WABIGOON LAKE – Ignace residents’ vote on a proposed underground storage site for nuclear waste is set for April 26-30, but its partner community to the northwest won’t be voting until autumn.
Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation will hold their vote on whether the Treaty 3 community is willing to host a repository for spent nuclear fuel in the fall, Chief Clayton Wetelainen said this week.
A referendum is “targeted for the fall” but neither the precise date nor the question have been determined, he said.
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization had requested a decision from potential host communities by the end of July, but Wetelainen said Wabigoon Lake members need more time to consider the issues.
NWMO regional spokesperson Vince Ponka said Tuesday the organization still intends to choose a site for the repository by the end of 2024.
Wetelainen said the First Nation is in talks with the nuclear organization on a hosting agreement similar to the one the Township of Ignace ratified and signed in March.
“We are just in the process of discussing different items in that agreement, and that’s what we have to do,” Wetelainen said.
A hosting agreement needs to be settled before Wabigoon Lake members vote on their support for the project, he said.
The chief said he and councillors have heard “concerns on both sides” within his nation’s membership.
“There is a strong pro side and there’s a strong negative or strong opposition. And there also is a strong ‘not decided, need more information.’”
Wetelainen would not say whether he is for or against Wabigoon Lake allowing nuclear waste to be kept within its traditional territory.
“My strong feeling is that this generation should be looking at a solution (for nuclear waste),” he said. “I don’t believe we should hold it off to future generations.”
About 800 members are eligible to vote in the referendum, whenever it happens. Most live off-reserve, as just 200 or so live on the reserve southeast of Dryden.
The dispersed membership is why Wabigoon Lake has held information meetings in Winnipeg to which all members aged 17 and up were invited.
One gathering held in the Manitoba capital last fall drew about 500 members, according to Danine Chief, Wabigoon Lake’s Adaptive Phased Management project manager.
Adaptive phased management is the NWMO’s term for a plan that includes the long-term storage of spent fuel in a deep geological repository.
The industry-funded NWMO has a spot between Ignace and Wabigoon Lake on its list of two finalists for where to build the underground facility.
The other finalist site is near Lake Huron in southern Ontario, with the Municipality of South Bruce and Saugeen Ojibway Nation as potential host communities.
A key criterion in the siting decision is host communities’ willingness to participate.
Ignace committed in its hosting agreement to give the NWMO a yes or no on community willingness by July 31.
Ponka said the timing of Wabigoon Lake’s vote won’t impact the NWMO’s plan to choose a site before year-end.
South Bruce also likely won’t be holding its referendum until autumn, he said.
That municipality’s council recently accepted a referendum question asking voters if they are “in favour of the Municipality of South Bruce declaring South Bruce to be a willing host” for a deep geological repository. No date has been set for the referendum.
