IGNACE — In Roy Fuller’s own words, he joined Ignace’s new community engagement committee “because I like helping out and learning everything I can about” the deep geological repository (DGR) that the Nuclear Waste Management Organization wants to build 35 kilometres west of the township.
“It’s important to me, and it’s been important ever since our community put our name in to the NWMO as a possible host municipality, and so I joined the committee,” he said Tuesday during an open house on the DGR project.
Fuller said he served on a community liaison committee regarding the project “many years ago.”
Diana Baril served on the now-defunct Ignace “willingness committee” and is also part of the community engagement committee.
Input from the township’s younger residents is important, Baril said.
“So we’re probably going to set up some projects to get the youth involved – much more centred around youth involvement, maybe like at schools.”
The perspectives of people in other communities in the area is also important, she said.
Yvonne Dungey said she’s on the committee because “I am an individual who enjoys and likes to partake in committees. I have with the school and other community committees, so this is something I really wanted to be involved with.
“I moved from a larger community (Nanaimo, B.C.) into a small one, and I just want to see it succeed.”
The NWMO announced last Nov. 28 that Ignace had been chosen as host municipality for Canada’s first deep geological repository, a huge underground facility for disposal of spent fuel from nuclear power plants.
The $26-billion project faces years of regulatory and licensing reviews before construction could begin.
Ignace township council have established a special community engagement committee of Ignace residents to liaise with the public and keep the public informed.
People who turned out for Tuesday’s open house at the Ignace recreation centre were told the committee will conduct social media campaigns, town hall meetings and other activities, and make recommendations to the township “regarding community well-being.”
Besides Fuller, Baril and Dungey, the committee includes Chantal Moore, Korenia Allison and representatives for the municipality and the nuclear organization.
