Greens support Passamaquoddy Nation’s Call for No Nukes
OTTAWA -- The Green Party of Canada is supporting the call of Chief Akagi to remove the Point Lepreau reactor from the traditional lands of the Passamaquoddy Nation and return the ancestral lands.
Chief Akagi is working with a coalition of groups across Canada who want to see Point Lepreau shut down, including the International Institute of Concern for Public Health, Conservation Council of New Brunswick, Concerned Citizens of Saint John, People Against Nuclear Energy, Fundy Baykeeper, Friends of the Musquash, Greenpeace Canada and the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter.
“Chief Akagi has a deep understanding that nuclear power is not at all ‘clean’, in fact it is leaving a terrible legacy of toxic waste for future generations and that is not acceptable,” said Lorraine Rekmans, Aboriginal Affairs Critic for the Green Party of Canada.
The Point Lepreau reactor was built on ancestral burial grounds of the Passamaquoddy Nation.
“We share Chief Akagi’s horror that there is no solution to nuclear waste that does not burden our children and our children’s children,” said Rekmans. “He is wise in that he recognizes we must deal with the underlying issue of energy addiction and look to the future of truly clean energy that does not create unsolvable problems and does not pour money into a reactor like Point Lepreau that even nuclear industry analysts say is not worth further investment. That money should be used to develop and support renewable energy technology like solar and wind.”
“Point Lepreau has turned into a money pit,” said Green Leader Elizabeth May. “The re-tubing has hit another snag, the project is billions over budget and now is the time to pull the plug.”
The Green Party believes that the best energy choices to respond to the climate crisis should be those that deliver the greatest reduction of greenhouse gases per dollar invested. By this criterion, nuclear energy is among the very worst options. Reactors cost billions of dollars, take more than a decade to build and tend to operate unreliably after about the first dozen years of operation.
The Green Party would work with Provinces to phase out existing nuclear power, to stem the build-up of nuclear wastes, and to institute a Canada-wide moratorium on uranium mining and refining.
“We have a lot to learn from our First Nations peoples here in Canada, including taking a long term view when making decisions. Considering the next seven generations is a fundamental part of maintaining a society that lives in harmony with the earth. Chief Akagi is a wise leader; we need more of those,” said May.
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Debra Eindiguer
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