Town hall meeting in northern Ont. aims to address questions about radioactive materials

Northern town hall on radioactive material concern Residents packed the Nairn Centre community centre for a town hall about the transportation of radioactive material through the region.

The Township of Nairn and Hyman, as well as the Township of Baldwin, hosted a town hall meeting Wednesday night to discuss the transportation of radioactive material through the area.

Officials with both townships were shocked to discover this summer that the province would be transferring 34,000 tonnes of naturally occurring radioactive material called niobium from the former Beaucage Mine site on Nipissing First Nation to the Agnew Lake Tailings Management Area.

"We're hearing from residents multiple times every day," said Belinda Ketchabaw, Township of Nairn and Hyman CAO.

"The biggest concern we're hearing, obviously, is this safe for our drinking water? Agnew Lake is the headwaters for the fresh water for all of our communities, right down to the Great Lakes. So that's our biggest fear."

Baldwin Mayor Vern Gorham said he's also frequently hearing from residents about the controversial plan.

“There's lots of concern -- the fear of the unknown,” Gorham said.

Dozens of residents packed the Nairn Community Centre and listened to presentations from Ontario’s Ministry of Mines, the Ministry of Transportation, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the environmental group Northwatch.

A number of local MPPs and township officials were also in attendance.

The goal of the meeting was for residents to have their voices heard and answer their questions and concerns.

Jean Guindon, senior manager for a mineral development branch of Ontario’s Ministry of Mines, said the province took over the Agnew Lake Mine Tailings area in the 1990s.

Under federal licensing requirements, Guindon said the province must maintain the site, which is what the project is meant to do.

"The facility is built for this and the radiation levels in niobium are very low and are natural," he said.

"You know, generally there is a lot of geology across Canada that has higher levels of radiation under natural conditions, right, without even mining. So, in this case here, that's all it is."

He added the site is safe -- and the project is designed to make it safer.

"Even as it is now without any maintenance, the site is still accessible and safe," Guindon said.

"But we're going to make it safer by accepting this material."

Neither township was told or consulted on the project, which led to both passing a resolution calling on the Doug Ford government to introduce legislation whereby municipalities must be consulted.

Ketchabaw said the province has not responded to their request directly, and she has only heard updates through MPPs Michael Mantha and France Gelinas.

"They haven't responded directly to us. So of course, we appreciate the communication so far. However, we are not happy with the level of communication that we've received," Ketchabaw said.

"With the with the townships, especially. And we're hearing also, the First Nations are not happy with the level of communication they received, as well."

She said the townships still plan to move ahead with their request, whatever the outcome is for this project.

"We're going to continue, no matter what the result is," Ketchabaw said.

"We're going to continue to move forward with our request to the different provincial ministries and Premier Ford … Until that legislation is changed, that, municipalities have to be consulted as part of the process of these types of projects."

In their speeches to residents, both Gelinas and Mantha said repeated requests for additional information from the province were ignored.

In an interview with CTV News, Darren Stephenson, Ministry of Transportation area manager, said there was no consultation because it wasn’t required.

"We didn't identify that there would be any impacts to adjacent communities. This is naturally occurring radioactive material that's in the environment and in natural states, in different geologies, you know, in different locations,” Stephenson said.

"We didn't identify that there would be impacts. And that process doesn't require ... consultation. So hence the lack of consultation."

Resident Haven Hinds owns a cottage on Agnew Lake. He said he didn’t feel less concerned after hearing the presentation.

"Is this all happening because we're up here complaining without anything going to be done about it?" Hinds said.

"These people aren't doing their job. The wool’s been pulled over our eyes. You know, my wife, my kids. Everybody's swimming in the lake. Is it going to devalue our properties? Who knows?"

Ketchabaw and Gorham said both townships will dissect the information in the reports that were presented, and another town hall will likely be held in the coming weeks.

"This all could have been avoided if this if we had have had these conversations and this type of public hall meeting, way back when this project started," she said.

"I hope that this will help bring more information into the community. But at this time, I'm not sure how council feels at this late in the game of what we're hearing."