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The federal government has quietly announced an extension to the comment period on their controversial proposal to guarantee approval of a project to transport, process, bury and abandon over 100,000 tonnes of highly radioactive nuclear waste in northwestern Ontario.
In mid-September the federal government declared their interest in short-circuiting the federal impact assessment review of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s proposed Deep Geological Repository project (DGR) by posting a notice on the federal government Gazette I registry that the NWMO’s nuclear waste scheme is proposed for designation as a “Project of National Interest” under the Building Canada Act. This designation would guarantee project approval and would circumvent the Impact Assessment process. The Notice also proposed a reduced scope of the project, eliminating long-distance transportation and long-term safety from whatever evaluation the federal government might employ in developing their conditions for the approval.
Opponents estimate that over a thousand comments were submitted, but the Major Projects Office has not disclosed the number or content of comments received.
Posted on October 31st, the second Notice on the Gazette I registry simply states that “the Major Projects Office is issuing this notice of an extension to the comment period. The period during which comments may be submitted will now run until January 15, 2027, to provide additional opportunities for feedback”.
“Whether this Hallowe’en notice is a trick or a treat is hard to say, given the lack of transparency in the MPO process. The notice provides no specific reason for the extension and there has been no disclosure of the response the federal government has received from the public or Indigenous people and what weight the Major Projects Office is giving the feedback provided”, commented Wendy O’Connor, a volunteer with We the Nuclear Free North.
“We know the response rate has been high given the number of times we’ve been copied on comments submitted. The rationale for a full impact assessment and opposition to the transportation, burial and abandonment of high-level nuclear waste is already overwhelmingly clear.”
Prior to the October 26th deadline, lawyers acting for We the Nuclear Free North – a northern Ontario alliance opposed to the transportation and burial of nuclear waste in Treaty 3 territory in northwestern Ontario – filed a legal brief with the Major Projects Office in response to the federal government’s proposition that the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s controversial “deep geological repository” project be designated a “Project of National Interest” under the Building Canada Act. According to government statements, such a designation would guarantee the project’s approval. Critics are calling the move a betrayal of public trust which will short circuit the federal impact assessment process currently underway.
“Members of the public spent tens of thousands of hours participating in the first phase of the Impact Assessment process. There over 1,000 submissions with over 90% expressing opposition or criticisms of the NWMO’s project. The impact assessment process was doing its job – is that why the federal government wants to bring it to a crashing end?” asked, Brennain Lloyd, Project Coordinator with Northwatch.
“There has never been a project of this scale and potential impact, nuclear or otherwise. It’s an outrage that after 20 years of the NWMO promoting the project and promising there would be a full review before proceeding the project could now get a rubber stamp guaranteed approval before the project details are even available.”
Acting for We the Nuclear Free North, staff lawyers at the Canadian Environmental Law Association made the case against the designation, arguing that the NWMO’s untested, unprecedented and highly controversial proposal is not a suitable project for listing as a project of national interest under the Building Canada Act.
Designation as a “Project of National Interest” under the Building Canada Act would not only guarantee approval and circumvent the Impact Assessment process, it would reduce the scope of whatever review might take place – private or public – eliminating long-distance transportation and long-term safety from whatever evaluation the federal government might employ in developing their conditions for the approval.
Submissions by Northwatch, We the Nuclear Free North and others on the proposed designation are posted HERE. Additional information is HERE and HERE.
Comments may be emailed to [email protected], before the revised deadline of January 15, 2027.
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