THUNDER BAY – Opponents of a potential nuclear waste repository in Northwestern Ontario showed up outside a Liberal fundraiser Monday for a peaceful picket.
Nuclear Free Thunder Bay spokesperson Charles Faust said the group of approximately 15 protesters wanted to send a message to Jonathan Wilkinson, the federal energy minister, who was at the fundraiser.
“He’s in charge of this file,” Faust said of Wilkinson. “He’s the man. So we just want to let him know that we’re out here at every opportunity to tell him that we’re not happy."
But Faust said they also had a message for Marcus Powlowski, member of Parliament for Thunder Bay-Rainy River: Meet with us.
Powlowski has recently declined to meet with constituents on the waste-repository issue, Faust said.
“We think it’s important for MPs to hear the views of their constituents,” Faust said. “It’s just not good enough to say ‘I don’t want to comment before a decision is made,’ which is what (Powlowski) has said.”
Asked what the anti-nuclear group hopes to get out of a meeting with the second-term Liberal MP, Faust said “We’d just like to get him to hear us.”
He added that the groups under the We the Nuclear Free North umbrella have a petition almost ready for presentation to Parliament.
“Frankly, we’d like him to present it for us (in the House of Commons),” Faust said of Powlowski.
An MP doesn’t have to agree with a petition to present it on behalf of constituents, Faust said.
Newswatch reached out to Powlowski’s office for comment and was told it would be “premature to comment” on the issue before a decision is made on the proposed deep geological repository.
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization, a federally mandated and industry-funded body, wants to build a deep-underground facility for long-term storage of spent fuel from Canada’s nuclear power plants.
One of two finalist sites under consideration is a location south of the Trans-Canada Highway between Ignace and Dryden, on the territory of Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation; the other site is near Lake Huron in southwestern Ontario, on the traditional territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation.
The nuclear organization has said it will choose a site for the deep geological repository by year-end, with construction set to begin about 10 years from now.
