To the editor,
The recent letter to the editor by Rita Groen, South Bruce, was interesting and an “eye-opener” (Our risk, our choice – Oct. 27). Residents should appreciate the work of those who search and report just what has been going on within the Municipality of South Bruce, and notably what has been going on behind the scenes by council, the Community Liaison Committee (CLC), the South Bruce Business Association and probably others, in regard to the deep geological repository (DGR) project.
The letter brought back thoughts from letters to the editor written back in September and November of 2014. These letters spoke of how the community has not been “flocking” to meetings to get information; how if the municipality doesn’t make their feelings known, we may have a DGR in our backyard; how you better speak up to council and/or the CLC; how it is hoped that all councillors listen to all the citizens and learn about their communities; and how councillors have to let the citizens know what they are voting on before the vote occurs.
Now it is 2021 and here we are with the prospects of possibly hosting a DGR. Just how many residents saw this beginning in 2014? Not very many. Now we have a very divided community since the NWMO announcement in January 2020. Ms. Groen’s letter informs us how South Bruce got this far. Just what has and is going on behind closed doors?
There is a group promoting residents to be “willing to listen.” Not everyone has been listening, otherwise there would not be such a community divide. For a group with a saying of, “remember, you have to agree to be kind,” it likes to criticize all information that is not in compliance with the NWMO information and labels those people. Is this being kind?
What is wrong with searching out information not presented by the NWMO, expressing concerns and asking questions? What is wrong with asking council for a referendum, prior to the NWMO’s decision, to find out how the community feels? How can the NWMO make a decision in 2023 when they will not have all their studies and plans complete? They say more studies/information/decisions will be done after 2023. Just look at their timelines.
The letters to the editor from Mr. Tony Zettel, who likes to label people who question a DGR, indicate he has a “one track mind,” repeatedly writing, “If the project goes ahead, it will mean hundreds of long-term, high paying, high-tech jobs for our children and grandchildren.” Life and living in a rural/small community is more than that. And who says our children and grandchildren want to remain working and living here?
The sooner this situation is resolved, the better. In the meantime, South Bruce will remain a very divided community.
S.A. McDonald,
Culross/Teeswater
