An Indian-origin entrepreneur who owns a long-established medical equipment manufacturer in Kanata, a high-tech suburb of Ottawa, says he is being forced to relocate operations to the United States and India after the company decided to surrender its nuclear licence—a move he warns could cost around 200 high-skilled jobs.
Krishnan Suthanthiran, owner of Best Theratronics, said giving up the licence would result in “the loss of 200 high-tech jobs” following action by Canada’s nuclear regulator over the company’s failure to meet licence conditions.
On Friday, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) confirmed that Best Theratronics has begun removing the nuclear materials used in manufacturing cancer treatment devices. Officials told a public meeting that the company has obtained export licences to ship its Cobalt-60 and Cesium-137 sealed sources out of Canada.
Best Theratronics, once a Crown agency, played a key role in developing the world’s first cancer treatment machine, according to CBC News. However, the company has struggled in recent years under private ownership. Suthanthiran said he has incurred millions of dollars in losses since acquiring the business from MDS Nordion in 2007.
The firm has also faced prolonged labour unrest, with employees striking for nearly 10 months over wage disputes. In November last year, the CNSC issued formal orders after finding that the company’s financial guarantee had expired. The regulator directed Best Theratronics to set aside $1.8 million to cover potential cleanup costs in the event of site decommissioning.
Suthanthiran did not comply with the order, telling CBC in October that he lacked the funds to reinstate the guarantee and disagreed with the regulator’s assessment. Instead, he opted to abandon the nuclear licence and pivot the company toward non-nuclear operations.
In an email to CBC, Suthanthiran said the decision was forcing him “to relocate to the USA and India,” adding that maintaining the nuclear licence had become financially unviable.
The CNSC has instructed the company to submit monthly progress updates, though Best Theratronics missed a December reporting deadline. Company representative Manny Subramanian told the commission the delay occurred because Suthanthiran was travelling abroad.
“We ended up submitting about a day or two late because Krish, the company president, was out of the country and we couldn’t reach him,” Subramanian said.
The next deadline is Tuesday, when Best Theratronics is required to submit an initial plan for decommissioning its Kanata facility.
