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Proud achievements throughout a challenging year
As I reflect on an active and challenging year of work here at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), I am particularly proud of the way in which all staff have continued to uphold the most fundamental principles of our organization – namely, to protect the health, safety and security of Canadians and the environment and to implement Canada’s international obligations respecting the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
This Departmental Performance Report highlights the many important achievements realized in 2009–10. All our licensed facilities and activities continue to operate safely in compliance with our regulatory requirements. Furthermore, the CNSC closely monitored and provided regulatory oversight of the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) repair work on the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor at Chalk River; continued to disseminate objective and scientific information to keep the public informed about nuclear safety; and provided a licence for dealing with the long-term project to clean up historic waste in Port Hope.
On the international side, the report also highlights an independent assessment of Canada’s nuclear regulatory framework conducted under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that determined that our framework is mature and well-established, and that the CNSC does an effective job in carrying out its role as Canada’s nuclear regulator. This is high praise and reflects our skilled workforce’s commitment to carrying out the CNSC’s mandate on a daily basis.
In the 2010 Budget, the Government of Canada took steps to further improve the regulatory review process for large energy projects. In this vein, the CNSC will continue to work on implementing an improved regulatory framework and a more efficient regulatory oversight and on ensuring the timely and meaningful engagement of the public, stakeholders and Aboriginal peoples in the review of major nuclear projects. We will continue to strive for excellence in our core activities, as well as make significant strides in our commitment to ongoing improvements, in the clarity of our regulatory expectations, in our capacity to respond to any situation, and in our communications with the public. As we strive towards our vision of being the best nuclear regulator in the world, I continue to seek the valuable input from the CNSC Audit Committee and count on the oversight function that they provide.
Obviously, safety will continue to be the number one priority at the core of everything that we do!
With respect,
[ Original version signed by Michael Binder ]
Michael Binder
President
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
In 1946, Parliament passed the Atomic Energy Control Act (AECA), creating the Atomic Energy Control Board, and provided it with the power to regulate all nuclear activities related to the development and use of atomic energy in Canada.
Over half a century later, in May 2000, the Nuclear Safety and Control Act (NSCA) came into effect and established the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) as a successor to the Atomic Energy Control Board.
The CNSC is an independent regulatory agency with quasi-judicial powers responsible for regulating all nuclear-related activities and substances in Canada.
To be the best nuclear regulator in the world.
Regulating nuclear activities to protect the health, safety and security of Canadians and the environment, and implementing Canada's international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
Under the NSCA, the CNSC achieves its mission through the following areas:
In this context, the CNSC:
The Commission Tribunal has up to seven permanent members, appointed by the Governor in Council, and is supported by a workforce of approximately 850 employees across Canada. The President of the CNSC is a permanent full-time Tribunal member, while other members may be appointed to serve full- or part-time. Temporary members can also be appointed by the Governor in Council, as required.
The Commission Tribunal is a quasi-judicial administrative tribunal and court of record and makes independent, fair and transparent decisions on the licensing of nuclear-related activities, establishes legally binding regulations, and sets regulatory policy direction on matters relating to health, safety, nuclear security and the environment. With respect to licensing matters related to major nuclear facilities, the Tribunal considers applicant proposals, recommendations of CNSC personnel, and stakeholder views before making its decisions. In order to promote openness and transparency, the Tribunal conducts its business to the greatest extent possible in public hearings and meetings and, where appropriate, in communities affected by the decision at hand. Commission Tribunal hearings are conducted in a public forum approximately 10 times per year, and decisions are released within 30 business days after the closing of the hearings.
The organizational chart for the CNSC:
The following illustrates the CNSC’s program activities and program sub-activities, which support a single strategic outcome:
Planned Spending | Total Authorities | Actual Spending |
---|---|---|
142,731 | 144,855 | 138,352 |
Planned | Actual | Difference |
---|---|---|
840 | 841 | 1 |
Note:
The 2009–10 Planned Spending amount included costs paid for by other government departments (OGDs) for accommodations, health insurance and other expenditures totalling $11.2 million. In accordance with Treasury Board requirements, these costs are not included in the Total Authorities or Actual Spending and will be excluded from Planned Spending in future years. Explanations of variance in resource levels can be found below following the table “Performance Summary by Program Activity”.
