HAPPY WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

IT’S TIME TO STAND WITH NATURE AND WITH THE GREAT LAKES 

Today, June 5th 2017, Canada is hosting World Environment Day and this year the theme is “connect with nature”.

World Environment Day is an annual day of awareness and action for the protection of the environment and has been a catalyst for change since it was established by the United Nations in 1974. 

It is an opportunity for individuals to do something to take care of the environment and became an agent of change. We believe taking care of the environment means protecting the Great Lakes from the threat of nuclear waste.

Today, we ask you to say:

I’m with nature,

I’m with the Great Lakes,

they are no place for a nuclear waste dump.

• Follow us and share our posts on Facebook and Twitter 
• Get in touch with your government and tell your elected representative(s) that you oppose the burial of nuclear waste on the shore of Lake Huron. 
• There are many ways to Get involved

For more information about the plan to bury nuclear waste on the shore of Lake Huron click here

Find out what you can do during Canadian Environment Week

Take a picture of a place that matters and share it!

SOS Great Lakes attends the Great Lakes People's Summit

On Wednesday May 17th, 2017, Jill Taylor (President of SOS Great Lakes) attended the Great Lake People's Summit hosted at the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) office in Toronto, ON.

The Summit was a wonderful opportunity for SOS Great Lakes to connect with representatives of environmental groups from all around the Great Lakes Basin including Ontario Headwaters Institute, Freshwater Future Canada, Ontario Metis Nation, Environmental Defence, WWF-Canada, Chippewas of the Thames First Nations, Sierra Club Ontario, and Lake Ontario Waterkeeper.

During the day, we work with other experts and stakeholders to strategize on Ontario public policy priorities for the Great Lakes Basin and develop collective action plans. Priorities that were identified included researching fish health and consumption guidelines, reducing exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), improving storm water management, and increasing education & engagement on issues impacting the Great Lakes.

Over the next 12 months, the priorities will be reviewed and action plans will be implemented. A follow up meeting will take place in the fall of 2017 so that progress can be reviewed and strategies can be updated.

2015 PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD: 98% OF PEOPLE ARE OPPOSED TO THE BURIAL OF NUCLEAR WASTE IN THE GREAT LAKES BASIN.

In January 2017, the Ontario Power Generation stated, "the public doesn’t really care about the proposal for the deep geologic repository (DGR)." This statement was made despite the fact that numerous organizations and individuals have spoken up against the proposed. DGR project.

Between 2012 and 2014, members of the public were allowed to submit comments on OPG’s DGR plan to the Joint Review Panel (JRP), the body tasked with assessing the project under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act which ultimately gave the project a stamp of approval in spring 2015.

From our experience working with the JRP, we know that the process was biased in favour of OPG from the start. As we have written elsewhere, the JRP allowed OPG to proceed with their plan despite huge problems and omissions in OPG’s case. Additionally, of the well over 500 comments submitted by individuals, environmental organizations, citizens’ groups, city councils of huge cities, and Indigenous organizations, among others, an astounding 98% were opposed to the project. Here are some examples from that 98%:

“The Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation strongly opposes the OPG-Deep Geological Repository Project. Water is our Mother Earth’s life blood. We are and always will fight to protect Water. To permit the burial of Radioactive Nuclear Waste right beside our Great Lakes goes against everything we believe in and is a crime against humanity.”

Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation

“It is our responsibility, as citizens of the “Great Lakes State,” to be vigilant in protecting our most valuable natural resource --- our clean water. With an economy, reputation and livelihood that are all dependent on the health of the Great Lakes, it would not be prudent or wise to construct this underground nuclear storage facility that puts radioactive waste less than a mile from Lake Huron.”

Michigan League of Conservation Voters

“In order to protect the Great Lakes and its tributaries, Toronto City Council urge that neither this proposed nuclear waste repository near Kincardine, Ontario, nor any other underground nuclear waste repository, be constructed in the Great Lakes Basin, in Canada, or in the United States.”

Toronto City Council

The results of public consultation undertaken by the JRP are a strong indication that OPG lacks “social license” for the DGR project. Given that the current government has committed to more transparent, accountable environmental regulation, we hope that Environment Minister Catherine McKenna considers the strong, negative response to OPG’s plan in her future decisions regarding the DGR.

SOS Great Lakes Comments on OPG's Additional Information

After considering the Joint Review Panel Environmental Assessment Report for the Deep Geologic Repository for Low and Intermediate Level Waste, the Honourable Catherine McKenna requested additional information before making her environmental assessment decision. 

OPG had 11 months to respond to the Minister's request. In December 2016, they submitted their report. (To read the full report, click here.)

In January 2017, the CEAA "invite[d] the public, Indigenous groups, and governments to review and comment on the additional information [submitted by OPG]". 

