February 13, 2016
1821
The Honourable Catherine McKenna, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1A 0A9
RE: Stop OPG's nuclear waste dump
Dear Minister McKenna:
In your consideration of the report of the Joint Review Panel (JRP) recommending approval of Ontario Power Generation (OPG)'s proposed nuclear waste dump on the shore of Lake Huron, I would like you to be aware of the unscrupulous charade that project proponents called a public consultation.
A core criteria for constructing a nuclear waste dump is the existence of a willing host community. As a municipal taxpayer in Inverhuron, the community closest to the proposed site, I was not consulted about this project. Nor were any of our relatives who own 16 properties in the community. We did not learn of this project until the public hearings were announced, even though project planning had been under way for more than a decade.
A peer-review report for the Municipality of Kincardine confirms the lack of communication. In his report, Hardy Stevenson wrote "80 per cent of the neighbouring communities and 60 per cent of the Kincardine community who were surveyed (751 in total) do not recall having received OPG newsletters" (page 53).
I maintain that no citizens of the municipality were actually consulted on this issue. Kincardine and OPG proudly claim that a telephone survey of select municipal residents shows 73 per cent of respondents support the DGR. That is untrue. Only 60 per cent of respondents supported the telephone question. Of the 6,778 respondents to the survey, 4,054 said yes, 1,477 said no, 874 were neutral and 373 did not know what to think or did not answer. In a community where the nuclear plant is by far the largest employer and dominates the local economy, this level of support is surprisingly weak.
It is even weaker considering the highly-biased and dishonest preamble leading up to the question. In the 150-word preamble to the question, respondents were told, among other things, that the DGR provides the highest level of safety of any option. They were told the DGR will permanently isolate the waste and it will provide significant economic benefits to the residents of the municipality. These statements are untrue.
Respondents to the survey were not told that every nuclear waste DGR in the world to date has failed. They were not told that an Economic Impact Study commissioned by council with the Ivey School of Business showed that the stigma from the nuclear waste dump would result in a loss of almost $700-million to Kincardine's land base and enterprise value. This loss over 30 years, which has already begun to occur, will be shared among property owners in the municipality.
Even the question, itself, was dishonest. Respondents were asked, "Do you support the establishment of a facility for the long-term management of low- and intermediate-level waste at the Western Waste Management Facility?" In fact, the DGR will have no long-term management. It is planned as a dump for radioactive waste. While its contents will remain highly radioactive for 100,000 years, OPG plans to stop monitoring the dump after 30 years. If the company does that, people will only become aware that the DGR has leaked radioactive waste into the lake when it is too late to stop it.
Minister McKenna, you are mandated by the prime minister of Canada to restore Canada's environmental reputation to the world. You are mandated to protect Canada's precious fresh water resources. You are mandated to ensure all projects under federal jurisdiction are presented to the Canadian public in an open, honest and transparent manner.
If you are to fulfill your mandate under those terms, how could you possibly put the source of drinking water for 40-million people unnecessarily at risk - especially given the lack of transparency and illicit activities that have surrounded this project since its inception? Were you to approve this project, you would also be approving that behaviour. Your government wants Canadians to trust you, to believe in your open and transparent decision-making process, to demonstrate that environmental protection is your priority. Show us. Quash this project and end this threat.
Sincerely,
Joanne Martin
Inverhuron
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