Algonquin chief accuses regulator of bias on proposed nuclear waste site near Ottawa River

As Chief Lance Haymond waits to see if the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) will license construction of a radioactive waste site a kilometre away from the Ottawa River, the Algonquin leader worries the nuclear regulator has become a rubber stamp for industry.

"What we see, quite frankly, with CNSC, is a captured regulator," said Haymond, chief of Kebaowek First Nation in Quebec, about 380 kilometres north of Ottawa.

"There is no independence."

The CNSC is presently weighing whether to let Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) bury a million cubic metres of low-level radioactive waste — enough to fill some 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools — at the Chalk River research facility near Deep River, Ont., about 160 kilometres west of Ottawa.

CNL is run by a private-sector consortium contracted to manage federal nuclear sites. Chalk River sits on the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe Nation.

Haymond feels the regulator is too cozy with industry. When asked for examples, he pointed to the commissioners' public biographies.

There are six people currently listed as permanent commission members, including two identified as Indigenous. Of the six, one used to work at the Chalk River laboratory, and another used to work for SNC-Lavalin, a member of the consortium that runs CNL, he said. 

"We have huge, huge concerns," said Haymond, adding that it "doesn't give us very much comfort" to see people with ties to the nuclear industry appointed to the safety commission.

While the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn, roughly 150 kilometres northwest of Ottawa, consented to the project, the other 10 federally recognized Algonquin First Nations in Ontario and Quebec have not. The Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn were not available for comment for this story.

Dylan Whiteduck, chief of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, 150 kilometres north of Ottawa in Quebec, raised the issue at an August CNSC hearing into CNL's requested licence amendment.

"Both your organizations … hold biased opinions and are in conflict," he said.

"I want to, for the record, ask you all this question: Do you consider you are both organizations in conflict?"

In a statement emailed to CBC News, CNL said it has followed the process set out by the regulator, and aims to operate all its sites "with an unwavering commitment to safety and environmental protection."

The consortium has argued, In regulatory filings last year, that the project "is unlikely to result in any appreciable impacts on Aboriginal or treaty rights or interests."