To the editor,
In February we took part in the Agriculture “Impact” Study. Very quickly we discovered the real purpose of the study wasn’t about our concerns over how this would negatively affect agriculture, but rather a push for us to suggest what variety of carrots the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) can offer us.
The repeated requests that we provide answers based on the acceptance that the project did come was eerily similar to the 2020 Visionary Workshops. The workshops that were manufactured into the “guiding principles,” a list of boxes for the NWMO to check off and then consider us a willing community.
Reading the study questions, they’re all asking how the NWMO can improve agriculture. Only the last question asks how the DGR (deep geological repository) may change agriculture. Will the study results be presented with our concerns on the impact of agriculture or will it be another list of “guiding principles” for the NWMO to check off?
Are these the studies we are told we need to wait for? Studies designed to manufacture the results the NWMO desires? The community deserves to decide sooner rather than later so residents can plan their future.
The NWMO’s recent announcement of the Property Value Protection (PVP) program shows their lack of understanding of our agricultural community.
According to the NWMO Land Access Information Package, landowners who agreed to option their property were given agreements for 25 per cent over market value and many deals were signed above that 25 per cent.
So, landowners who were interested in selling are rewarded, but the adjacent landowners who would be forced off their land because they don’t want to be a part of this radioactive experiment, are paid market value.
The PVP clearly states it does not include business generated from the property. Does the NWMO not realize that in agriculture our property is our business? Lamb buyers in Toronto have already said they would not purchase lamb for their butcher shops from beside a DGR for nuclear waste and our sheep milk processor has said they don’t know if the DGR would affect our ability to continue shipping to them.
Passing the farm onto the next generation ends the PVP coverage as it would be considered new ownership.
The NWMO doesn’t understand that for many of us our property is not just a piece of real estate. It is our business, it is our home, it is our history and our future.
The NWMO is so focused on finding a site to bury this radioactive waste they have forgotten that it is real lives, hopes and dreams they are destroying. When did people’s desire for more money in their community make it okay to sacrifice the future of others?
Michelle Stein
Teeswater
