The request was sent to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission on April 1, 2022.

The Algonquins of Barriere Lake joined the Kebaowek Algonquins and numerous civil society groups and elected officials in calling for adjournment of the hearings.

This postcard campaign was initiated by our friend and colleague Dr. Judith Miller of the First United Church Water Care Allies. Please also send a card, email or phone message to your own MP!

Note: If you are seeing this page for the first time and the April 11 deadline has passed, feel free to write to the CNSC to tell them what you think, and copy your Member of Parliament.

On May 31st the final licensing hearing for giant Chalk River radioactive waste mound will begin. The Commission will hear interentions (10 minute presentations) from First Nations, NGOs, municipal representatives, citizens’ groups and others.

This will be the final opportunity for the public to comment on this flawed proposal that will endanger the Ottawa River when this mound leaks and disintegrates, which the proponent’s own studies show is inevitable. There are many good reasons to stop this dump. For a simple summary of six of the most compelling see this post.

You do not need to have any scientific or technical expertise to intervene. Your intervention/submission/letter can be short or more substantial. Some of the most effective interventions in past hearings have involved singing and/or strong visual images. You can present a slide show that could include a short video. Passionate pleas for common sense are good too! Let’s press the CNSC to uphold its mandate to protect the environment and current and future generations of Canadians.

Contact us if you would like more guidance than is contained in this post.

Please send a copy of your intervention to your Member of Parliament.

April 11 is the deadline to request to intervene 

Your request must include:

• Your written submission to be presented to the Commission
• Whether you wish to intervene with your written submission only or if you would also like to make an oral presentation during the hearings (oral interventions are RECOMMENDED as they have more impact on the commissioners; they can be any length under 10 minutes)
• Your name, address and telephone number

To Send: two options ~ send by email or use on-line form (link just below):

1.  Send via email to CNSC:interventions@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca

To identify your request, write in the subject line and as a heading:

May 31 Public Commission Hearing – Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Near Surface Disposal Facility

OR

2.  Use on-line CNSC Request Form

Date: May 31     Licensee: Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL)

Subject: Public Commission Hearing – Near Surface Disposal Facility

http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/the-commission/intervention/

What to expect: The Commission Registry will acknowledge receipt of your request to intervene and will later confirm if your intervention has been accepted by the Commission.

Your intervention will be given a Commission member document (CMD) reference number and will be added to the public record. Submissions will be publicly available on the CNSC website.

Reference material to possibly inspire your intervention:

Six Reasons to Stop the Ottawa River Radioactive Waste Dump

Critical Flaws, Errors and Omissions in CNSC staff’s case to approve the Chalk River Mound

Défauts, erreurs et omissions critiques dans le dossier d’approbation du monticule de Chalk River 

Nuclear regulator’s case to approve giant nuclear waste mound is fraught with serious errors and omissions, citizens’ groups say   

Selon des groupes de citoyens, les arguments de l’autorité de réglementation nucléaire en faveur de l’autorisation d’un gigantesque monticule de déchets nucléaires sont truffés d’erreurs et d’omissions graves

Media Release: February 16, 2022 ~ MPs and groups oppose hearings to license Canada’s first permanent radioactive waste dump. The media release in English and in French.

The statement referred to in the media release was sent to Ms. Rumina Velshi, CNSC President, and to the federal ministers of Environment, Natural Resources, Indigenous Services and Crown Indigenous Relations. 

OPEN LETTER To Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of the federal cabinet ~ Stop the Chalk River radioactive waste dump

LETTRE OUVERTE au premier ministre Justin Trudeau et au Conseil des ministres fédéral ~ ARRÊTEZ le dépotoir radioactif de Chalk River

This is an excerpt from the NSDF proponent’s draft Environmental Impact Statement (March 2017)

March 2022 , updated January 2025

A 2016 Access to Information request revealed the following information about the salaries of senior executives under the GoCo scheme for operating Canada’s Chalk River Laboratories (and other federal nuclear sites). Scroll down to the end of this post for the updated information from the 2024 ATIP request.

Nine senior executives were paid an average of $722,000 per person per year (including travel)
Most were non-Canadian.

Twenty-eight senior contractors were paid an average of $377,275 per year per person.
27 of the 28 senior contractors were non-Canadian.

The documents obtained trough the ATIP program are as follows:

File 1: Executive and senior contractor files (9 executive salaries + travel) = $722, 000 / yr per person. Senior contractor costs (28 persons) at $377, 275 / yr per person. (For comparison purposes, consider that the salary of the Prime Minister of Canada is $347,400 per year)

File 2. Confirmation that 27 out of 28 senior contractors were non-Canadian. It is not known if any Canadian tax is paid by the non Canadians.

Files 3. CNEA fees ~ CNEA fees are all redacted despite being taxpayer funded and Science Advisory Board, SAB, costs. Typically the CNEA fees would likely be 15-20% of overall contract value per year but there is no way to confirm what these CNEA fees are. Also on p4 of 7 is the Science Advisory Board  cost for one year. ($183,254) where 4 out of 5 members were non-Canadian (advising Canadians on science policy).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following updated information was obtained in an ATIP request in 2024:

“In 2023, via contract money funneled through AECL, Canadian taxpayers paid average salaries of $510,301 to each of 44 CNL executives and non-executive contract staff, mostly non-Canadians — well above the Prime Minister’s $406,200 salary. ” Ole Hendrickson, Rabble.ca

GoCo contract costs – Total labour and total non-labour costs

	Number		Total cost ($)4,5,6		Average cost ($)
	2023	2016	2023	2016	2023	2016
CNL executives1	14	9	7,969,646	6,498,000	569,260	722,000
CNL non-executive contract staff2	30	28	14,483,594	10,563,700	482,786	377,275
CNL total or average	44	37	22,453,240	17,061,700	510,301	461,127
AECL executives3	11		5,710,125		519,102
CNL + AECL total or average	55		28,163,365		512,061

¹Total Canadian National Energy Alliance executive management labour and non-labour costs included in expenses (not necessarily paid) of all CNL managers working on management type functions relating to the GoCo.  Labour costs include salaries, bonuses, performance-related fees and other compensation. Non-labour costs include all other costs (e.g., relocation costs). 

²Total labour and total non-labour costs included in expenses (not necessarily paid) of GoCo contract staff working on management type functions related to the GoCo: (30 staff including 20 non-Canadians in 2023; 28 staff including 27 non-Canadians in 2016).  Labour costs include salaries, bonuses, performance-related fees and other compensation paid by CNL for contractors. Non-labour costs include all other costs paid by CNL for contractors (e.g., relocation costs). 

³Total labour and total non-labour costs included in expenses for AECL’s 11 executive staff for the most recent fiscal year, 2023-24.

⁴Total travel costs (non-labour) for CNL executives in 2016 were $200,732. 

⁵Total labour costs for non-executive contract staff in 2016 were $6,207,952; total non-labour costs for non-executive contract staff in 2016 were $4,355,748.

⁶Total cost of CNL executives increased by 22.6% between 2016 and 2023; total cost of CNL non-executive contract staff increased by 37.1% between 2016 and 2023.

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February 21, 2022

February 25 (revised version with footnotes, submitted to the House of Commons standing committee on Environment and Sustainable Development)

*Click on the blue file name, just above to read in your browser without downloading.

This Original version was sent to the CNSC president Rumina Velshi on February 21, 2021

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