We write out of urgency and deep concern about the Darlington New Nuclear Project (the “Project”) that is being developed by Ontario Power Generation ("OPG") on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Gunshot Treaty territory. The Project has been referred to Canada’s Major Projects Office and is being proposed for fast tracking under The Building Canada Act (“Bill C-5”).

To put it simply,  OPG has started constructing a new, untested nuclear reactor  with little to no community consultation with First Nation rights holders. The Project is being fast tracked at the expense of First Nation rights and community consultation. It is proceeding without a shared understanding between governments and our people, continuing a pattern where decisions are made before our voices, knowledge, and responsibilities are fully understood.

First Nations secured assessments for the Project, including:

·        Indigenous Knowledge Study
·        Rights Impact Assessment
·        Cumulative Effects Assessment
·        “Gap Analysis” of the 2009 Environmental Assessment

These studies would help protect our rights and the environment, and they would provide an opportunity for us to be heard and understood, yet they continue to be kicked down the road to the point of being almost obsolete. Nothing has been done to advance them.

Some will say it is too late to do anything, but this isn’t true. The Project has not been fully constructed and has not started operations, which significantly impacts our rights through relentless water usage and degradation, fish and other biodiversity kills, and the creation and management of nuclear waste on our territories. Also, three out of four nuclear reactors are not expected to be constructed until 2035. There is plenty of time for proper consultation with community and for the promised assessments to be completed before the cumulative effects are irreversibly shouldered upon us. These studies are not only technical requirements. They are necessary steps toward shared understanding, which must come before decisions, not after them.

Our communities are now being told that there is an opportunity for “financial investment” in the Project.

To be clear, we are not opposed to our communities finally having the opportunity for economic investment in developments. We recognize the importance of economic participation and the need for our people to benefit from development within our territories. But what is being proposed is not economic partnership, it is economic coercion. Economic participation must not replace consent or our obligations as caretakers of Shikakimigkwe (Mother Earth).

We are opposed to being treated like our voices don’t matter. We are opposed to irresponsible and unsustainable development on Lake Ontario, which is already the most nuclear-industrialized body of freshwater on the planet. Our responsibilities to the land, water, and future generations cannot be separated from our rights, and any process that ignores these responsibilities is incomplete.

We are all affected by the decisions that are being made in the nuclear industry right now, from the development of new nuclear reactors to uranium mining, to conversion plants, to transportation, to nuclear waste management and disposal that will impact future generations for thousands of years to come. It is all connected. These are not isolated issues, but part of a broader system of impacts that must be understood as a whole.

Canada and Ontario are clearly on a path to reviving nuclear power despite the fact that it is an energy source that is costly, slow to deploy, entails radioactive environmental contamination, relentless water extraction, and significant ecosystem degradation. First Nations need proactive representation and a strategy for our collective security.

How this process has been conducted will have far reaching, negative impacts on our relationship with the land, the legal landscape as it relates to the duty to consult and FPIC, and other First Nations’ involvement in development across Canada. It also reinforces a pattern where consultation processes operate without reflecting our laws, our governance, or our ways of understanding responsibility as Anishinaabe people across our traditional territory. First Nation leadership has already spoken out against the implementation of Bill C-5 at the expense of our rights; it is now time for action.

These controversial and environmentally risky nuclear developments should not be allowed to move forward without community consultation and our free, prior, and informed consent.

Our goal is to ensure that decisions affecting our territories are based on shared understanding and reflect our responsibilities as Anishinaabe people across our traditional territory, and not driven solely by timelines, processes, or external pressures.

We are respectfully requesting your support for the following:

1) To prevent further nuclear reactor development until:

• All relevant studies have been completed by professionals who have culturally relevant knowledge and perspective;
• Projects are properly introduced and explained to First Nation rights holders in a holistic and culturally relevant manner, including management plans for nuclear waste storage and transportation;
• First Nation rights holders have had meaningful opportunities to have their concerns addressed;
• Appropriate mitigation and accommodation measures have been agreed upon to protect the environment and our rights;
• First Nations have provided their free, prior, and informed consent.

2) To convene First Nation leadership, community members, and professionals to strategize a collective and comprehensive response to the governments’ proposed nuclear revival.