Five local municipalities will get a financial boost again from Ontario Power Generation to acknowledge their role in the proposed nuclear waste repository at Bruce Power.
Municipalities benefitting from the payments are Kincardine, Saugeen Shores, Huron-Kinloss, Arran-Elderslie and Brockton.
The schedule of payments was originally outlined in the 2004 DGR Hosting Agreement between Kincardine and OPG, and adjusted in the 2018 Amending Agreement.
Under that 2018 amendment, payments resume this year at the 50% level after being held in trust for the previous three years.
Payments, adjusted for inflation, will now continue annually in December until the project is stopped, in which case payments end. If the DGR is approved payments return to 100% levels.
Currently, OPG is developing a response to the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, who asked in 2017 that OPG update its cumulative effects analysis for the Environmental Assessment with information on the DGR’s impact on the physical and cultural heritage of Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON).
OPG’s DGR for low and intermediate level nuclear waste would be built 680 metres below the Bruce nuclear site – deeper than the CN Tower is tall – in solid rock.
An independent review panel concluded in 2015, after record-long hearings, that the DGR will protect the Great Lakes and the environment, the Bruce site is appropriate.
Fred Kuntz, Manager, Corporation Relations and Communications, Bruce County, explained: "Schedule A in the 2004 agreement lists the original amounts. In today's dollars, with the inflation adjustment, and a payout at the 50% level, the payments in December 2018 will be approximately $409,000 to Kincardine, $157,000 to Saugeen Shores, $44,000 to Huron-Kinloss, and $25,000 to each of Arran-Elderslie and Brockton."
