Thank you.
We worked very hard on this consultation. We have held seminars and we have been very conscientious. To our surprise, however, the Department did not take our comments into account. Yet it was a serious process. It is not for civil servants to decide at this stage to maintain the status quo. Otherwise, what is the point of consultation?
When the minister gave the NWMO the mandate, he included so many restrictions that only 10% of Canada's radioactive waste will be covered by the proposed solutions, which makes no sense. The strategy does not even take into account projects that have been licensed.
Furthermore, the department does not even address the waste produced by small modular reactors. Why are these small modular reactors so protected in Canada?