WABIGOON LAKE — Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation appears to have received its first “milestone payment” from the federally mandated agency that aims to build an underground nuclear repository upstream from their reserve.
An application form for what is dubbed an Engagement and Education Payment of $145,000 from the first milestone payment was distributed to Wabigoon members.
The language mirrors wording in the host agreement signed between the Township of Ignace and the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. That agreement details several milestone payments to be transferred to the municipality as the deep geological repository, or DGR, project advances.
The terms of Ignace’s agreement with the NWMO were publicly disclosed last March, but the First Nation’s host agreement has never been disclosed.
No payments have been made directly by the NWMO to individual members of the First Nation, said spokesperson Vince Ponka.
He said he could neither confirm nor deny whether any payments have been made to the First Nation in connection with the host agreement signed with the NWMO as their agreement is strictly confidential.
The application form says to qualify for the $145,000 payment a person must have been a band member between Oct. 14 and Nov. 16, 2024.
The latter date was the closing day of a referendum on whether the First Nation should proceed as a potential host to the DGR.
In that referendum, Wabigoon Lake members gave “an overwhelming mandate to continue to the next phase of this project,” Chief Clayton Wetelainen told Newswatch last November.
He did not disclose the precise results but said the 'yes' vote was greater than the 77 per cent support garnered in a community vote held earlier in Ignace.
The Township of Ignace is the designated host municipality for the proposed DGR.
The municipality received a $1.5-million payment on Aug. 15, 2024, one month and five days after its council passed a resolution declaring Ignace a willing host community for the DGR.
Chief Wetelainen said Tuesday he is not granting interviews. Other Wabigoon Lake officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Ponka said Tuesday he “couldn’t speak to the Wabigoon agreement as it is a private agreement between Wabigoon Lake and the NWMO.”
The NWMO is an industry-funded body mandated by federal law to find long-term solutions for nuclear waste.
After a nearly 15-year process, the NWMO selected the Revell Lake site south of Highway 17 between Ignace and Wabigoon Lake as the place to construct the multibillion-dollar deep-underground facility for disposal of spent fuel from Canada’s nuclear power plants.
The site is in the traditional territory of Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation.
The NWMO has projected construction will start in the early 2030s, after clearing regulatory and licensing hurdles, and be completed about 10 years later.
This story has been updated with clarification and additional comment from the NWMO.
