Norm Odjick, Director General, The Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council
Grand Council Chief Patrick Wedaseh Madahbee Anishinabek Nation
Patrick Nadeau, Executive Director, Ottawa Riverkeeper
Lynn Jones, Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area
Réal Lalande, Stop Oléoduc Outaouais / Ralliement contre la pollution radioactive (RCPR)
Open Letter To:
The Honourable Justin Trudeau, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Youth
The Honourable Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs
The Honourable James Carr, Minister of Natural Resources
The Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Dear Justin Trudeau, Carolyn Bennett, James Carr and Catherine McKenna,
We learned recently that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is proposing massive changes to the license for the Chalk River Laboratories, site of a proposed radioactive megadump, including removal of 28 conditions of the license itself and removal of several hundred “compliance verification criteria”. We are appalled at this radical move toward deregulation to benefit the multinational consortium, Canadian National Energy Alliance, whose Canadian partner, SNC Lavalin, is currently debarred from the World Bank for ten years and facing criminal charges in Canada for fraud, bribery and corruption.
Our two groups along with First Nations, scientists, municipalities, individuals, and the Quebec Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development are very concerned about the consortium’s plan to emplace and eventually abandon one million cubic meters of radioactive wastes in a giant mound on the side of a hill, next to a swamp, less than one kilometer from the Ottawa River at Chalk River, Ontario in unceded traditional Algonquin territory. As we and many others have stated, in comments on the environmental assessment for this misleadingly named “Near Surface” Disposal Facility, the proposed giant mound flouts international guidance, would exceed public dose limits for radiation for 100,000+ years and would contaminate the Ottawa River, Canada’s most recently designated Heritage River, which provides drinking water for millions of Canadians downstream all the way to Montreal.
We and many others believe that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission should not have decision-making authority for the environmental assessment of this or any other nuclear project. We concur with the Expert Panel on environmental assessment reform, the final report of which reflects the widely held view that CNSC is a captured regulator with no independence from the industry it regulates. We note that House of Commons e-petition 1220 requesting suspension of the environmental assessment for the Chalk River megadump and replacement of CNSC as decision maker for nuclear projects has been signed by more than 2,000 Canadians from coast to coast to coast in all ten provinces and three territories.
We are also very concerned by the Auditor General report that Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, owner of the Chalk River Laboratories and other federal nuclear facilities, has experienced a “significant deficiency in board renewal”, has “not met its statutory obligation to hold public meetings” since 2009, and lacks “a formal, systematic process for monitoring and reporting on risks” among its facilities.
Legal experts we have consulted have stated that CNSC’s proposed changes to the Chalk River site license would greatly reduce CNSC oversight and render important safety requirements unenforceable. For example, the following license conditions are among those planned for removal:
We believe this radical move towards deregulation must be stopped immediately. CNSC’s proposal appears to confirm the widely held view that Canada’s nuclear regulator is more interested in supporting the nuclear industry than in protecting health and the environment, its primary mandate under the Nuclear Safety and Control Act.
The Government of Canada urgently needs to overhaul nuclear governance in this country to ensure responsible handling of radioactive waste. Consultations with the public and First Nations must be an essential part of this process.
Yours sincerely,
Lynn Jones, Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area
Johanna Echlin, Old Fort William (Quebec) Cottagers’ Association
cc
Perry Bellegarde, Chief of the Assembly of First Nations
Verna Polson, Grand Chief, Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council
Kirby Whiteduck, Chief, Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation
Jean Guy Whiteduck, Chief Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg
Patrick Madahbee, Grand Chief of the Anishinabek Nation
Joe Norton, Grand Chief, Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, on behalf of the Iroquois Caucus
Margaret Froh, President, Metis Nation of Ontario
Michael Binder, President, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Health
Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science
Mélanie Joly, Minster of Canadian Heritage
Mona Nemer, Chief Science Advisor
Elizabeth May, Green Party Leader
Martine Ouellet, Bloc Quebecois Leader
Jagmeet Singh, NDP Leader
Andrew Scheer, Conservative Party Leader
Monique Pauze, Bloc Environment Critic
Linda Duncan, NDP Environment Critic
Ed Fast, Conservative Environment Critic
Stéphane Bergeron, MNA for Verchères
David McGuinty, MP for Ottawa South
Greg Fergus, MP for Hull-Aylmer
Will Amos, MP for Pontiac
Karen McKrimmon, MP for Kanata-Carleton
Cheryl Gallant, MP for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke
Jim Watson, Mayor of Ottawa
Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal
Isabelle Melançon, Quebec Environment Minister
Sylvain Gaudreault, Environment Critic, Quebec National Assembly
Sylvain Rochon, Natural Resources Critic, Quebec National Assembly
Marc Demers, Mayor of Laval
Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin, Mayor of Gatineau
Bob Sweet, Mayor of Petawawa
Joan Lougheed, Mayor of Deep River
Mike LeMay, Mayor of Pembroke
Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario
Phillippe Couillard, Premier of Quebec
Jennifer Murphy, Warden of Renfrew County
Jane Toller, Warden of Pontiac County
Chris Ballard, Ontario Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Kathryn McGarry, Ontario Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry
Julie Gelfand, Commissioner of Environment and Sustainable Development
Canada’s nuclear regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), is proposing sweeping changes to the current Chalk River site licence, site of the proposed radioactive megadump. These changes include extending the licence period to ten years, allowing construction of new facilities or decommissioning of old facilities without Commission approval, weakening decommissioning requirements to enable bulk demolition, deleting language requiring the licensee to “control, monitor and record releases” of radioactive nuclear and hazardous substances, and deleting the current requirement for site-wide groundwater monitoring.
