A new report from the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development says the federal nuclear safety watchdog needs to improve the way it inspects nuclear power plants.
Commissioner Julie Gelfand says the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission uses site inspections at the four power plants in Canada as a key tool to make sure they comply with regulatory requirements and license conditions.
But her report says that because of insufficient or incomplete paperwork, the regulator could not show it had an adequate, systemic process in place to plan for and carry out these inspections.
Gelfand says the audit focused only on how the regulator manages its site inspections and not on the safety of the nuclear power plants or their reactors.
The report also takes aim at Fisheries and Oceans Canada for failing to properly monitor the health of some fish stocks, or put plans in place to rebuild a dozen that are in critical condition.
The report also says the department is missing important information required to manage these fish stocks in a sustainable way, because it is not conducting all its planned scientific surveys and the data that comes in from third-party observers is sometimes unreliable, insufficient or late.