The CNSC works to achieve its strategic outcome through four program activities: Regulatory Framework, Licensing and Certification, Compliance, and Internal Services. In 2009–10 the CNSC successfully completed planned activities and met all performance targets with the exception of one. Further details regarding the links between the CNSC’s strategic outcome, program activities, expected results and 2009–10 performance can be found in Section II.
Program Activity | 2008-09 Actual Spending |
2009-101 | Alignment to Government of Canada Outcomes | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Main Estimates |
Planned Spending |
Total Authorities |
Actual Spending |
|||
Regulatory Framework | 27,462 | 28,761 | 28,761 | 30,148 | 24,345 | Social Affairs - Safe and Secure Communities |
Licensing and Certification | 27,189 | 31,272 | 31,272 | 29,539 | 25,045 | |
Compliance | 25,567 | 40,605 | 40,605 | 40,366 | 39,724 | |
Internal Services | 37,805 | 42,093 | 42,093 | 44,802 | 49,238 | |
Total | 118,023 | 142,731 | 142,731 | 144,855 | 138,352 |
1Commencing in the 2009–10 Estimates cycle, the resources for the Internal Services program activity are displayed separately from other program activities; they are no longer distributed among the remaining program activities, as was the case in previous Main Estimates. This has affected the comparability of spending and FTE information by program activity between fiscal years.
Note:
The above table indicates that total authorities used between 2008–09 ($118 million) and 2009–10 ($138 million) have grown by $20 million. Reasons for this growth are: increase in regulatory licensing and compliance work performed in 2009–10 where funding was sourced from industry licence fees; costs associated with the re-fit of office space and the implementation of an
information system; the conduct of regulatory activities planned for 2008–09 but delayed and conducted in 2009–10; funding received under the Economic Action Plan to relocate and upgrade the CNSC laboratory and for the payment of economic increases on employee compensation.
Although work has slowed on major nuclear projects, the Government of Canada remains committed to establishing Canada as a clean-energy superpower. For the CNSC, this means ensuring a state of readiness and continuing to develop guidance for new applications while protecting the health, safety and security of Canadians and the environment, and helping Canada meet its international obligations for nuclear safety.
During the past fiscal year, the CNSC accomplished a wide range of key activities under four priorities: Commitments to ongoing improvements, Clarity of requirements, Capacity for action, and Communications. These four priorities cross-cut the CNSC’s program activities and their associated commitments supported progress towards the CNSC’s strategic outcome.
Commitments to Ongoing Improvements
In addition to conducting core licensing and compliance activities, this priority includes work undertaken to complete Harmonized Plan initiatives. (The Harmonized Plan brings all corporate-wide improvement initiatives under a single umbrella.) It also includes ensuring that the health of Canadians and the safety of facilities are central considerations in all licensing and compliance activities, through initiatives such as isotope contingency planning and assessing environmental concerns. This priority also encompasses corporate service level and policy improvements, including those identified through various audits.
Summary of 2009–10 achievements within this priority area:
Clarity of Our Requirements
This priority includes creating broad awareness of the CNSC’s requirements stemming from the NSCA among licensees, vendors of nuclear technology, and proponents, whether for refurbishments and life-extensions or new projects (such as design reviews, review guides, joint review panels). Its other goals are revitalizing the CNSC’s regulatory framework; updating regulatory documents and guidance, with particular attention to guidance for licence applications and environmental assessments (EAs); engaging government partners through the Major Projects Management Office; and continuing the implementation of the protocol for NRU licence renewal.
Summary of 2009–10 achievements within this priority area:
Capacity for Action
This priority includes maintaining and renewing the CNSC’s workforce to ensure sufficient knowledge and skills to fulfill our mandate. This means continuing efforts to make the CNSC an employer of choice through focussing on renewal and retention initiatives. The organization is strengthening its planning and operational processes, and focusing on information management progress in key areas such as compliance reporting, inspection tracking/resolution and financial management.
Summary of 2009–10 achievements within this priority area:
Communications
This priority includes work to strengthen communications with the CNSC’s licensees, the public, stakeholders, Aboriginal peoples, international counterparts, other government departments and central agencies, in accordance with our goal of being the best nuclear regulator in the world and our mandate to disseminate objective scientific, technical and regulatory information to the public concerning our regulatory activities.
Summary of 2009–10 achievements within this priority area:
As part of its ongoing organizational risk management, the Management Committee is responsible for reviewing risks and ensuring mitigation strategies are in place. Each fall, during the CNSC’s strategic planning sessions, a review of risks is undertaken to assess any potential impacts on planning. Identified risks are monitored throughout the year at each Quarterly Corporate Performance Review.
