Opposed to proposed site of deep geological repository (DGR) in Northwestern Ontario

I am submitting this second submission in strong opposition to the proposed Deep Geological Repository project by Nuclear Waste Management Organization within Treaty 3 territory.

I am opposed on the basis of irreversible environmental risk, violations of Indigenous sovereignty, the transportation of nuclear waste so far from its production and deeply flawed consultation processes.

The NWMO entire process of selecting a “host “community for the deep nuclear waste repository was fraudulent and dishonest. Every member of Wabigoon Ojibway First Nation were told if the majority of their member voted yes to be a willing host, each member would receive $145,000. In 2025 as a result of the majority yes vote to host the DGR, the cheques were handed out to each adult member and held in trust for the children. This is the tip of the bribery iceberg. Millions of dollars have been distributed in the so called search for the ideal location for the DGR.  Ignace voted yes to being a willing host. Ignace is 40 km east of the proposed DGR. Dryden is 60 km west from the proposed DGR. The water flows towards Dryden from the DGR, not Ignace. Dryden residents didn’t get the vote. NWMO chose Ignace and Wabigoon Ojibway First Nation because NWMO did their homework and knew Ignace and Wabigoon OFN could be manipulated with money to get a majority yes vote. All of Treaty 3 First Nations should get the vote for a nuclear waste repository in Northwestern Ontario. All the settler residents in Northwestern Ontario should get the vote on a nuclear waste repository in our watershed.

I have been a resident of Northwestern Ontario since 1974. I was born in Montreal. Growing up in the City of Deux Montagnes, an hour train ride from the largest city of Canada at the time, I grew weary of air and water pollution. During the hot summers, the closest swimming locations other than swimming pools, were the polluted St. Laurence River and the Riviere des Mille Iles. Following the completion of a Bachelor of Science Degree from Concordia University, I accepted a park naturalist job with the Dryden Ministry of Natural Resources. I had intended to leave Dryden for the wilderness of British Columbia in the fall. When I discovered Northwestern Ontario was a wilderness with thousands of pristine lakes, I decided to stay longer. My husband was born in Dryden, our 3 sons were born in Dryden. Our 3 sons and 3 grandchildren all live in Northwestern Ontario. We live in Northwestern Ontario for the wilderness and the pristine lakes. My husband, our 3 sons and their partners are all well-educated. I was a qualified teacher, my husband a professional forester, one son an air ambulance pilot, one son a paramedic, one son a family doctor, one daughter-in-law a teacher, another an occupational therapist. We didn’t have to live in Northwestern Ontario. We chose to live in clean air, clean water and low population. Now the Doug Ford and the province of Ontario want to make us the nuclear waste dump for Canada and maybe the United States. This is environmental racism.

Doug Ford is proposing to fund small nuclear reactors. He is also proposing the largest nuclear reactor in the world to be built in the Bruce area. The nuclear waste should stay close to the Bruce and Pickering areas to be recycled. We should not be creating more nuclear waste to be dumped far away in Northwestern Ontario.

We don’t want a nuclear waste dump 60 km east of Dryden. The Wabigoon River is a continuing environmental disaster. The Dryden Paper Mill dumped mercury into the Wabigoon River during the 1960’s into the early 1970’s. Indigenous people are still suffering from that act of environmental racism. Mercury was known to be lethal in the last century. The decision makers should have gone to jail. The effects of mercury poisoning were seen in my lifetime. If the proposed site for the DGR is approved and gets developed the contamination will be seen by future generations and the decision makers will be dead.

Northwestern Ontario has a low population but a great wealth of natural resources. We have vast forests, gold mines and critical minerals but the greatest wealth of all is the abundant clean freshwater. Blue gold! Not to be sold but valued as life itself. Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think that Northwestern Ontario would be identified to receive the most toxic waste in the world. Clean freshwater is precious. Northwestern Ontario has more water than land. We have an immense precious water resource at a time when other countries, cities, towns and villages are rationing water due to pollution, industry, farming and overpopulation. Think a few centuries into the future as the planet is warming, Northwestern Ontario may be a very desirable place to live especially for the growing Indigenous population. The future generations who will be using solar and hydrogen energy will be very angry if the proposed site for the nuclear waste repository is approved. If approved, I predict all the nuclear waste in Canada and in the future will be dumped 60 km east of Dryden. Instead of being known for our tourism attractions, we will be the nuclear dump of Canada.

I oppose the proposed nuclear waste burial site east of Dryden and west of Ignace.