On March 6, 2017, SOS Great Lakes submitted a thorough investigation of OPG's additional information.

The Submission: 

Our Submission to the Minister is comprised of commentary in chapter format relating each of the three primary questions sent to OPG by the Minister in February 2016. Each of our chapters has been written by one of our members. We have been assisted in our submission by Mr. John Jackson, hired through the CEAA Participant Funding Program, to prepare commentary on OPGs Cumulative Effects Analysis.

The topics discussed include: commentary on OPG’s Study of Alternate Locations, the Cumulative Effects Analysis of the DGR for L&ILW in Kincardine, in combination with 3 potential APM used fuel DGRs in the one of the communities of Huron- Kinloss, South Bruce, and Central Huron, and the OPG Mitigation Measures Report.

OPG Has Submitted a Flawed Environmental Assessment. In December 2016,

OPG has presented a deeply flawed addition to its deeply flawed Environmental Impact Statement. We urge the Minister to reject the EA for OPGs Deep Geologic Repository and to reject the licensing of the DGR at Kincardine.

To read the full submission, click here. 

January 9, 2016 - OPEN LETTER TO THE HONOURABLE CATHERINE MCKENNA - REGARDING THE OPG DECEMBER 2016 RESPONSE ON THE DGR 1, KINCARDINE, ONTARIO.

January 9th, 2017

Honourable Catherine McKenna

Minister of Environment and Climate Change

House of Commons

Ottawa   ON   K1A 0A6

OPEN LETTER TO THE HONOURABLE CATHERINE MCKENNA - REGARDING THE OPG DECEMBER 2016 RESPONSE ON THE DGR 1, KINCARDINE, ONTARIO.  

Dear Minister McKenna:

1. It is time for the Canadian government to do its job and enforce the Environmental Assessment Act. This is at least the fifth time OPG has been asked to identify specific alternate sites and they have again refused to do so, as they have done every time. Their entire proposal should be rejected now.

2. The opportunity for public input on the OPG Response is wholly inadequate. OPG has had 11 months since your first letter to answer your questions and you have given us 30 days to respond to over 500 pages of material. This is unfair to the public and to the government if you truly want meaningful public input.

3. You continue to dodge multiple additional errors. For at least 5 years before your appointment, the Harper Government allowed OPG to flagrantly violate the CEAA in multiple ways by refusing, in its EA, to address or seek: 1.) Alternate Sites, 2.) Alternate Means, 3.) Evidence-Based Science, 4.) Critical Health and Safety Issues, 5.) Need/Cost, 6.) International Obligations, - all mandatory requirements of CEAA. Since your appointment, you have been advised of two additional issues:  7.) Bias of the JRP, and 8.) OPG’S deception of the Public about the issue of Community Acceptance. This includes our documentation regarding how OPG was aided in these errors by seriously inadequate regulation by CNSC and the CEAA/CNSC created JRP.

You have chosen to ask OPG for further information re: Issue 1.) Alternate Sites, and important related questions: cumulative effects and mitigation. You have been silent on the other seven issues, thereby creating, rightly or wrongly, a public impression that you are only going to address Issue 1.). This, in turn, has created the further impression that if OPG succeeds on Issue 1.), the remaining seven issues remain unaddressed. If this is wrong, please tell us so. The public is entitled to know whether you have an intention of doing anything about the errors by OPG, CNSC and the JRP with respect Issues 2.) through 8.) as they apply going forward.

When you have acted on Issue 1.), OPG has repeatedly defied you, by re-writing your questions rather than answering them, - precisely what OPG did to the JRP. This has created the public impression, again rightly or wrongly, that the Government of Canada is reluctant to stand up to OPG. This impression is re-enforced by a proposed public consultation process that disadvantages anyone opposed to OPG.
 

We remain committed to working with you in the review of the OPG response that was recently submitted, but are increasingly concerned that this process will not address the outstanding issues that remain or present a fair forum for public input based on the published information regarding the process.  We respectfully urge you to seriously consider our concerns.

Yours very truly,

Jill Taylor, President

SOS Great Lakes

On behalf of the Board of Directors

With copies to:

The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

The Honourable Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario

The Honourable James Carr, Minister of Natural Resources

The Honourable Stephane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs

The Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science

The Honourable Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard

The Honourable Jane Philpott, Minister of Health

The Honourable Glenn Thibeault, Minister of Energy

The Honourable Eric Hoskins, Minister of Health and Long Term Care

The Honourable David Orazietti, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services

The Honourable Glen R. Murray, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change

The Honourable Kathryn McGarry, Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry

Marlo Raynolds, Chief of Staff, Environment and Climate Change Canada

Ron Hallman, President, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency

To view a PDF of this document, click here