After 11 years of bringing you local reporting, the team behind the Vancouver Observer has moved on to Canada's National Observer. You can follow Vancouver culture reporting over there from now on. Thank you for all your support over the years!
Open letter to Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall about Uranium Development Partnership
We write to express our grave concern with public and private statements that you have recently made that leave no doubt that the Uranium Development Partnership agenda is still being actively promoted by you and your government. These statements openly contradict the wishes of Saskatchewan citizens and negate their input painstakingly laid out in the Perrins consultation report, The Future of Uranium Public Consultation Process (2009). On page 105 of that report, it clearly states that 88% of respondents disagree with the UDP strategy for uranium development for Saskatchewan.
A public opinion survey (margin of error +/- 3.5%, 19/20 times), conducted by Oraclepoll Research Ltd. in September 2012, confirms that Saskatchewanians remain largely opposed to the nuclear agenda that your government is pursuing:
• More than two-thirds (68%) of Saskatchewanians believe that no more uranium mines should be approved in the province until the huge mess of toxic radioactive tailings, which have been left behind over 60 years of mining activity, have been contained and cleaned up.
• Three-quarters (75%) of the people in Saskatchewan don't want radioactive waste brought into the province and deposited in underground storage.
• Fully 45% say that plans to use nuclear reactors for oil sands extraction are totally unsafe, even though the Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation (CCNI) at the University of Saskatchewan has accepted millions of dollars in government and corporate funding to explore the feasibility of developing small nuclear reactors for this purpose. Only 15% of respondents believe these plans to be totally safe.
In juxtaposition to all this, the Government of Saskatchewan’s website still indicates that the Hon. Bill Boyd is the current minister responsible for the Uranium Development Partnership (although no report of its activities has been published since 2009). We also have your own statements, Mr. Premier, published in Saskatchewan’s Hansard earlier this month, musing about the future of research and development of small nuclear reactors in the province.
We strongly urge that you and your government respect the wishes of the vast majority in Saskatchewan by ending all nuclear development initiatives and instead considering energy and industry options more conducive to public health and safety.
Yours sincerely,
The HUES3 Campaign Committee:
Dr. Helen Caldicott (honourary member)
D’Arcy Hande
Dr. Warren Bell
Candyce Paul
Dr. Dale Dewar
Karen Weingeist
Read More:
More in Civic Voices
Speak up about this article on Facebook or Twitter. Do this by liking Vancouver Observer on Facebook or following us @Vanobserver on Twitter. We'd love to hear from you.