See details on the proposed changes:
Planned changes to the site license for Chalk River Laboratories
Planned changes to the License Condition Handbook
(Ottawa, June 26, 2017) A petition to the federal environment commissioner Julie Gelfand, filed on June 20 with the Office of the Auditor-General, seeks the commissioner’s help in probing the origins of the radioactive waste dump proposal that has been ringing alarm bells for citizens’ groups, business owners and residents of Quebec and Ontario since the environmental impact statement for it was released in March, 2017.
According to critics, the proposed radioactive landfill, the so-called “Near Surface Disposal Facility”, is on a fast track to approval despite the fact that it does not meet safety standards established by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Critics of the plan include a number of retired scientists from Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL).
A former Director of Safety Engineering and Licensing at AECL notes that problems with the plan include an unsuitable location next to wetlands that drain into the Ottawa River and inadequate technology. Other scientists point out that the disposal facility would contain materials such as plutonium that will be radioactive for more than 100,000 years. After a period of “institutional control”, the wastes would be abandoned and the mound would deteriorate, leaking contaminants into the environment and the Ottawa River essentially for eternity.
Citizens groups want to know how such a flawed proposal could have emerged after the federal government spent $1.15 billion between 2006 and 2015 on a program to clean up its “legacy” radioactive wastes. At the time, it was estimated that $10 billion was needed to clean up Canada’s nuclear legacy liabilities, including contaminated waste areas, buildings and plutonium left over from Canada’s role in Cold War nuclear weapons production. A disposal facility was expected to be operational by 2035, reflecting the lengthy process required for characterizing wastes, selecting appropriate technologies, choosing a site, and licensing an environmentally acceptable facility.
Johanna Echlin, of the Old Fort William Cottagers’ Association, notes that an abrupt U-turn took place when the previous conservative government privatized Canada’s nuclear facilities, set up Canadian Nuclear Labs, and awarded a 6-year contract to a multinational, private-sector consortium to manage Canada’s federally-owned nuclear business and radioactive wastes in September 2015.
“We are very concerned that the contract negotiated with SNC Lavalin and others, emphasizes low cost, disposal of all wastes, and completion of a facility within six years,” Echlin said. “It appears the consortium may have won the bid to manage Canadian Nuclear Labs by proposing a quick and dirty approach to dealing with Canada’s nuclear wastes that reduced the cost of “cleanup” from $10 billion to $600 million. We want to know who said it was okay to ignore over a billion dollars worth of work on the previous cleanup plan.“
Echlin questions the former conservative government’s decision to privatize AECL and says that citizens’ groups see it as an abdication of responsibility by the Government of Canada to look after its radioactive wastes properly.
Dr. Ole Hendrickson, researcher for Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area says “It appears that annual expenditures for AECL more than doubled to almost one billion dollars after privatization. We are asking the Minister of Natural Resources to account for this increase”.
The petition to the environment commissioner was co-signed by Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area and the Canadian Environmental Law Association.
Theresa McClenaghan, Executive Director and Counsel for the Canadian Environmental Law Association, notes the petition is aimed at ensuring that funding has been appropriately allocated towards safely and efficiently reducing risks to Canadians. McClenaghan states, “If the proposed facility fails to meet regulatory requirements for health, safety and protection of the environment, a great deal of money, time and effort will have been wasted in a misguided effort to accelerate the reduction of the nuclear legacy liabilities currently on the balance sheet of the Government of Canada”.
The petition presents a series of 15 questions for the Minister of Natural Resources Canada, James Carr. The Minister is required to respond to the questions within 120 days of receiving them from the Office of the Auditor-General.
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Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area 