IGNACE – The Township of Ignace has dismissed three longtime members of its nuclear willingness committee.
Willingness Ad Hoc Committee chair Roger Dufault and two other members received a letter Monday from the township informing them that the town council “is terminating your role on the Committee effective immediately.”
The letter, signed by Mayor Kim Baigrie, reminds them that they signed an “oath of confidentiality” in April and says legal action will be taken if they share confidential information.
No explanation for their dismissal was given.
Baigrie confirmed to Newswatch that the trio have been removed from the willingness committee, then quickly added “I can’t really speak of it.”
Township councillors had issues with certain committee members’ conduct, she said this week – “and that’s all I’m at liberty to talk about right now.”
Ignace spokesperson Jake Pastore said by email that township officials “are not at liberty to discuss the details of the correspondence to the committee members.”
The letter to Dufault and two other committee members was sent after an emergency meeting of Ignace council was held on the evening of Thursday, Aug. 8.
After a closed session, council passed a motion authorizing Baigrie to “sign three letters as per direction in the Closed portion of the meeting” and directing the township’s chief administrative officer to send the letter.
The motion was moved by Coun. John Taddeo and seconded by Coun. Wayne Minnear.
Ignace is on the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s shortlist of two potential host municipalities for a proposed underground facility for storing spent fuel from Canadian nuclear reactors.
The other municipality on the list is South Bruce, near Lake Huron in southwestern Ontario.
If constructed in Northwestern Ontario, the deep geological repository would be situated near Revell Lake between Ignace and Dryden.
The federally mandated, industry-funded NWMO has said it will choose a site for the repository by year-end.
A key criterion for the NWMO’s siting decision is that potential host communities be willing to have a repository in the area.
The Willingness Ad Hoc Committee has its roots in the 2011 creation by the township of the Ignace Community Nuclear Liaison Committee, mandated to help Ignace residents learn about nuclear waste and the proposed repository.
Ignace council suspended the liaison committee’s operations in early January 2024 and then replaced it with the Willingness Ad Hoc Committee on Feb. 20.
Roger Dufault was among the returning members of the ad hoc committee, along with Paul Dufault, Cindy Stark and Diana Baril.
In June the committee received a report on community willingness from a firm contracted by the township.
The “resident ad hoc committee” – willingness committee members who are not members of township council or staff – reported on July 10 to a special meeting of Ignace council, which voted unanimously to tell the NWMO that Ignace is willing to proceed as a potential host community.
South Bruce will hold a referendum on its willingness in late October.
The two First Nations on whose traditional territory the potential sites lie have not made their willingness decisions.
Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation, near Ignace, has said it will hold a member vote on the issue but has not set a date for that vote.
Saugeen Ojibway Nation, Wabigoon Lake’s southwest counterpart, has said it won’t hold a vote until next year.
