{"id":84107,"date":"2026-06-24T23:33:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=84107"},"modified":"2026-06-25T13:36:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:36:05","slug":"federal-initiative-to-fast-track-approvals-for-deep-geological-repository-a-betrayal-of-public-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/24\/federal-initiative-to-fast-track-approvals-for-deep-geological-repository-a-betrayal-of-public-trust\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Initiative to Fast-Track Approvals for Deep Geological Repository a Betrayal of Public Trust"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We the Nuclear Free North vehemently opposes the Canadian government’s initiative, announced today (Wednesday, June 24th, 2026), to potentially designate the Nuclear Waste Management Organization\u2019s (NWMO\u2019s) Deep Geological Repository (DGR) as a Project of National Interest under the Building Canada Act. Such a designation would mean guaranteed approval of the DGR, despite any lack of evidence to support the safety of the project.<\/p>\n

In its media release today, the federal government defined the implications for the DGR project and other projects that were named:<\/p>\n

“Listing these projects under the Act would streamline and consolidate key federal permits and authorizations, subject to a document outlining the conditions under which the project may proceed.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the federal government does designate the NWMO\u2019s DGR project as a Project of National Interest, it is very likely that the full Impact Assessment of the Project, currently underway, would be discontinued,\u201d said Brennain Lloyd, project coordinator with Northwatch.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt best, the remaining vestiges of environmental assessment and licencing would be simply adding details to a done deal. Project approval would be a foregone conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s announcement stated that national interest listing of a project would include \u201cshifting Canada\u2019s regulatory focus from \u2018whether\u2019 the project should proceed to \u2018how\u2019 it will proceed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn its \u2018Getting Major Projects Built in Canada\u2019 framework, the government had proposed that nuclear projects in the Impact Assessment\u2019s Planning Stage, such as the DGR project, be vetted by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCanadians have well-founded doubts about the CNSC\u2019s objectivity and its strong ties to the nuclear industry,\u201d continued Lloyd. \u201cWhen it comes to the integrity of the CNSC\u2019s potential safety assessment process, the faith of Canadians just isn\u2019t there. CNSC has never denied a licence to a nuclear project.\u201d<\/p>\n

We the Nuclear Free North volunteer Wendy O\u2019Connor said, \u201cAs we continue our strong opposition to this project, it is jarring that the federal government would propose a measure that could discontinue the Impact Assessment process. Concerned Canadians have already sent more than a thousand comments to the Impact Assessment\u2019s Registry \u2013 most of them expressing concerns with or opposition to the DGR project. We have been relying on the Impact Assessment Agency\u2019s full assessment process to stringently vet the project\u2019s social and environmental safety. I want to stress that the decision on this has yet to be made by our federal government. We are watching for promised input opportunities regarding this proposed change. Canadians have a right to a thorough and responsible assessment process.<\/p>\n

We the Nuclear Free North also noted that in the case of the two other projects named in the announcement – the Mackenzie Valley Highway and the Grays Bay Road and Port projects \u2013 the federal government committed that the project moving forward would be \u201ccontingent on both projects successfully completing treaty-based impact assessment and regulatory processes\u201d. No such statement was made with respect to the proposed deep geological repository in Treaty 3 territory. Grand Council Treaty #3 Chiefs in Assembly passed a unanimous resolution opposing the project in October 2024, just weeks before the site selection was announced, and Wabigoon Lake Ojbway Nation, whom the Nuclear Waste Management Organization refers to as a \u201chost\u201d for the project, responded to the site selection by announcing that they would be holding their own sovereign Regulatory Assessment and Approvals Process. There is no acknowledgment of the treaty rights or respect for a treaty-based impact assessment for the deep geological repository project in today\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

We the Nuclear Free North continues to strongly oppose the NWMO\u2019s proposed DGR project in northwestern Ontario and is requesting meetings with Ministers and Members of Parliament in response to today\u2019s announcement. The organization will monitor federal government announcements regarding actions under the Building Canada Act, including public input opportunities, and share those engagement opportunities with the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We the Nuclear Free North vehemently opposes the Canadian government’s initiative, announced today (Wednesday, June 24th, 2026), to potentially designate the Nuclear Waste Management Organization\u2019s (NWMO\u2019s) Deep Geological Repository (DGR) as a Project of National Interest under the Building Canada Act. Such a designation would mean guaranteed approval of the DGR, despite any lack of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":82724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-northern-ontario"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-02 16:52:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84107"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84110,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84107\/revisions\/84110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}