First Nations leaders continue to oppose Ontario nuclear waste burial projects

Across the street from the Westin hotel in Ottawa Thursday, Sean McLaren pointed to the suites perched atop the building.

"It's a shame," said the vice-chief of Timiskaming First Nation in Quebec, about 500 kilometres north of the capital.

"At the top of that building there, you could have a nice glass of water, clean, right out of the tap. Us, up north in the bush, we gotta boil our water. If everybody had to boil their water in Ottawa to have a drink, we'd all be standing here right now."

This concern about water, he said, is what brought him to demonstrate outside the Canadian Nuclear Associa‐ tion's annual conference this week.

McLaren joined about two dozen others from Algonquin communities and local citi‐ zens' groups to protest a pro‐ posed radioactive waste dump near Deep River, Ont.

The project, which Canada's nuclear regulator approved in January, would entail construction of a "near-surface disposal facil‐ ity," similar to a municipal landfill, at the Chalk River nu‐ clear laboratory.

The lab is about 190 kilo‐ metres northwest of Ottawa, but the facility would sit about a kilometre away from the Ottawa River, or Kichi Sipi. The Algonquins of Pik‐ wakanagan First Nation has consented to it, but others remain vehemently opposed.

"We're here to defend the Kichi Sipi," said Grand Chief Savanna McGregor of the Al‐ gonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council, which repre‐ sents six communities in Quebec.

"It needs to be protected." Kebaowek Chief Lance Haymond is leading the charge to stop the project. His First Nation, also in Que‐ bec north of Ottawa, filed a court challenge against the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) in Febru‐ ary.

"It's the wrong solution in the wrong location so let's go back to the drawing board," he said outside the hotel.

Deep rock dump seeks site

Inside the hotel, the coun‐ try's top nuclear players touted their vision for the fu‐ ture. The industry is in the midst of a public relations push, bolstered by a burst of government support.

The 2023 federal Liberal budget made nuclear power projects eligible for a cleanenergy tax credit. Ontario's

Progressive Conservative government is also planning on nuclear expansion.

Last fall, federal Energy and Natural Resources Minis‐ ter Jonathan Wilkinson en‐ dorsed the near-surface dis‐ posal method in general, as well as the deep geological repository method proposed by the Nuclear Waste Man‐ agement Organization (NWMO).

Terry Richardson, chief of Pabineau First Nation in New Brunswick, said he thinks the technology is safe.

"As First Nations, we have to take action and address this climate issue right now and the way to do that is to reduce our carbon emis‐ sions," he said.

"This is a way to do it through nuclear."

NWMO is presently seek‐ ing a willing community to host a deep geological repos‐ itory, which would involve burrowing 700 metres under‐ ground into solid bedrock to isolate radioactive waste in‐ definitely.

The organization intends to select a site before year's end, said Vince Ponka, NWMO northern Ontario re‐ gional communications man‐ ager. NWMO is eyeing either

Ignace in the province's northwest or South Bruce in southern Ontario.

Grassy Narrows First Na‐ tion Chief Rudy Turtle wrote the NWMO this week oppos‐ ing the Ignace site, which would be upstream on the Wabigoon River watershed.

"Downstream, we're very concerned that it's gonna hit us again. We've had mercury contamination in our land," Turtle said.

"We're not very pleased about having possible nucle‐ ar contamination in our tradi‐ tional territory, so that's why we're opposing it."

Grassy Narrows op‐ posed

In the 1960s and '70s, indus‐ try dumped an estimated nine tonnes of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River system, leading to mercury poisoning among members of Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong Indepen‐ dent Nations.

Also known as Asub‐ peeschoseewagong Netum

Anishinabek, Grassy Narrows is about 90 kilometres north of Kenora.

Ponka called the mercury poisoning "a black mark on Canadian industry." He said NWMO intends to respect the United Nations Declara‐ tion on the Rights of Indige‐ nous Peoples, which says states shall take measures to ensure no hazardous materi‐ als are stored on Indigenous lands without their consent.

But, he added, Grassy Narrows isn't considered the host First Nation for the Ignace site. This is Wabigoon

Lake Ojibway Nation, which is closer than Grassy Narrows, said Ponka.

Turtle rejected that posi‐ tion. His letter said the waste in question will remain ra‐ dioactive for thousands of years, far too long for anyone to forecast the impacts.

"Wabigoon is not the only First Nation that's close by," Turtle said.

"There's other First Na‐ tions as well, and I think most of the First Nations oppose this project."

Ponka acknowledged it's difficult to plan to monitor the site for thousands of years but that the idea be‐ hind the system is that the rock would contain the waste if human-made measures eventually fail. He cited the example of Finland, which is building the world's first repository of this kind.

Turtle, however, is uncon‐ vinced. He said he's prepar‐ ing to protest, like Haymond and the others.

"We strongly say no."