IGNACE, Ont. — Unlike the Municipality of South Bruce, there are no current plans for a referendum on whether the Township of Ignace should accept a used nuclear fuel storage site 40 kilometres away.
Instead, Ignace council decided this week that the final decision should be left to the next council, which will be elected in October 2022.
In the interim, the township will gather more information for residents about the implications of hosting Canada's first underground nuclear waste repository.
It's expected to pass a resolution informing the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of its decision in 2023, the year that NWMO has targeted for completing its site selection process.
Ignace and South Bruce are the only remaining candidates.
Council in South Bruce, a rural community of 5,600 east of Lake Huron, decided Tuesday night that a referendum should be held after a draft hosting agreement is negotiated with NWMO.
The referendum will take place after the 2022 municipal election.
Ignace Mayor Penny Lucas says her council considered community feedback in deciding to implement a multi-pronged approach to evaluate and demonstrate the township's willingness to host the storage site.
"The community has spoken about how and who will decide if Ignace is a willing host...This was decided through a fair, transparent, balanced, confidential and inclusive process," Lucas said in a statement.
She said she's pleased that residents favoured an extended decision process "as this will ensure they are fully informed."
In an interview, Lucas said the so-called "willingness process" will include learning activities focusing on technical issues, social and economic impacts, and environmental studies.
"We're hiring consultants to look at what this is going to mean, what it could mean for the community. We take all that into consideration, bring that back to the people, and say 'These are what we found. What else is it that you need to know to make an informed decision?' "
Lucas, who personally supports hosting the storage site, said the community has not asked for a referendum.
"They asked for a multi-pronged approach. They want to be able to able to talk about it. They want to be able to tell us what they're thinking and what their concerns are and how they feel about the project."
The mayor added "A referendum does not measure that. A referendum is either yes or no. You don't know when you're doing the referendum whether the 'yes' is an informed decision or whether the 'no' is an informed decision."
Lucas noted that 166 of the township's 1,300 residents responded to a survey this year asking how they feel Ignace should measure its willingness to accept the underground repository.
She said only two people proposed a referendum.
In South Bruce, a consultant found that most respondents there favoured a referendum.
In a statement Wednesday, NWMO said it also has a number of environmental, safety and socio-economic studies underway to provide data that will help both Ignace and South Bruce make their decisions.
