My thoughts on the current process and this project

To the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada,

I am writing this because I’m worried about what happens to the people who don’t have a voice in this process.

Throughout this entire siting process which has been going on almost my whole life, it’s been obvious that not everyone has the same resources. We’ve seen the NWMO load up certain communities with money for years, while the smallest communities ... get ignored or treated like they don't matter. It feels wrong, and I think it has caused a lot of permanent damage to the way people around here get along.

There have to be much stronger ways to make sure the smallest communities, the ones without big budgets or staff, are actually able to take part. As a young person looking at the future, I see a place like Ignace not being a place I would ever want to live. It doesn’t even have a grocery store and I honestly wouldn’t want to live there. I could see myself potentially working in an industry related to the DGR one day, but the hyper-focus on only the "host" communities is ridiculous. There are much nicer places to live in this region than just Ignace, and the whole area needs to be included and benefit. Ignace shouldn't have the right to force this project, and whatever backroom deals they’ve made, on the entire region. To be honest, the whole siting process felt dirty. The NWMO should be ashamed for forcing this on everyone else when so many thousands of people and hundreds of communities clearly don't want it.

I feel like the Government of Canada has totally failed in its duty to oversee this project.

The NWMO needs to be held accountable. They should have to report exactly how much money has been spent on cash payouts and what looks a lot like economic coercion and bribes. We need a Parliamentary committee to look into this, not just a regulatory panel. When an organization is spending tens of billions of dollars of our money, they shouldn’t be allowed to hide behind their nonprofit corporate structures. They need to be made fully accountable to the public.

A lot of people my age and in my community don’t even bother participating in these assessments anymore. They’re just tired. They don't trust the NWMO anymore. They've stopped caring. Tired of the lies, tired of questions never being answered, and tired of the lack of accountability. No one is going to trust the NWMO again (if at all) until they start being forthcoming with information. There is way too much secrecy, and in my experience, secrecy usually means something is corrupt.

We can’t ignore the "divide and conquer" approach the NWMO used. They rewarded the communities that played ball and punished the ones that stood up for themselves with dignity, like Eagle Lake who were so brave to mount a legal challenge. It's the people like those in Grassy Narrows, who have had to struggle for decades so much damage caused by mercury poisoning. They inspire me and I hope they keep fighting hard to make sure things are not rammed through. 

This project is a hot mess, and I don't think this Impact Assessment should move forward a single step further until the results of the judicial review are out. We deserve a process that is fair, not one that was bought and paid for before virtually everyone in the region who stands to be severely impacted even had a chance to speak. If they even get the chance to speak.

Another thing that’s really missing from the plans is the Red River Métis. The Indigenous public participation plan needs to include them, not just the people in Treaty 3. I’m not saying that to be disrespectful to Treaty 3 at all—they obviously have a massive stake in this—but there are overlapping issues here. This is a transboundary impact. There are tons of Red River Métis people living out in this region, and it’s just not right that the MMF (Manitoba Métis Federation) was left out of the Draft Indigenous Engagement and Partnership Plan.

They should be included because they have their own treaty with Canada, and everyone knows the Northwestern Ontario area is also a part of the Red River Métis homeland. It’s not just one group of Indigenous people who has a connection to this region; there are others with deep roots here too especially out near the site itself. Let's also be real here ... a lot of the Indigenous peoples from many groups and communities in this area are related to each other.  If the government wants this process to be at all fair or honest, they have to include everyone whose rights are being messed with.

Excluding the MMF feels like just another way the NWMO and the government are picking and choosing who they want to deal with, and that’s not right.

This project is going to cost tens of billions of dollars, making it one of the largest and most controversial programs in Canadian history, yet the way it’s being handled is causing massive mental health damage to people living in the region. You just have to look at social media or even this registry to see the proof. There are people spending all their time attacking anyone who has a different perspective, and the registry itself has become a dumping ground for weird, irrelevant submissions filled with lateral violence and abuse. If the NWMO is supposed to be held to a high standard, then this registry should be too. Right now, we see lots of abusive, defamatory, and denigrating comments from people who claim to be "experts" but really just use the space to rage-bait and attack others especially towards women. That's creepy. So much for all that GBA+ stuff. If the government (looking at you IAAC!) doesn't have any adequate standards for it, how can we expect the proponent to? 

