IGNACE – The community committee mandated to help Ignace residents decide whether they want to host a giant repository for spent nuclear fuel did not meet for 11 months in 2022-2023, according to a longtime member of the panel.
There were no full meetings of the Willingness Committee from November 2022 until October 2023, Roger Dufault, a member since 2018, said this week.
“I can remember going through spring and seeing (Ignace community development strategist) Keith Roseborough, who was technically in charge,” Dufault recalled. “At that point I said ‘Hey, what's going on with willingness? Why aren't we meeting?’
“He said ‘Oh, well, you know, it’s coming, it’s coming.’ That’s all we’d ever hear.”
Ignace council temporarily suspended the committee’s operations last week.
The Willingness Committee, also called the Ignace Community Nuclear Liaison Committee (ICNLC), is a group of six who are supposed to be part of the “willingness process” of determining community support for a proposed deep geological repository (DGR) in the Ignace-Wabigoon Lake area.
Two of its six members are from township council. Dufault, a cabinet maker with deep roots in the community, is one of the other four. The township wants to recruit three more to the committee, bringing the total to nine.
Community willingness is a core principle in decision-making for the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) as it chooses between Ignace-Wabigoon Lake and the South Bruce area for the site of its DGR, a facility hundreds of metres below ground for the long-term management of waste from Canada’s nuclear power plants.
Potential host communities must go through a “willingness process” to gauge community acceptance for hosting the DGR.
The process in Ignace includes the Willingness Committee and an ongoing “willingness study” being conducted by With Chela Inc., a consulting firm the township contracted in 2023.
With Chela’s team knocked on doors and spoke with Ignace residents in November and have a return visit scheduled for late January. They have also set up a toll-free number and website through which Ignace residents can contact them.
The NWMO has a Learn More Centre where Ignace residents can get information about nuclear power and the DGR. It’s located where Dufault’s family operated a hardware store for decades.
Dufault said the township’s approach to the committee lately is one of “no consultation – ‘it’s our way or the highway.’”
Committee members are not being kept in the loop and are being told they must attend “mandatory training” after years of service, he said.
“I used to really enjoy being on the ICNLC,” he said. “It’s not fun anymore.”
Dufault was one of 10 Ignace residents – along with individuals from Dryden, Lac Seul First Nation and Atikokan – who toured Finland’s DGR in early November. He said the tour convinced him of the DGR’s safety.
“My biggest concern right now is addressing misinformation” because DGR critics “take things out of context,” he said.
