A northern Saskatchewan band councillor’s willingness to educate himself about radioactive waste storage may rub some of his colleagues the wrong way.
But Francis Highway of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation (PBCN) council says he wants all of the facts before forming an opinion on a possible nuclear waste repository near Creighton.
“At this point I’m not really supporting it, but I want to learn more as time goes on,” said Highway, who lives in Pelican Narrows.
With economic development among his portfolios, Highway said the underground repository may hold potential for substantial, positive change for his people.
“We have a lot of social issues in our community and somehow we have to try and fix them,” he said. “And maybe this is the long-term solution for our community if it ever happens, if Creighton gets it, because there are benefits there. And I’m looking at that, and it’s a long way in the future, but to me it’s a [potential] long-term solution. If Creighton gets it we can fix the stuff that ails us in our community. We’ve got violence, housing crisis, hardly any employment. I’m looking at that stuff when I look at this [concept].”
Rejected
While Highway won’t formally endorse or oppose a repository at this time, that hasn’t stopped the PBCN council as a whole from rejecting the notion.
In May the council approved a resolution asserting that the band opposes any initiative
to store nuclear waste
“in or around PBCN Communities, lands, or traditional territories,” including Creighton.
The resolution quoted a section of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that ensures disposal of hazardous materials will not take place on Aboriginal territory without the people’s consent.
But Highway said most of the admittedly few band members with whom he has discussed the repository want to learn more.
Only a small but vocal group is already against the idea, he said.
“But they’re saying no off the bat without knowing what the hell it is they’re opposing,” said Highway, who is in his fourth, non-consecutive band council term. “They’ve haven’t gone over there and seen firsthand.”
By “over there,” he is referring to Ontario’s Darlington Nuclear Generating Station, one of five nuclear reactor sites in Canada, where nuclear waste is currently stored above-ground.
Highway joined five other PBCN members in a recent tour of the station sponsored by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), which is searching for a site for the repository.
Highway, the only band councillor on the tour, said the experience was highly informative and taught him things he hadn’t realized about nuclear waste storage.
“To my mind, I think [a solution for the waste] has to be done some
time in the future,” he said. “Maybe I’ll be long gone, but somebody has to do the work, starting today.”
But if Creighton is to host the repository – and such a decision is still years away – the blessing of Highway’s band council colleagues will be essential.
“The NWMO is clear: this project will only proceed with an interested community, Aboriginal people and surrounding communities working together in partnership,” said Mike Krizanc, communications manager
for the organization.
Asked why NWMO continues to involve Creighton in light of the PBCN resolution, Krizanc reiterated, as he often does, that the town is merely learning about the potential of nuclear waste storage and nothing more
“We are in a learning phase,” he said. “The NWMO works [with] all individuals and organizations interested in learning about Canada’s plan for managing used nuclear fuel over the long term. No one has proposed that used nuclear fuel be stored near Creighton. We are early in a process where interested people are learning about Canada’s plan and the NWMO is learning about communities.”
As for Highway, he hopes to see another group of PBCN members tour the Darlington facility later this year. NWMO has also accepted a PBCN invitation to hold an open house to discuss the project.
Highway concedes
the lack of interest in the subject among his colleagues.
“I’m one of the few people on council that wants to learn about this,” he said.
But Highway said PBCN Chief Peter Beatty has told band members they are welcome to learn more about the project.
Learned enough
One of Highway’s fellow councillors, Eileen Linklater, already knows everything she feels she needs to about nuclear waste.
“We don’t want [any] nuclear waste in our territory,” Linklater, brandishing a feather in her hand, told NWMO officials in May after presenting them with a copy of the anti-waste resolution.
During a brief but impassioned address, Linklater called for consideration to be given to future generations.
“You should know of the pros and cons,” she said. “All you think about is money here. Money. But after that money is gone, what’s going to happen? You’ve got to think about the future.”
Linklater’s announcement overshadowed
Tom Isaacs, an international expert on nuclear waste disposal who that same evening addressed
NWMO officials as well as the Community Liaison Committee that forms a bridge between NWMO and area residents.
Isaacs said all countries have come to the conclusion that radioactive waste should ultimately be deposited into a deep geological repository, the approach NWMO is taking.
“I think there’s a lot of things that can be learned about what has worked and hasn’t worked around the world,” said Isaacs, an American who was the lead advisor of a commission that made nuclear waste recommendations to the White House.
Isaacs would not advocate for or against the NWMO project, but he stressed the need for a “strong, quality, independent regulator” to oversee NWMO and the process.
In the end, he said, it is up to individuals to decide for themselves how they feel about the issue.