It’s honestly disgusting to see a federal registry used as a source for abusive memes and a place to delegitimize people, organizations and individuals, especially women who are just trying to give their perspectives. Us young people read that stupid crap in our timelines and see how honest submissions to the registry are perverted, weaponized and warped for the weird, twisted pleasures of ... beta weirdos.

The IAAC needs to be held to account for having such a low bar for what gets posted. This process needs to be taken seriously, and a much stronger review system is needed so that people doing serious work related to all of this don’t have to waste their time reading through ridiculous, violent, mentally deranged and abuse. A lot of this garbage comes from people who have no connection to the region, don't live here, and have never even been here. They contribute absolutely zero intellectual or expert value to the assessment, and their presence only serves to poison the process. This should also be considered a very serious stigmatizing impact that causes behaviour change in making people not participat. What I mean is that there are people who won't take part at all because they don't want to be mistreated by mid rage-farming people on social media if they say something. It’s time for the government, IAAC and CNSC to clean up its standards and stop allowing this registry to be used as a fuel, platform and tool for harassment in other places. If you're serious about GBA+ then this process needs to empower people not make them vulnerable. 

This whole nuclear process has been going on for pretty much my whole life. As long as I have been alive.

The reality is that it’s not going to be the current "leaders" or the people making submissions today who are going to be the ones dealing with the long-term reality of this. It will be my generation that has to live with the decisions and the consequences made by all of you.

Because of that, there needs to be a LOT more consideration of youth and the young people who will one day have to lead this region.

Most young people aren't commenting and aren't involved, but the time to change that is now.

There absolutely has to be a deeper way to engage our generation, not just the older people. I’m away for school, so I don't get to go to almost anything, but when I see the pictures from these events and things in the newspaper about how the government says it's not a done deal and I mean no disrespect ... it’s mostly older people. I’m thankful they are stepping up and taking part, but it makes me wonder: where are the young people in all of this?

We are the ones who will have to live with this project and all of its consequesnces good or bad. And hopefully, not be the ones who have to clean up a mess if things go wrong. You need to do this right. You need to do the best possible job, not just the easiest. A quick "one window, one review" process isn't good enough for something this massive. Just rubber-stamping this won't work, and neither will letting only two communities decide for an entire region.

This project could put us all on the international stage as one of the best programs in the world, but only if it's done right. Right now, it’s clear that a lot of things are not being done well. There are gaping holes in the plans, as so many people have pointed out. We deserve better than a rushed process that ignores the very people who will be here to see the results fifty years from now. Five hundred years from now. A thousand years from now.

Maybe even a million years. Will we even be living on this planet? Will the people involved in this project hundreds of years from now even be human? 

We're all making decisions for a future world and society that does not have the ability to consent, and none of us can even imagine what the future world will be like. We really need to think about that hardcore. 

Major league props to all the people who made a comment and didn't just sit on their lazy butts slinging insults and stupid comments on social media. Lots of people made their throughts and put them in. That's good. But this project is too big and too expensive and too much controversy to just speed through. I hope the regulatory panel is truly independent and this is not just for show. 

You have one chance to do this right. 

We are done with the secrets. We are done with being treated like we don't exist. This project will last for hundreds of thousands of years; the least you can do is spend a few more years making sure the process isn't a total failure of democracy and accountability.

Think of your kids. Think of the future. Make sure that this project doesn't turn into a deadly disaster. Consider every possible alternative so we don't burden the future generations into deep time with a radioactive death program. Protect the waters at all cost. One day all of this will be under huge sheets of glaciers and deep under the water long after we are all gone. 

We always talk about traditional knowledge and things like that. But in this case, we're the archaeology. We're the traditional stories. We're the legends and myths people will talk about one day, hundreds, maybe thousands of years from now. We are the oral histories. Most just don't see it yet. It's important to look backwards on who we are and where we come from. But we also need to put ourselves into the future and think about that. 

Think of the kids who will be here when the first canisters are lowered. Think of the water that has to stay pure long after your names and photo opps are forgotten. Your social media posts and press releases, awards and accomplishments will all be forgotten in a few generations. Fix the holes. Clean up the process. Or shut it down. The future is watching, and we aren't going anywhere. Think of the kids who will one day stand on top of a massive ice sheet, thousands of years into the future where none of what we see today exists. 

What are we leaving behind? 

That is all I have to say.