Grassy Narrows says ‘no’ to nuclear waste storage in our watershed

I am writing on behalf of Grassy Narrows First Nation as the Director of the Grassy Narrows First Nation Land Protection Team in relation to the Impact Assessment process which has been initiated for the proposed Deep Geological Repository for Canada’s Used Nuclear Fuel Project (the “nuclear waste storage project”). Grassy Narrows says ‘no’ to nuclear waste in our Territory, in our region, and anywhere
upstream or upwind of our Territory.

Grassy Narrows has been excluded from the process to date

Grassy Narrows was not informed of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s (“NWMO”) site selection process for the nuclear waste storage project and learned about this process independently around 2020, ten years after the site selection process was launched in 2010. Grassy Narrows was not meaningfully informed nor included in the site selection process, despite writing to NWMO several times to seek information to help us better understand NWMO’s decision-making process and to raise concerns about the process and the proposed nuclear waste storage project upstream of our Territory in the Wabigoon River watershed.

Ultimately, NWMO offered to meet with Grassy Narrows only at the very end of the selection process once the outcome was clear. Grassy Narrows’ grave concerns about the process and about the site were brushed aside and the site was selected against our strong objections.

Now, Grassy Narrows has also learned about the Impact Assessment process for the nuclear waste storage project independently through an Internet search. Grassy Narrows was left out of the pre-Impact Assessment process and the opportunity to have a meaningful impact on the Impact Assessment process for this project. This is the stage where the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (“IAAC”) is supposed to engage with us to find out how to design a process that is meaningful for us. Instead, IAAC has launched a one-size-fits-all process that disregards our unique circumstances and our Indigenous laws and treats us as a mere stakeholder alongside snowmobile clubs and summer camps.

We have told the IAAC many times that we must be meaningfully involved from the very start of the assessment process, including the pre-planning stage. When we are not included, we are forced to try to catch up to an ill-suited and imposed process that is moving forward quickly without us. Any process that moves forward without us is not a fair process.

Grassy Narrows says ‘no’ to nuclear waste storage

The nuclear waste storage project is proposed 43 kilometres northwest of the Town of Ignace, Ontario at a site which is upstream of our Territory in the Wabigoon River watershed. We are deeply concerned that nuclear waste poses the potential for the escape of radioactive material because any escape would harm us for many generations and our lands would never be the same. Our watershed and our people
have already suffered too many impacts from the results of industrial activity, including an ongoing mercury crisis. We cannot accept this further risk to the health of our lands, river, and people.

We urge you to review our previous letters to the NWMO (attached) and to include the concerns that we have raised in your Impact Assessment including, but not limited to:
1. Long term risk of escape of radioactivity;
2. Risk of radioactive escape during transport;
3. Downstream and downwind impacts of any radioactive escape;
4. Cumulative impacts of multiple past, current, and future industrial activity; and
5. Impacts of large numbers of outsiders, mostly men, entering our area and the associated risk of violence, especially gender-based violence, human trafficking, and drug trade.

We call on you to respect the decision of Grassy Narrows: we say ‘no’ to the proposed nuclear waste storage site near in the Wabigoon River watershed.

The standard is consent

The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada must meaningfully consult with and obtain Grassy Narrows’ consent on the nuclear waste storage project. We expect that you will meaningfully consult, accommodate, and obtain our consent in a manner consistent with the Crown’s duty to consult, the Honour of the Crown, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and Grassy Narrows’ own laws, including the Asubpeeschoseewagong Anishinabek Aaki Declaration.

We remind you that Measure 51 of Canada’s UNDRIP Act Action Plan states that “the Impact Assessment Agency will implement the Impact Assessment Act (IAA) in a way that aligns with the objectives and spirit of the UN Declaration,” which includes the requirement of free, prior and informed consent.

We also urge you to consider this project within the context of the National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Act which recognizes that establishing environmentally hazardous sites, including nuclear waste storage sites, in areas inhabited primarily by members of Indigenous communities is a form of racial discrimination. There is no greater example of environmental racism in Canada than the long legacy of industrial harm that has been forced on Grassy Narrows against our will with terrible consequences to our environment and people that continue today.

If these statutes are to have any meaning, and if Canada intends to honour its commitment to reconciliation and to preventing environmental racism, it must lead Canada to place the highest level of scrutiny and caution on any proposal for activities that risk more harm to Grassy Narrows. The proposed nuclear waste storage site is precisely such a project. Please confirm that Grassy Narrows’ right to free, prior, and informed consent will be respected and that the project will not proceed without consent.

Please copy the Grassy Narrows Land Protection Team on all communications related to this matter.

Miigwetch,

Joseph Fobister
Director of the Grassy Narrows Land Protection Team