Dear Editor,
Pontiac Liberal MP William Amos published an open letter on Sept. 21 addressing constituents’ concerns about plans for a much-needed clean-up of the Chalk River Laboratories site. His position on the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ (CNL) proposal to permanently landfill one million square metres of radioactive waste in an above-ground mound held together by a geotextile membrane on the shores of the Ottawa River a few kilometres upriver from the territory he represents is either naive or dishonest. This two-page letter is what he has produced after over a year of considering the tireless work poured into hundreds of submissions by his constituents, community organizations, First Nations and municipalities critiquing this irresponsible plan. Two pages from an expert in environmental law who for years has been advocating for environmental protection.
Amos raises no specific concerns about CNL’s proposal, its technology nor its location. His main expressed concern involves shaming citizens groups struggling to challenge the current plan without proposing their own solutions. As if it is a lay person’s responsibility to do the job we are paying the experts huge sums of taxpayer dollars to do. He intentionally mentions only low-level radioactive waste that is already on site and nothing about the 10,000 cubic metres of intermediate waste or the unknown amounts of long-lived waste, or the 100,000 cubic metres of waste that will be shipped in from other Canadian sites. CNLs own EIS claims their liner will last 300-500 years while some of the waste they intend to dump will remain toxic for 1000, 10,000 and 100,000 years. Yet, there’s silence from Amos on these specific issues of concern to his constituents – among the first to be affected when the liner begins to leak.
Amos asserts unequivocally that we should have complete confidence in the “transparent” and “objective” environmental assessment process managed by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). Even though he has abstained from submitting any comments or concerns about the project to the CNSC himself. Without submissions commissioned by elected officials and municipalities like those prepared by Deep River, Laval and the Province of Quebec, the process he defends would be even more of a shell than it is already. His own Liberal government commissioned an expert panel concluding the inherent conflict of interest involved with having environmental assessments done by the same agency responsible for promoting the industry. Concluding that industry self-regulation results in extremely poor transparency and objectivity. For example, the CNSC has proposed only three public consultations in October and for local communities only. Completely ignoring the concerns of the millions of citizens in Gatineau, Ottawa, Montreal and Laval whose drinking water would be directly affected by the inevitable contamination built into this plan. At least Amos in this letter claims to support the call for more of these open houses.
This letter by Will Amos reflects the wait and see approach we have unfortunately come to expect from him and the rest of the Federal Liberal Party on this issue. This trust the process attitude is deeply concerning in a context where Canada currently has no effective environmental assessment process and the recently privatized nuclear industry is essentially self regulating. If you are as concerned about this as we are, please continue to put pressure on all elected representatives at all levels to take a clear position on this issue. Amos has now taken a position – which is no position at all. He proposes we accept the status quo process handed down from the Harper administration his government was elected to change.
Jason Phelps
Member of the Old Fort William Cottagers’ Association, Sheenboro, Que.
