WABIGOON LAKE — Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation members are receiving their first “milestone payment” from the federally mandated agency that aims to build an underground nuclear repository upstream from their reserve.
The application form for what is dubbed an Engagement and Education Payment, in the amount of $145,000, says to qualify a person must have been a band member between Oct. 14 and Nov. 16, 2024.
The latter date was the closing day of a referendum on whether the First Nation should proceed as a potential host to the proposed deep geological repository, or DGR.
In that referendum, Wabigoon Lake members gave “an overwhelming mandate to continue to the next phase of this project,” Chief Clayton Wetelainen told Newswatch last November.
He did not disclose the precise results but said the 'yes' vote was greater than the 77 per cent support garnered in a community vote held earlier in Ignace.
The Township of Ignace is the designated host municipality for the proposed DGR, a deep-underground facility for disposal of spent fuel from Canada’s nuclear power plants.
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization, an industry-funded body mandated by federal law to find long-term solutions for nuclear waste, has “host agreements” with Ignace and Wabigoon Lake that designate payments to be made by the NWMO as the DGR project proceeds.
Ignace municipality received a $1.5-million payment on Aug. 15, 2024, one month and five days after its council passed a resolution declaring Ignace a willing host community for the DGR.
The terms of Ignace’s agreement with the NWMO were publicly disclosed last March, but the First Nation’s host agreement has never been disclosed.
Vince Ponka, regional spokesperson for the nuclear organization, said Tuesday he “couldn’t speak to the Wabigoon agreement as it is a private agreement between Wabigoon Lake and the NWMO.”
Chief Wetelainen said Tuesday he is not granting interviews. Other Wabigoon Lake officials did not respond to requests for comment.
After a nearly 15-year process, the NWMO selected the Revell Lake site south of Highway 17 between Ignace and Wabigoon Lake as the place to construct the multibillion-dollar DGR.
The site is in the traditional territory of Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation.
The NWMO has projected construction will start in the early 2030s, after clearing regulatory and licensing hurdles, and be completed about 10 years later.
