Recommendation 4: Consent of the local communities and Indigenous peoples in whose territory future facilities will be planned must be obtained in siting.

Local communities and local indigenous groups must agree and be willing to accept a facility if it is allowed to proceed. Their involvement with employment opportunities and infrastructure improvements in their communities should be prioritized.

With regards to the question, "How do you think can we best ensure the involvement of local Indigenous peoples in all phases of radioactive waste management projects?", I think this question could or should be posed to all elected representatives of Indigenous peoples across the nation (perhaps through the Assembly of First Nations/Metis/Inuit) , although I expect there will be a focus on those bands in Ontario and Saskatchewan, which have the most probable sites for long-term storage of radioactive waste. There are over 600 separate Indigenous bands that could be consulted on this question.

The hard truth is that consent based siting of a radioactive waste disposal facility is highly complicated, nearly impossible and cost prohibitive for most waste owners in Canada. While municipal consent can reasonably be obtained with enough time, consultation and yes, money, everywhere in Canada is someone's traditional territory where indigenous consent is unlikely at best. For many legitimate reasons most indigenous communities and peoples are untrusting of waste owners and the governments. Further, the communities are often brimming with uniformed fears and deep rooted beliefs for which no amount of "consultation" is likely to overcome. Lastly, most indigenous communities are rife with their own internal politics to the extent where consensus on even the simplest of issues is often difficult. Counsels may not be aligned with chiefs and chiefs may not be aligned with the community. Knowing who represents the community can be difficult and short lived. Putting consent to a vote in a community is often doomed from the beginning because the opposing voices in a community are always the loudest. Voter turnout is largely those in vocal opposition where the supporting majority largely express their support or indifference by not voting. Building and energizing the silent support into action is the key to consent. That's the hill that must be climbed, someone will get there eventually.

The other side of this challenge is the high cost for LLW/ILW waste owners to get to the remote possibility of a "yes" is a cost most waste owners are unwilling to chance. OPG alone sunk ~$200m and many years of sound work just to get to a "no". Waste owners can't do this alone, the federal government cannot just continue to say "polluter pays" and sit back leaving the waste owners to fend for themselves. The federal government must help waste owners in obtaining consent for this to work. Having the CNSC just tick their "duty to consult" box hasn't been enough and does little to advance the waste owners siting process in indigenous territories. For this recommendation to work the federal and or provincial governments must actively assist, if not lead the waste owners in siting.

Communities and Indigenous peoples should be empowered and provided with the resources to independently study the science of the proponent. Terribly colonial process, riddled with gatekeepers and much public discord about the secretive, deeply disturbing approaches to northern consultation driven almost entirely by southern organizations with little to no experience. It's like bad theatre.

Absolutely zero participatory research in this process. Just Toronto people putting on a show. The federal government should be embarrassed by this process. NWMO is a failure and needs oversight.

Why is the town of Ignace and NWMO allowed to cause so much damage to the process with neocolonial gatekeeping, a near total lack of information, opportunity to speak up. Indigenous orgs are a horrifying monstrosity even worse than Canada or NWMO in that the process is used to silence grassroots and most impacted communities. Millions of dollars flowing to Indigenous representative orgs who do absolutely NOTHING with the communities most impacted. NWMO borders on white supremacy when it comes to diversity and they use totalitarian approaches of secrecy, scripted engagement and it's really all just a bunch of phoney hooey. The federal government should be ashamed to have let a southern organization cause so much damage on its behalf.

This process is little more than neopatrimonialistic lipstick on a really ugly neocolonial, nuclear pig.

The elitist processes used by Canada and the NWMO represents the manufacturing of consent and borders on insidious. Approach currently being used damages relationships instead of building them. Too much division, too many silos and not enough authentic engagement by NWMO or Canada. It's ridiculous. No wonder people are furious with the south for the way this colonial process has been rolled out.

It was too hard to participate as a community given absolutely no resources, no support and no funding for the last 12 years to understand what is happening. This process sucked. The organizations and government departments involved in producing this mess should be ashamed. Tight-fisted, over-controlling southerners have caused damage and now many will not participate because there are too many gatekeepers, too many "in camera" secret decisions being made. NWMO should express a commitment to UNDRIP instead of working with the Canadian colonial state (particular emphasis on Ontario government) to work with principles of UNDRIP, not against them. Of course, to Canada, UNDRIP is for guidance and has no actual legal teeth beyond public relations. NWMO is often noted as being "not at the table" and maybe they should make a better effort there between 2022 and 2024. If that is possible, given Southern Ontario's colonial dominance over the north.