.

“I did what I had to do at my time. I assumed my own responsibility. She's going to do what she thinks is good for the country and for her.”

In other words, I had to resign so she better have to as well. Unless Harper was lying when he said it was because of the documents I had to resign, and not because of my biker-connected girlfriend with the hot dresses and the what not.

Unfortunately, since Bernier did not run away quickly from the reporter, my dream scenario is now even less unlikely: Maxime returning to cabinet in Raitt's portfolio. That would have been too funny.

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PMO "investigating" Lisa Raitt's document security breach

By investigate I'm sure they mean lots of people saying "what the hell happened?" and "can we blame the Liberals somehow?" This may buy them a day or two at best, but I'd be very surprised if question period isn't dominated with calls for the resignation or firing of Lisa Raitt, followed by intensive media scrutiny.

Besides, Harper has already set the standard.

From CP:

The Prime Minister's Office is investigating how a senior cabinet minister left behind sensitive government documents at television news bureau in Ottawa.

A spokesman for the prime minister, Kory Teneycke, says the government is still establishing exactly what went on.

CTV News reported that Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt or one of her aides left behind a binder of documents on Atomic Energy of Canada at its Ottawa bureau nearly a week ago.

The network says a federal government employee picked up the documents this morning after a story aired Tuesday night.

The report says the documents list millions of dollars in funding for the corporation that have not been made public, including $72 million to ``maintain the option of isotope production.''

A spokeswoman for Raitt declined to comment.

They may try to pin this on an anonymous staffer, deflect blame by attacking CTV for keeping and reporting on the documents, or both. Remember, they also tried to blame Julie Couillard when Maxime Bernier left secret documents at her apartment.

The buck stops with the minister, though. This is her responsibility as the minister. That's how our system works: ministerial responsibility. Lisa Raitt is going to have to fall on her sword. The only question is how long Stephen Harper lets her twist in the wind first.

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Secret Chalk River files left at CTV. Will Lisa Raitt survive this?

After Natural Resources minister Lisa Raitt spent the day on a parliamentary committee hot seat over safety and production concerns at the Chalk River nuclear reactor, a situation that largely developed under the watch of her predecessor, Gary Lunn, news is breaking tonight that has to make one wonder how much longer Raitt will be spending at the cabinet table:

Sensitive government documents left behind at a CTV News bureau reveal Ottawa has poured far more money into the aging Chalk River nuclear reactor than the public has been told.

The binder of documents was left nearly a week ago at CTV's Ottawa bureau by either Minister of Natural Resources Lisa Raitt or one of her aides. Some of the papers are clearly marked "secret."

The last time a cabinet minister mishandled secret government documents it was Maxime Bernier leaving documents at his ex-girlfriend Julie Couillard's house. And we all know what happened with Bernier.

Raitt was already taking a beating in the Chalk River file. It's hard to see how she walks away from this. Whether it was her or her staffer that left the documents behind, the principle of ministerial responsibility applies, and this is clearly an unacceptable lapse.

What's in the documents is equally momentous:

In documents headlined "Background for discussion with chair of Atomic Energy Canada," the government lists funding for the Crown corporation at $351 million for 2009-2010. That figure was in the January budget.

However, it also lists $72 million to "maintain the option of isotope production." The public 2009 budget does not specifically mention funding for isotopes.

The documents also include a hand-written note that lists total funding for Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd. since 2006 at $1.7 billion, and then a talking-point memo to characterize the spending as "cleaning up a Liberal mess."

Other documents highlight cost increases for AECL that have not been made public. In one document headlined "Discussion with CEO Hugh MacDiarmid, CEO of Atomic Energy Canada," it lists $100 million in supplementary funding to keep it solvent.

The Conservatives have mishandled this file badly, and to try to blame this mess on the Liberals is a transparently pathetic attempt at spin. It was clear 18 months ago that there were serious problems at Chalk River. Linda Keen was fired for blowing the whistle. Today in question period Stephen Harper was all about safety first, oddly vindicating Keen's call 18 months ago to favour safety over isotope production.

The government has had 18 months to fix the problems at Chalk River. It has had 18 months to put alternate arrangements in place to ensure an adequate supply of medical isotopes in the event of another reactor shutdown. Instead it has failed on both counts: Chalk River is in worse shape then ever, and there are no back-ups in place. Because of Conservative mismanagement, ill Canadians are going without the medically necessary treatment they need.

It's an epic failure. Once for which, I suspect, Lisa Raitt will soon be walking the plank.

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A radioactive situation

With the Harper government's firing last year of nuclear regulatory boss Linda Keen for daring to put safety first and raise questions about the operation of the Chalk River nuclear reactor, it seems that economy and the production of medical isoptoes has won out over basic questions of nuclear safety.

Reading this article about a recent radioactive spill at Chalk River, which is operating at double its normal output to produce isotopes with a plant in Holland offline, I've lost track of just how many scary and concerning revelations are contained in this piece. But I'll try to list the major ones.

* A RADIOACTIVE SPILL HAS OCCURRED at the aging Chalk River nuclear reactor west of the capital after the facility was recently cranked up to double its normal output of medical isotopes, used in diagnosing and treating cancer, Sun Media has learned.

* Nonetheless, after a brief shutdown, the reactor has operate at full power, even though Chalk River officials admit they don't know what caused the leak, and say it could happen again.

* Documents indicate officials at Atomic Energy took four days to report the spill to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

* Even then, the spill proved to be five times larger than what the officials initially reported.

* They didn't go out of their way to inform the public, either. A news release about the brief shutdown of the reactor in December made no mention of a spill, only "unanticipated technical challenges."

* Meanwhile, another part of the reactor has sprung a water leak from a six centimetre crack in a weld. That leak has still not been repaired since it was first reported more than six weeks ago.

* Atomic energy spokesman Dale Coffin says the crack in the seam could require up to a month of work to repair, "but right now our schedule doesn't allow us to do that."

When it comes to nuclear reactors, isn't it sensible to err on the side of safety? All I can say is, I wouldn't want to live near Chalk River.

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