If you noticed a couple vehicles rolling through town on Sunday, Nov. 18 carrying what appeared to be leaky barrels radioactive waste, then the folks from the Peace River Environmental Society have at least partly achieved their goal.
En route to the legislature in Edmonton, the group took two routes, gathering 1407 signatures along the way in protest of the planned, but not yet approved, building of several nuclear reactors in Northern Alberta.
Two different convoys hit Valleyview, Fox Creek, Whitecourt, High Prairie, Slave Lake and Athabasca, hoping to draw attention to what they fear will affect Albertans for generations to come; nuclear energy’s dangerous legacy.
On Nov.19, the special delivery of fake hazardous waste barrels was to be dropped off at the steps of the government while at the same time, handing off the petition to MLA Frank Oberle.
Determined to paint as broad a stroke as possible, the group had arranged meetings with Energy Minister Mel Knight, Environment Minister Rob Renner and Tourism Minister Hector Goudreau. Stirring up the pot a bit, the group also met with opposition party members.
Sometimes you need a friend.
Jule Asterisk of the Regional Environmental Action Committee played a sympathetic host to the convoy as it came through Slave Lake that Sunday. Asterisk is a long time advocate of environmental awareness and action, and a darned good cook also! Aside from sitting on various boards and lobbying for cleanup efforts in and around Slave Lake, she has helped to produce videos such as “My life as a plastic bottle.” Asterisk is a woman who clearly loves the environment.
Her home was a beacon of solidarity for the group who stopped for lunch and to regroup before hitting the road again for Edmonton. When you play David to Nuclear Energy’s Goliath, you’re in for a long day.
The Leader was invited by her home to chat with the group before they headed for the Capital and the energy in the house was infectious. About 10 members of the group crowded into the shrinking living room, and a mini-rally ensued as fired-up activists assembled for photographs. Though many of them were meeting in person for the first time, they seemed like old friends and there were no shortage of hugs.
Grist for the (nuclear) mill.
A big problem facing environmental activists, The Leader heard, is the sheer volume of work to tend too. Nuclear energy was definitely the call of the day, but conversations jumped between other weighty subjects.
Water supply concerns, pulp mill effluent, bureaucratic hoop-jumping, freedom of information and privacy issues and more; these folks have their work cut out for them.
But if energy is an indicator, you could extract bitumen with the excitement in that room.
Wanda Laurin, the secretary of PRES, explained some of the difficulties a grassroots organization has to go through just to become a thorn in the side of those who would malign the planet.
“We have to pay for each of the reports through the Freedom of Information and Privacy department. It can take weeks, or months and when we do get them, pertinent information is often blacked out,” said the spokesperson.
The cost is not great, but it is one more example of how people are deterred from participating in processes which directly affect them, she implied.
Not in my backyard?
It was perhaps ironic that the government’s security guards would not allow fake waste barrels onto the legislature grounds the following day.
How the government will allow for real toxic waste in the backyards of the people of the Peace River area now remains to be seen.
The 200 or so people that showed up to protest the planned development were, however, able to peacefully converge on the site without the symbolic waste.
Depending on how you look at it, the prohibition of nuclear waste at the legislature may have sent an equally strong message. It looks like nobody wants nuclear waste!
On Monday, as the rally neared an end, it looked as though MLA Frank Oberle would not be available to accept the petition on the steps of the legislature as per a previous arrangement.
Instead, an assistant from the MLA’s office came out, hurriedly accepted the signatures and assured the protesters that it would be tabled before the assembly.
Spoiled oil?
Brenda Brochu, president of PRES, spoke with The Leader the day after the rally, voicing some degree of optimism. “We are going to give them some time to respond to what we discussed in our meetings. At recent open houses (with oil companies) they seem to be backing away (from the nuclear option).” Brochu cited wavering public acceptance and the discovery that mixing radiation with oil is not good for the end product. Who would have guessed?
“They are considering using natural gas co-generation (for extracting the bitumen), which is a lot greener and a lot less dangerous,” said the spokesperson from PRES. She suggested that municipalities may have been swayed by promises of huge tax incentives during initial talks. But some of those people who stand to benefit from an increased tax base may also stand to loose their livelihood, she reasoned.
The area within a 30 km radius of the proposed plant has a rich farming history, and those folks have made it clear they don’t like the idea of a nuclear harvest.
So who’s listening? Brochu says that they were able to meet with the ministers (one of whom happens to be the Dunvegan MLA) and they seemed receptive to their concerns.
If oil is waffling does that mean the end of a nuclear northern Alberta? Not quite.
Brochu suggested that Energy Alberta still has more cards to play. The current but antiquated coal power plants would make for an easy opponent. If they loose the oil vote, nuke makers may try to sell the province on the idea of supply and demand for our growing population, while selling the excess back to the grid. Brochu thinks that might be a ruse. Once the power hits the grid, she cautions, it can’t be stored and will quite likely be headed south, where huge populations demand ever-more juice.
And, she warned, the cost of tail-dragging on public consultations from the premier’s office means that big business has more time to get to the public, do lots of PR and ground work, and generally stifle the environmentalist’s case. But Brochu sounds confident.
That might be the confidence that comes from doing something you believe in regardless of the outcome.

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