September, 2021
Summary
Candidates from the nine Northern Ontario federal ridings were asked to respond to four questions on nuclear waste management, the proposed Deep Geological Repository (DGR) concept and public funding for development of Small Modular Reactors (SMR).
Q 1. Do you agree that downstream communities and communities along the transportation route must be part of determining “consent” prior to site selection being finalized and have a right to affect the selection of a burial location for all of Canada’s highly radioactive nuclear fuel waste, and that a determination of whether a community “consents” to a nuclear waste repository must be measured by means that are fair, transparent, and democratic?
Q 2. Do you support making the Nuclear Waste Management Organization subject to the federal Access to Information Act and/or equivalent transparency being provided through some other means, such as an amendment to the Nuclear Fuel Waste Act?
Q 3. Do you support there being a public process, led by the Government of Canada rather than by the nuclear industry, to develop radioactive waste strategies that implement Canada’s (yet to be) revised radioactive waste policy, using a process that is fair and equitable and includes the participation of the Canadian public and Indigenous peoples?
Q 4. Do you support a moratorium on federal public funding for new nuclear reactors, including those described as “small modular reactors”?
Answers received:
Conservative Party of Canada
1 of 9 candidates responded “yes” to the first three but “undecided” to Q. 4. One additional candidate responded with a text statement that did not relate directly to the questions. Seven candidates did not respond.
Green Party of Canada
5 of 6 candidates responded “yes” to Q 1, and Q.3, and 6 of 6 candidates responded “yes” to Q. 2 and Q. 4.
Liberal Party of Canada
4 of 9 responded “yes” to Q.1 and Q. 3; Y/Undecided to Q.2 and Y/N/Undecided to Q. 4. One additional candidate responded with a text statement that did not relate directly to the questions. Four candidates did not respond.
New Democratic Party
6 of 9 responded “yes” to all four questions. Three candidates did not respond.
We the Nuclear Free North 