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VOL, 21 NOe 6 FEBRUARY 8, 1978 20¢ PER COPY NUCLEAR WASTE DISPOSAL QUESTIONED The Honourable Alastair Gillespie Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources Dear Mr. Gillespie - : In recent days the media has been giving extensive coverage to a proposal to build deep shaft nuclear waste disposal fac- ilities in Northern Ontario. The need for public hearings into this proposal is self- evident, If there is any danger involved the people of Nor th- ern Ontario have the right to know the extent of this danger. They have the right to decide for themselves whether or not they want this project. 2 The information available at this time, principally the Hare report, is not sufficient to make this decision. The Leblanc Committee hearings underway in Ottawa are considering whether or not it is technically feasible to build the dump sites and not the larger question of whether or not they should be built at all. A study of the proposal on a far broader. basis is needed. : Lake Nipigon New Democrats back this project - PROVIDED IT IS SAFE, The time between now and the turn of the decade is going to be particularly hard for us in this region. As our primary resource export markets continue to shrink or at best stagnate, we are going to need all the jobs we can get. Employment on the construction of the installation, in the transportation of the waste, and for the maintenance of the ~ finished site will provide some of these jobs. ; Everyone, no matter what their political persuasion, agrees that the communities involved in these proposals need their economic bases widened. The development of these sites offers ~ the chance to make our communities less dependent on a single industry, be it the mine, the mill, or the railroad. ~ However, we are under a moral obligation to stop, to Took at this, and to go ahead with it only if we are satisfied that it presents no danger to us, or perhaps more importantly, to _ with this project we can not do- that. . the health and happiness of our children and our grand-child- ren for hundreds of years to come. The temptation is there "to say: "Go ahead, we need the money and if it presents a ~ problem Tater on, we will close it down." Unfortunately, By the time we knew that something was wrong, it would be too late. The damage would be done and it would be irreparable. ; Projects of this kind gain a momentum of their own. All too often Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries have report- ed that we should not go ahead with a specific project be- cause it isn't as profitable as first thought, it is in the wrong place, or it just won't work, only to be told that construction is so far advanced, that so much time and effort and money has been sunk into the project that it just can't be stopped now. We can not allow that to happen here. The details of the proposal must be released to the public now. There is no conceivable reason for keeping them confidential. Public hearings on these proposals must begin as soon as possible. The hearings must be here, in the communities af- fected - not 'in Ottawa, not in Toronto. The hearings must be open to questions raised by the people of these communi- ties and not just to the consideration of the facts and fig- ures of engineers and architects. And after the people of Northern Ontario have had an opportunity to look over the proposals and the facts about them, after they have had a chance to make up their own minds, they must have the oppor- tunity to make their views known and to take part in the' final decisions on this project which is so important to Canada's and Northern Ontario's future. Your's sincerely (signed) Harry Huskins = for the Lake Nipigon New Democratic Party Riding Association.