MPP seeks help for emergency planning
Essex MPP Taras Natyshak has raised the issue of a lack of provincial government support for Amherstburg for nuclear emergency preparedness during question period in the Ontario legislature.
And although he said he wasn’t encouraged by Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Marie-France Lalonde’s public response, he said she agreed during a private chat afterward to have further conversations with Amherstburg leaders.
“(Publicly) she sort of leaned on the fact that (the province has) a plan in place and our nuclear facilities are stringent, they’re world class and so on, but didn’t really address Amherstburg specifically,” he said.
Natyshak, who is the New Democratic Party’s critic for community safety, raised the question in the house, referencing auditor general Bonnie Lysyk’s report that highlighted “not only is the province not prepared for an emergency of that type … but there is a gap when it comes to our region and Amherstburg ’s vulnerability given its proximity to Fermi.”
Amherstburg receives no provincial funding for nuclear emergency planning or practice. The Fermi 2 nuclear facility, which sits 16 kilometres across the lake in Monroe, Mich., provides about $25,000 a year to the town.
Natyshak said that isn’t close to enough funding, noting other communities with Ontario-based nuclear facilities nearby receive roughly $100,000 a year to plan, prepare and practise their emergency response mechanisms.
“We’re not in that program because we don’t have a facility next to us,” he said. “What we’re looking at is simply fairness and parity as far as what other municipalities receive.”
That preparedness would extend to the availability of potassium iodide (KI) pills, which reduce the risk of thyroid cancer following a nuclear accident, to all residents living near the facility.