Caroline Mallan
Toronto Star
December 5, 2003

Ontario’s former Conservative government was warned loudly and often of the inherent problems facing Pickering A more than six years ago and failed to act, critics say.

Tom Adams of Energy Probe, the energy industry watchdog, said former Tory energy minister Jim Wilson and Bill Farlinger, Ontario Power Generation board chair, both knew that a "nuclear cult" had taken over the giant company and was out of control, making irrational spending decisions in the company’s nuclear division.

The Liberal government yesterday fired Farlinger, Ontario Power Generation president and CEO Ron Osborne and chief operating officer Graham Brown. OPG, created by the former Tory government in 1999, generates and sells electricity to Ontario and other markets.

Adams said yesterday’s report on the Pickering nuclear plant is especially damning of the previous government given all of the prior warnings.

"It’s not surprising, the government was warned about this reality in detail and they have had all the information they needed in 1997 to realize what a mess this was going to be, yet they pushed on," Adams said of the failed plan to refurbish Canada’s oldest nuclear reactors.

He said Farlinger’s most memorable quotation from his nine years at the helm of the corporation was the admission that a "nuclear cult" mindset had taken over the running of the provincially owned utility back in 1997.

"The irony is that he was today struck down by the consequences of that cult still being in power," Adams said.

Responsibility for the huge cost overruns and delays at Pickering, he added, do not rest solely with the three men at the top of the company, but with the political leadership of the day that failed to act more aggressively.

"Important officials that had responsibilities in this mess did not live up to those responsibilities," he said, naming Wilson and top officials that were at the energy ministry.

Adams said the Liberals under Premier Dalton McGuinty appear to be acting cautiously.

But he said Energy Minister Dwight Duncan needs to move quickly to put in place a board of directors and senior managers with legitimate experience in nuclear energy.

Dan McDermott of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund said the report is further evidence that governments continue to throw good money after bad when it comes to nuclear energy. "It is increasingly clear that the investment that has been put into Pickering A has not paid off, it was based upon judgment of what is known as the nuclear priesthood," he said of advocates’ devotion to nuclear energy.

McDermott said the potential of wind power needs to be harnessed in earnest if the province is to grapple with the looming energy shortage.

Duncan said yesterday there was no evidence that Pickering’s problems were caused by any intentional wrongdoing.