Over the past several fiscal years, the CNSC, in response to anticipated growth in the nuclear sector, put in place a recruitment strategy to ensure that the organization had the necessary staff complement to regulate new projects; the organization did not want to be at risk of causing delays to new projects. The CNSC was successful in hiring the employees needed and in 2009–10 the CNSC shifted from recruitment to a strategy of retention to retain the organization’s highly skilled workforce of 850 employees.
The CNSC has now fully implemented its Revenue Spending Authority, which makes its source of funds dependent on the level of regulatory oversight of fee-paying licensees. In 2009–10 licence applications for new power reactors were withdrawn, forcing the CNSC to adjust plans to ensure funding of all regulatory activity. The organization was able to accomplish this because it had developed planning scenarios to facilitate a fair and reasonable reallocation of efforts and costs in the event that the risk of major project stoppages materialized. The organization also undertook an initiative to simplify its costing regime and provide more certainty to licensees; improvements are being implemented in fiscal year 2010–11.
The CNSC received a total of $13 million in incremental resources through Budgets 2006 and 2008 to address regulatory workload pressures and forecasted growth associated with fee-exempt and nuclear security activities. These incremental funds are set to expire at the end of fiscal year 2010–11, and the CNSC is working with the government to ensure that it is resourced to fulfill its mandate.
The CNSC’s workload, and therefore its resource requirements, are largely driven by the demand for licensing and regulatory oversight of Canada’s nuclear industry and by Canada’s international commitments respecting nuclear safety, security and non-proliferation.
Revenue spending authority was fully implemented in 2009–10. The CNSC’s cost-recovered activities are funded through the fees collected from industry for approximately 70% of the total CNSC budget. This authority provides a sustainable and timely funding regime to address the rapid changes in regulatory oversight workload associated with the Canadian nuclear industry.
The CNSC is also funded through an annual appropriation, from Parliament, representing approximately 30% of the total budget. The regulations state that some licensees, such as hospitals and universities, are exempt from paying fees as these entities exist for the public good. In addition, fees are not charged for activities that result from the CNSC’s obligations that do not provide a direct benefit to identifiable licensees. These include activities with respect to Canada’s international obligations (including the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons), public responsibilities such as emergency management and public information programs, and updating of the NSCA and associated regulations.
In 2009–10 the total parliamentary and revenue spending authorities totalled $144.9 million. Of that amount a total of $138.4 million was used to fund the CNSC’s cost of operations, leaving $6.5 million in unused authority of which $1.7 million is related to revenue received in advance.
In 2009, the CNSC conducted a strategic review of the funding, relevance and performance of its entire program spending to ensure results and value for money. The results of this strategic review were submitted to Treasury Board in the fall of 2009, and the reallocation proposals have received the support of Treasury Board Ministers. The results of this review will be reflected in future reporting to Parliament.
The figure above illustrates the CNSC’s spending trend from 2007–08 to 2009–10.
Vote # or Statutory Item (S) | Truncated Vote or Statutory Wording | 2007-08 Actual Spending |
2008-09 Actual Spending |
2009-10 Main Estimates |
2009-10 Actual Spending |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
15 | Program expenditures | 89,870 | 91,002 | 40,670 | 46,282 |
(S) | Contributions to employee benefit plans | 9,975 | 11,533 | 4,464 | 13,978 |
(S) | Expenditures pursuant to paragraph 29.1(1) of the Financial Administration Act | - | 15,488 | 97,597 | 78,092 |
Total | 99,845 | 118,023 | 142,731 | 138,352 |
This table presents resources that have been voted to the CNSC by Parliament. It should be noted that Parliament approves the voted funding whereas the statutory information is provided for information purposes. Explanation of variance in resource levels can be found in the table “Performance Summary by Program Activity”.
Through the 2009 Budget, $250 million was made available to departments and agencies over two fiscal years to address deferred maintenance of federal laboratories. The focus was on laboratories that contribute to core regulatory responsibilities of the government, such as health and safety.
The CNSC was allocated a total of $3 million under CEAP to improve its laboratory capabilities, bringing them up to international standards. In 2009–10 the CNSC received and spent $2 million to renovate new laboratory space, purchase new equipment and decommission the existing laboratory.