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speakup

Readers of this paper have seen very little of the uranium mining debate now raging in the province. The Fredericton and Moncton papers have been full of it. Mining companies are prospecting in the southeast, and around Fredericton-Oromocto. Opposition to uranium exploration is growing exponentially as people find out what this will mean for their communities.

Energy hub proponents are rather reluctant to draw attention to the issue, since the link between unpopular uranium mining and green-washed nuclear plants is hard to avoid. I've always thought that if the uranium fuel used at Point Lepreau were mined, refined and fabricated here, and a high level radioactive waste storage site was built here, then enthusiasm for nuclear power might be more difficult to conjure up. When the dots are connected, the full nuclear picture materializes.

Today, the dirty front end is confined to aboriginal communities in northern Saskatchewan, a marginal constituency far from the seat of power - out of sight, out of mind. Northern Ontario's Elliot Lake uranium mines worked by immigrants escaping post-war Europe are now a defunct but a continual source of radioactive contamination. And ask the good folks of Port Hope, Ontario, if they had it to do over again, would they would allow a uranium refinery to be located in their town, or if they trust the nuclear regulators to protect them from radioactive pollution. Experience really is the best educator.

As for the back end, the only place the federal government is looking for a permanent high level waste storage site is in the remote Canadian shield where, not surprisingly, only Indian communities can be found. It isn't by accident that Indian reservations in the United States - New Mexico, Nevada, Utah - are also the best place for uranium mines and waste disposal sites, as if there are no other uranium deposits or possible waste repositories in that vast country.

Now that the price of uranium is high, it turns out there are other uranium deposits in Canada; in fact, right here in New Brunswick. But we are a small province and so the mining companies have to deal with a rather important political constituency - the good people of Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe, the trendy southeast coastal communities where the wealthy like to retire, the stalwart farmers and professional urban expats living on the outskirts of Fredericton, and all the regular people whose land is being staked, who don't want to live anywhere near a uranium mine (justifiably so), and who can seriously punish a governing party in an election.

So far, natural resources minister Donald Arsenault is deaf to the danger. After an opposition motion calling for a moratorium on uranium mining was defeated, he explained, "the province rejected a moratorium on uranium mining due to the economic benefits this will bring to the province." This is variation on Frank McKenna's infamous admission while justifying drastic cuts to social and health services in the 1990s, that the notion of "people first" ended when the money ran out.

Whichever way you cut it, the Liberal message is that under their watch the almighty dollar reigns supreme, people be damned. Vale Inco's uranium mines will "Be... in this place" whether people want them or not. Regardless, the people are speaking. Moncton, Cambridge Narrows, Oromocto and Tracadie-Sheila have passed resolutions calling for a provincial moratorium. Nine southeast mayors will take resolutions to their councils. Other councils are being approached and will likely sign on.

Herein lies the Liberal dilemma. Having enthusiastically embraced Lepreau 2, the Graham government will be loathe to acquiesce to such public pressure. Admitting the dangers of uranium mining would draw unwanted attention to the risks of nuclear power as a source of electricity.

Meanwhile, in other more progressive jurisdictions, the Nova Scotia government (also a have-not province) has re-confirmed its 1982 moratorium on uranium exploration because of health and environmental concerns. And in late April the British Columbia government put the kibosh to a potential $1 billion uranium development with a formal moratorium, which compliments its "no nukes" energy policy.

Minister Arsenault, in whose riding Dalhousie-Restigouche East there appears to be no uranium exploration, has said a "silent majority" of New Brunswickers support uranium exploration and mining.

Well then, how about a referendum on the question, "Would you support uranium mining on your land or near your community?"

More likely, it will be an election issue in those all-important southern ridings, where I expect the majority will not be silent nor supportive, let the Lepreau 2 chips fall where they may.

Janice Harvey is a freelance writer and a long-time director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick. She can be reached by e-mail at waweig@nbnet.nb.ca. Her column appears on Wednesday.