Northern Forum Begins In Beauval

Northern Forum Begins In Beauval

Thursday, June 02, 2011 at 17:04

 

 

What is being called a “Northern Forum for Truth on Nuclear Waste Storage” is being held today in Beauval.

 

The event is being hosted by a group of citizens from Beauval and Pinehouse who are concerned that some northerners are entertaining the possible creation of a nuclear waste facility in northern Saskatchewan.

 

One of the organizers, Beauval elder Max Morin, says he wants to know more about a group of northerners that is providing advice and guidance to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization.

 

“If we have a committee that is representing the north who are they and why have they not approached other communities?  Why haven’t they been on the media so people can hear or know what is going on?”

 

NWMO spokesman Mike Krizanc says the agency’s Elders Forum and Aboriginal Working Group were established a number of years ago through the input of the five major national Aboriginal organizations.

 

Krizanc also says the members of those groups are not viewed as representatives of particular areas of the country.

 

“Well the individuals on the Aboriginal Working Group represent themselves and their advice to us is their advice.  If other people with other views have advice they want to provide the NWMO will listen to that and take that into account.”

 

According to the NWMO’s website, eight of the 34 members of the Elders Forum are from Saskatchewan — and all but one of those eight are from Ile-a-la-Crosse.