August 1, 2003

Mr. Fraser Reilly-King
Halifax Initiative
153 Chapel Street, Suite 104
Ottawa, ON  K1N 1H5

Dear Mr. Reilly-King

This is to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 28, 2003, and enclosed documentation. I acknowledge that your letter was also copied to Darlene Pearson, Director, Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Auditor General of Canada.

You do not note in  your letter whether you attempted to resolve your concerns with Export Development Canada (EDC) by any other means. You have referred the matter to ma as Compliance Officer for EDC.

Pursuant to the resolution guidelines, upon receipt of such a letter, I must conduct an initial appraisal of your concerns to establish whether they fall within the mandate of EDC’s Compliance Program.

July 28, 2003

Ms. Alison Lawford
Compliance Officer
Export Development Canada
151 O’Connor Street,
Ottawa ON K1A 1K3

Dear Ms. Lawford:

I am writing you on behalf of the NGO Working Group on EDC (WG), a working group of the Halifax Initiative, to file a complaint with regard to the Cernavoda 2 nuclear reactor in Romania. Last January, Export Development Canada (EDC) confirmed that it would provide a $328 million loan guarantee to the Romanian government to help complete the construction of the reactor.

In accordance with the guidelines for filing complaints, I have divided this letter into three sections that outline the WG’s opinion of the problem, our opinion on the desired result of an investigation, and what has been done to solve the problem.

Click here for pdf

August 14, 2002

Ms. Pamela Foster
Coordinator
Halifax Initiative
153 Chapel Street, Suite 104
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 1H5

Dear Ms. Foster,

This is in reply to your letter of July 11, 2002, regarding possible Export Development Canada (EDC) support for the Cernovoda Nuclear Power Plant, Unit Two.

July 11, 2002

Mr. Ian Gillespie
President
Export Development Canada
151 O’Connor
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1K3

Dear Mr. Gillespie,

We are writing to urge you to refrain from extending support for the Cernavoda 2 nuclear reactor in Romania. There are key questions that remain outstanding on this project, questions that need to be answered before a public financial institution approves its support.

Question#1: Is Romania in violation of the Espoo Convention?

March 20, 2002

March 5th, 2002

The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien
Prime Minister
Government of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada       K1A 0A2
(613) 941-6900

Subject: Cernavoda 2 Nuclear Power Plant project in Romania, EDC export credit approval

Dear Prime Minister Chrétien,

We are writing you to express our deep concern about the possibility that Export Development Canada (EDC) will approve $390 million ($250 million US) in financing for the completion of the second CANDU reactor of the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant (C2) in Romania.

SIERRA CLUB OF CANADA
NEWS RELEASE -- Wednesday December 12, 2001
INTERNATIONAL OPPOSITION TO ROMANIAN REACTOR
The Sierra Club of Canada has denounced a risky request for 390 million dollars in Canadian taxpayer funds to finance a second CANDU reactor in Romania. Public interest groups in Europe are also calling on their respective governments, export credit agencies and the European Commission to oppose loans for the Cernavoda-2 CANDU reactor in Romania.

PRESS RELEASE- ECA-Watch Campaign
December 03, 2001
Another one bites the dust :
OECD negotiations break down again
For the second time in three years, major international negotiations have broken down at the OECD. Then, it was the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, the “MAI”. This time, it is an attempt at negotiating common environmental guidelines for export credit agencies (ECAs), the world’s largest official financiers of environmentally and socially destructive projects in developing countries.

G8’s IMPOTENCE IN REFORMING THEIR EXPORT CREDIT AGENCIES
NGOs call on G8 governments to soon adopt high level binding common environmental guidelines for their Export Credit Agencies.