The election of a new federal government has sparked optimism among Ontarians who don't want to see nuclear waste buried near Lake Huron.

With a Dec. 2 deadline looming, there's hope a decision on Canada's first permanent nuclear waste facility will be at the very least delayed.

"How do we get rid of nuclear waste? And where do we store it? Where can it go?" wonders Vernon Roote, chief of the Saugeen First Nation.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) says prehistoric rock on the Bruce Power site near Kincardine is the ideal location.

Over 200,000 cubic metres of the province's low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste should go there according to the utility.

A three-person review panel has already agreed, but does the federal government? A decision was supposed to happen in December, but a change in government puts that deadline in doubt.

"I agree, it would be surprising that a new government would make a decision just after taking office when this decision can impact the Great Lakes for the next 100,000 years," says Beverly Fernandez with Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump.

The election of a new government gives people like Fernandez and the 26 members of U.S. Congress who penned a letter calling for the planned project to be moved away from the Great Lakes hope that a decision on OPG's Deep Geological Repository will be at least be put on hold, if not cancelled entirely.

"In Ontario, over 50 per cent of our population, seven million citizens are represented by resolutions opposing this plan," says Fernandez.

Also standing in the way of the project is the local native band who have a veto on the project, and there's an uneasy feeling among residents about giving their blessing to the multi-million dollar project.

"At the moment, we've got a lot of work to do in our community, understanding a little bit more about the issues of nuclear waste, and mostly how we could get rid of it," says Roote.

At minimum, it appears a decision on Canada's first permanent nuclear waste facility is likely months away and not days away as previously planned.