To the editor,
For close to 10 years now, ever since my first involvement as a South Bruce councillor with the (Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s (NWMO’s) proposed deep geological repository (DGR) in 2012, I have strongly advocated in letters to your paper the need to hold a binding municipal referendum during the upcoming 2022 municipal election. A referendum with a clear question, with a yes or no answer, as to whether, as an informed community – and I stress the word informed – South Bruce would be a willing host to the NWMO’s proposal.
However, recently I concluded that such a referendum in 2022 would be premature, as it would force the hand of this community to decide yes or no on this proposal without a full understanding and knowledge of the impacts both environmental and socio-economic that are not available at this time. Nor would that information, which would come by way of a full environmental and socio-economic assessment, be available to us for another two or three years.
In addition. we would also not know by 2022 what the peer-review studies show regarding the science, computer modelling and borehole studies, which are crucial for the NWMO to acquire the go-ahead from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Also, we would not be privy to the results of a proper socio-economic impact study until well after we say yes or no in a 2022 referendum.
We need to be, as the NWMO has told us countless times, a fully informed community to have any credibility as a willing host.
But is this all speculation or conspiracy theory on my part? Are these just whimsical projections with no basis? Believe me, here in South Bruce those proponents of the “willing to listen” crowd demand facts.
To those skeptical of my assertions that we will not be a fully informed community by 2022, I can only point to the recent flyer that came with my municipal tax bill. The rather glossy flyer, put out by our own South Bruce Nuclear Exploration Project, includes a timeline that the NWMO is following on all aspects of this DGR proposal. If you look closely at the projected arrows of the timeline, it will indicate that, except for the results of an informal socio-economic study, all studies, reports, peer review studies and a full environmental assessment do not come until well beyond 2023. As such, we will not have the information to make an informed decision by that time, let alone before the municipal election next year. In addition, the graph also indicates that in years beyond 2023, a review and vote by the SON on the proposal will still be ongoing. And since they have the final say on the DGR, our decision of yes or no by us would seem to be a moot point.
In conclusion, although I feel a referendum should be required to indicate full consent to the NWMO’s DGR, it should not be held until we are fully informed of all of the project’s impacts. And according to the NWMO’s timeline, that will not be known to us until well past 2022.
David Wood
Mildmay
