Full Impact Assessment and Formal Public Hearing for Communities along Transportation Route and for those connected by waterways

To Who it May Concern,

I write on behalf of myself, friends, family and communities. I am calling for a full impact assessment and a formal public hearing for the NWMO project, with transportation explicitly included and rigorously evaluated as part of the review. NWMO plans to move highly radioactive nuclear waste 2–3 trucks per day for 50 years, with each trip averaging 1,800 km, largely on two-lane public roads, from nuclear generating stations in southern Ontario and eastern Canada to the proposed site in the headwaters of the Wabigoon River in northwestern Ontario. The cumulative risks to communities, watersheds, emergency response systems, and ecosystems along these routes are substantial and cannot be treated as secondary or assumed impacts - they must be transparently assessed, publicly scrutinized, and meaningfully addressed before any decision proceeds.

To proceed without thorough public assessments and meaningful community hearings for all affected parties along the transportation routes - including communities connected through adjacent and downstream waterways - would amount to a failure of the government’s duty of care and public accountability. It would be an act of procedural injustice, effectively excluding impacted communities from informed consent and democratic participation, while downloading risk without representation. In doing so, the government would be prioritizing project expediency over public safety, environmental protection, and Indigenous and community rights, and undermining the principles of transparency, reconciliation, and responsible governance it is legally and ethically bound to uphold.

Sincerely,

Susan Tiihonen