Owner of Ottawa medical manufacturer says he has no money to comply with nuclear regulator


The owner of an Ottawa medical manufacturer operating in violation of its nuclear license says he doesn’t have the money to comply with Canada’s nuclear regulator, which last year ordered Best Theratronics to reinstate an expired financial guarantee.

In November 2024, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) issued two orders against Best Theratronics, a manufacturer of cancer treatment devices that use radioactive isotopes of cobalt-60.

The company was in a protracted labor dispute with striking workers and an order related to safety concerns at the shuttered plant. The second required Best Theratronics to obtain a financial guarantee of $1.8 million, which would be used to cover cleanup costs if the plant had to be dismantled.

Nearly a year later, owner Krishnan Suthanthiran says he doesn’t have the money to pay, but insists the CNSC is wrong.

“No bank will give us a loan,” he said Thursday during a news conference at the facility in Ottawa’s Kanata neighborhood.

“The cost of having a license completed here is $2 million; I can’t afford that,” he said, threatening to move his operations to India or the United States.

The financial guarantee imposed by the CNSC was unduly onerous, Suthanthiran believed.

“The CNSC violates its own rules,” he said.

The company remains in violation

The CNSC confirmed that Best Theratronics continues to violate its nuclear license, but did not say what steps it would take to achieve compliance.

“The matter remains under active regulatory review and CNSC staff have brought additional information to the attention of the Commission for consideration,” a spokesperson told CBC in an email, declining to provide further information.

As the regulator of Canadian nuclear facilities, the CNSC can issue orders and fines to licensees. It also has the authority to revoke licenses and initiate proceedings.

Suthanthiran is “mocking” the CNSC, according to Green Party leader Elizabeth May, who accused the commission of being too close to the industry it regulates.

“The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has long been described as a captive regulator for good reasons,” he said. “But this is at the level of a bad actor.”

Best Theratronics “should not have a license to operate yet,” he said.

‘We can’t find qualified workers’

Before becoming Best Theratronics, the company was a division of Canada’s Crown Atomic Energy corporation and produced the first cobalt-based cancer therapy systems in the 1950s. It was later sold to MDS Nordion before Suthanthiran acquired the company in 2008 for $15 million.

Suthanthiran, who was born in India and studied at Carleton University in the 1970s, had built a global empire of medical products manufacturing companies, including a Belgian company that was placed under administration in 2012 after Belgian authorities accused Suthanthiran of illegally draining funds from the company and withdrawing.

On Thursday, Suthanthiran said he planned to end manufacturing that requires a nuclear license in Canada. Some operations could continue at the company’s Kanata plant without the need for a license, he said.

“Canada is not business-friendly,” he said.

Suthanthiran said he was struggling to hire qualified staff after many employees walked out during the strike, when the union representing many of the plant’s workers dubbed him “Canada’s worst boss.”

“This company used to have more than 200 employees. Now we have about 60 employees,” he said.

“We can’t find qualified workers,” he continued. “Us [could] Hire 50 machinists. We can’t find them.”



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