McNAMARA: Provincial Nuclear Collusion

[Oscar]

McNAMARA: Provincial Nuclear Collusion

From: entwork@hotmail.com
To: premier@gov.sk.ca
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Subject: Provincial Nuclear Collusion

Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2012 14:16:58 -0400

October 3rd, 2012

Premier Wall

As was the case in Alberta, the provincial government in Saskatchewan sanctions the immoral and corrupt practices the nuclear industry employs to foist its projects on unwilling communities. As a result of the actions and inactions of the province, secret meetings, intimidation of residents, election manipulation and economic threats are now the norm, not the exception in impoverished northern communities that are being targeted to host the high-level nuclear waste from Eastern Canada.

I’ve copied two letters below from current and former councilors in northern Alberta speaking to the underhanded techniques employed by Bruce Power and provincial authorities in their attempt to build nuclear reactors in their communities. In the coming days, I will detail the involvement of the Saskatchewan government.

Pat McNamara

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Subject: Message for Saskatchewan

In 2007 residents of Northern Alberta were shocked to discover that their elected officials representing multiple municipalities had sent letters of support to Energy Alberta for a nuclear plant at Lac Cardinal. Most people began to learn of this months after their councils had taken it upon themselves to welcome this industry into this area without any consultation with the people who elected them.

As more details of this betrayal became clear, people began to get angry and demand some accountability from these elected officials. These people were entrusted to look after our day to day municipal concerns such as maintaining our roads and looking after the infrastructure, not to welcome in a potentially dangerous industry that they knew absolutely nothing about.

The industry had done a great job of keeping things quiet and getting deals done behind closed doors as is their standard method of operation. Industry proponents expected resistance from the “usual suspects” but as it turned out, pushback came from people who were far more mainstream such as elderly farmers, lifelong conservatives, churchgoers and for the most part people who had never protested anything publicly before. This was a demographic the industry/government hadn’t counted on. It’s much easier to dismiss a few radical Greenpeace type tree huggers than your lifelong conservative grandmother.

Over the next few years opposition grew and those officials who had supported the project began to change their positions. Some municipalities rescinded their letters of support. Some began to back away from their original position in other ways. The town of Manning stated that since the project had been taken over by Bruce Power from Energy Alberta, the letter was no longer valid.

One council that stuck to its guns was the County of Northern Lights, host municipality for the nuke plant. Councillors gave a variety of reasons not to rescind the letter, some of which made no sense. As they dug in their heels over the issue, opposition only grew stronger. Councillors were badgered, hounded, ambushed, voted out of office and generally had their formerly peaceful lives disrupted until the dust finally settled in the spring of 2011 with the letter of support being rescinded. One can be certain that all of those involved in sending the original letter wished that they had never heard of Energy Alberta and Bruce Power.

These events demonstrate that our public officials can be made accountable for their actions. This was done with relatively few people, but with the majority supporting their position. It became quite clear that these elected officials did not have the authority, mandate or knowledge to make a decision of such magnitude without consulting their electorate. A very valuable lesson in democracy was learned by all.
I was elected to council in 2010.

Brent Reese
Councillor Ward 4 County of Northern lights
North Star Alberta

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September 28, 2012

To Whom it may concern:

As a previous town councillor (2007-2010) of Peace River, I would like to describe the series of actions in the Peace Country that demonstrate that nuclear proponents have used continuing methods of secret meetings and purposeful misinformation in their efforts to bring nuclear power plants to Alberta.

May 2007 - Over eight municipalities in the Peace Region suddenly released letters of support for a proposed nuclear power plant in Northern Alberta. This was the first the residents were even aware that such a proposal was suggested, yet the letters stated the residents were in favour of the proposal. These letters were like carbon copies of each other - demonstrating that the municipalities had been courted by the nuclear industry behind closed doors, and that someone had provided each and every one of these municipalities with their proposed "letter of support".

Spring and summer 2007 - The election campaign for municipal government was in swing and the nuclear proposal brought a huge change in councillors - mainly anti-nuclear councillors were voted in in the Fall of 2007. Motions were filed on many of these councils to revoke the letters of support for a nuclear power plant in the Peace Region.

April 2010 – A CBC investigation exposed a directive from Frank Oberle, MLA for Peace River (then Solicitor General of Alberta), to have all signs that were anti-nuclear removed using a "non-compliance" law of the Gov't of Alberta. It was later a huge embarrassment to the gov't as it was demonstrated that there were literally thousands of signs across the province that were non-compliant and had been for decades - and they were never addressed, only the anti-nuclear signs were required to be removed.

The sheer number and content of emails and information that have demonstrated the Gov't of Alberta were in collusion with the nuclear industry, to provide power to the United States, is interesting reading.

Sincerely,

Wanda Laurin,
Peace River, Alberta