South Bruce residents vote in favour of hosting nuclear waste project in narrow referendum

South Bruce residents narrowly voted in favour of plans to bury Canada’s most radioactive nuclear waste under their municipality on Monday.

In total, 51.2 per cent of eligible voters were in favour of South Bruce becoming a willing host to the Canada’s first permanent nuclear waste storage facility. 48.8 per cent voted against the community hosting the controversial project. By votes, it was 1,604 in favour, 1,526 not in favour.

Over 69.3 per cent of the 4,525 potential referendum voters cast a ballot, which is over the 50 per cent voter turnout threshold required to make the referendum binding. The vote is much closer than people predicted in the days leading up to the referendum.  

“We are so pleased that South Bruce voters came out to have their say on this important decision,” said South Bruce Mayor, Mark Goetz. “It is an extremely proud moment to have our community make such a momentous decision through a democratic vote.” 

The proposed project would see over six million used nuclear fuel bundles entombed in an underground facility built under 1,500 acres of farmers fields and forests north of Teeswater. The discarded materials remain radioactive for a million years.

 

Example of used nuclear fuel bundle, Oakville, June 2024 (Scott Miller/CTV News London)

"So, the results are in. And the people voted in favor of the DGR [deep geological repository]. So, it delivered a yes vote, and we're going to move forward. We are now, an informed and willing host community." says Tony Zettel, who voted in favour of the project, and lives near Mildmay.”

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) now has approval from South Bruce voters and the Township of Ignace to build the project in their communities. The NWMO awaits “willing host” votes from the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) and plans to choose where the project will end up by year’s end.

If they are selected by the NWMO as the host community, South Bruce which has 5,800 residents and is located just north of Wingham, will receive $418 million over 138 years as part of a recently signed hosting agreement. As many as 700 operational jobs and hundreds more in construction are expected to expand the population and double the Gross Domestic Product of whichever community hosts the project.

Conceptual design of Deep Geological Repository to store Canada’s used nuclear fuel (Source: Nuclear Waste Management Organization)

 

 

"This is an important step forward, as you know, for South Bruce. It opens up unprecedented economic opportunity for high paying, high tech jobs for future generations,” said Zettel. 

Under current plans, construction of the $26 billion Deep Geological Repository wouldn’t begin any earlier than 2036. The proposed lifespan of the project is more than 150 years but at the end of a 65-year monitoring period plans are to “decommission” the facility - which means the waste would likely be stored underground, forever.

South Bruce council is expected to officially declare the community “a willing host” to Canada’s first permanent nuclear waste storage facility at their next council meeting in November. What happens next depends greatly on the Saugeen Ojbway Nation, who have yet to schedule a community vote on the proposed project. The project cannot move forward in South Bruce without SON’s approval.

This is a developing story. We will have more reaction to the outcome of the South Bruce nuclear waste referendum in the coming days.