gordonmcdowell

Yesterday I appeared before the House of Commons Natural Resources committee to make the case for a Canadian nuclear industrial strategy centred on CANDU. As Washington mobilizes behind Westinghouse and the AP1000, Canada faces a defining choice: will we champion our own reactor technology or help build an American industrial enterprise with Canadian shareholders? My five-minute testimony is below. For the full transcript and deeper analysis, visit my Subst@ck, Decouple Media. Link in the comments.

Amid an escalating trade war with the United States, Ottawa is signaling a renewed preference for Canada’s CANDU technology to maximize its strategic autonomy and return on investment for Canadians. Enter Tim Gitzel, CEO of Cameco, one of Canada’s great industrial success stories, which now owns a 49% stake in Westinghouse (WEC). In recent testimony before Parliament’s Natural Resources Committee, he invoked Cameco’s Canadian credentials to argue that Ottawa should accord the American AP1000 reactor the same standing as CANDU in its nuclear industrial policy. There is a certain irony here. Cameco’s Canadian identity is the product of precisely the kind of deliberate industrial policy Ottawa is reviving. As a legacy of its Crown corporation origins, its corporate charter requires that its headquarters remain in Saskatchewan & that its senior executives reside there. The provincial government retains a special "Golden Share" that protects these provisions, ensuring Saskatchewan captures more than mining jobs & royalties. The strategic decision-making remains firmly rooted in the province. Westinghouse represents a parallel American history to Cameco. Its PWR technology emerged from the U.S. naval nuclear program under Admiral Hyman Rickover, developed in close collaboration with the US Navy, AEC & national laboratories. Backed by U.S. diplomacy, financing & industrial might, it became one of America's most successful nuclear exports. Its headquarters remain stubbornly in Pittsburgh despite frequent changes in international ownership over the last 30 years from British to Japanese to Canadian corporate entities. While Cameco objects to Ottawa’s recent pro-CANDU moves, WEC gets plenty of government support. It just happens to come from the United States of America. Washington is mobilizing behind WEC as its Nuclear technology champion. Examples include an agreement that contemplates US$ 80 billion in reactor projects & conditional DOE financing of US$ 17.5 billion for up to ten AP1000s. Meanwhile, WEC's Canadian ownership may be in flux ahead of a potential IPO, with the US government positioned to acquire a substantial equity stake. South Korean firms are also exploring ownership & supply-chain participation under a $120 billion nuclear partnership. And speaking of a "Golden Share," Korean media reports Washington may get one, granting it veto rights over major corporate decisions. This is no time for the familiar Canadian reflex of excessive politeness, conflict avoidance & attempts to please everyone. We need something of C.D. Howe’s wartime ambition: the confidence to identify vital national interests, mobilize our industrial capabilities & pursue them unapologetically. Canada built its nuclear industry through precisely that kind of determination & should approach its future with the same resolve. This is an excerpt from a more detailed essay. Read it on my Substack. decouple.media/p/the-great-c…