Protecting Jobs Is
of No Concern in This
Imbroglio
- Louis Lang -
Strike in July 2012 by 800 nuclear scientists, engineers and
technologists at Candu Energy,
a wholly-owned subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin Inc. created in 2011 after the
acquisition of the commercial reactor division of Atomic Energy of
Canada Ltd. from the government of Canada.
SNC-Lavalin's position has been that it should be
considered for a remediation agreement instead of being
prosecuted because it claims that the bribery charges it faces
are without merit and stem from "alleged reprehensible deeds by
former employees who left the company long ago." However, the
main argument given to defend SNC-Lavalin is that a conviction on
charges would bar the corporation from bidding on government
contracts for ten years. Those defending the position of the
Trudeau government claim that this would jeopardize thousands of
good jobs.
 Looking at the matter
solely to examine whether or not SNC-Lavalin and its lobbyists and
government insiders have engaged in criminal activities completely
covers up the relationship between governments, both Liberal and
Conservative, and the private interests which they have acted to
protect at the expense of public control of important sectors of the
economy. Their pretense of protecting SNC-Lavalin for the sake of "good
jobs" is a total lie because giving preference to SNC-Lavalin for
decades has destroyed thousands of jobs to build and operate public
infrastructure that has been systematically handed over to private
interests.
A most vivid example is the destruction of Atomic
Energy of
Canada Limited (AECL), a Crown corporation founded in 1952 with a
mandate to develop nuclear energy technology. AECL developed the
CANDU reactor technology in the 1950s and, until its sale to
SNC-Lavalin in 2011, was also the vendor of CANDU technology
which it had exported worldwide. Throughout the 1960s to 2000s,
AECL built CANDU facilities in India, the Republic of Korea, Argentina,
Romania and the People's Republic of China.
In June 2011, AECL was sold to SNC-Lavalin for $15
million.
Not only did SNC-Lavalin pay a fraction of the value of AECL,
which many experts described as a fire sale price, the government
also gave SNC-Lavalin $75 million to complete development of a
new reactor called Enhanced CANDU 6. At the time of the sale the
yearly earnings of AECL were approximately $500 million. Even if
the considerable assets built up by AECL are not taken into
account, it is the height of hypocrisy to deny that this was a
gift by the Harper government to SNC-Lavalin.
The positions of the unions representing AECL workers
were
strongly against this action precisely because it meant the loss
of thousands of jobs, not just in the Crown corporation but many
other thousands of jobs among the corporation's suppliers.
Michael Ivanco, Vice-President of the Society of Professional
Engineers and Associates, stated at the time that the sale would
result in a "hollowed out company," and could cost thousands more
jobs among the corporation's suppliers. "It may contribute to
brain drain not seen since the Avro Arrow, as engineers,
scientists and others evaluate their long term careers with the
company," Mr. Ivanco declared. "We are shocked and angry that the
Harper government conducted this sale behind closed doors without
any input from the Canadian public or Parliament. They jammed
legislation through the budget that gave cabinet the right to
make decisions instead of Parliament and now we see the results,"
he added. The union also pointed out that close to 800 jobs were
jeopardized by the SNC-Lavalin takeover.
It was well known that many reactors built by AECL were
in
need of refurbishing at that time. The Harper government used the
opportunity to destroy AECL and take the nuclear industry out of
public control, following which SNC Lavalin signed billions of
dollars worth of contracts to refurbish reactors in Canada and
internationally. A scam is a scam, legal or not.
Nuclear scientists hold
information picket to defend Canada's nuclear expertise against
privatization, Chalk River Laboratories, September 9, 2014.
TML Daily wrote on January 24, 2014:
"The privatization of AECL is damaging for the national
economy now and in the future. It has resulted in the loss of
close to one thousand jobs and the potential loss of thousands of
jobs in the future. It has taken a very important technology, the
secure development of nuclear energy, out of the public domain
and handed it to a monopoly corporation which will take advantage
of the needs of the whole society for electrical energy. Nuclear
energy clearly impacts on the health, safety and well-being of
all Canadians and must never be allowed to be the private domain
of a monopoly corporation whose only interest is maximum profit.
The Harper government has even chosen to ignore the fact that
SNC-Lavalin has been embroiled in allegations and findings of
irregular payments to public officials, misconduct, corruption
and bribery in projects in Canada and other parts of the
world."
AECL's dismantling was all achieved through legal
measures,
including legislative changes so that Canada can say it abides by
the rule of law. The Trudeau government has continued the same policy
of destroying public control over the
building and operation of public infrastructure, which is the
overwhelming consideration in all these decisions and has
nothing to do with "protecting jobs."
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number 7 - March 2, 2019
Article Link:
Protecting Jobs Is
of No Concern in This
Imbroglio - Louis Lang
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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