IGNACE – Mayor Kim Baigrie believes the new willingness committee “will work better for our community” and keep Ignace informed and engaged as residents consider whether they want a nuclear waste repository nearby.
“This ad hoc committee will work with council, and they will work with community members to make sure that they’re informed,” she said in an interview this week.
“They will work with the consultants that we hired and then they’ll bring their decisions, any recommendations to council, and council will help with that.”
Ignace council passed a resolution on Feb. 20 to establish and launch a Willingness Ad Hoc Committee replacing the willingness committee that had its activities suspended by council on Jan. 4.
A news release from the township described the new committee’s mandate as “to provide guidance to council on the community’s willingness to host or not host the deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel being proposed by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO).”
The NWMO has a location between Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation on its shortlist of possible sites for the repository, along with a site near Lake Huron in southern Ontario. Site selection is scheduled for the last quarter of this year.
The township added Brad McGrath, Chantelle Moore, Roy Fuller, Lionel Cloutier and Yvonne Dungey to the committee, joining returning members Diana Baril, Paul Dufault, Roger Dufault and Cindy Stark. Also on the committee are two members of Ignace council: Jodie Defeo and Janet Lett. The township’s chief administrative officer and community development strategist are designated “staff resource members.”
Also at the Feb. 20 meeting, Baigrie was sworn in and took the oath of office as mayor, finalizing council’s selection of her as mayor in January after many months as interim mayor.
The township’s willingness to host the repository is a key criterion in site selection, and the committee’s work is one part of the so-called willingness process.
The willingness process also includes a study by consulting firm With Chela, Inc., which is surveying Ignace residents to measure their acceptance of a nuclear waste repository. With Chela is scheduled to report their findings to the township in a few months.
As well, 10 Ignace residents toured Finland’s new deep geological repository in November to learn more about what kind of facility could be built west of the township.
Several Ignace residents are in Ottawa for the three-day Canadian Nuclear Association conference, another opportunity to gather information about the nuclear industry.
Baigrie and about five other residents will go to Saskatchewan in mid-March to tour a Cameco uranium mine.
NWMO spokesperson Vince Ponka said the Ignace delegation will benefit from the mine tour by gaining “a deeper understanding of the material that they could potentially be dealing with.”
