Another setback for supporters of the Near Surface Disposal Facility at Chalk River – and this one could be even bigger than a court ruling on Indigenous rights issued last month.
Federal Court Justice Russel Zinn agreed last week that Canadian Nuclear Laboratories failed to consider “all reasonable alternatives” in siting the NSDF, including locations outside of the Chalk River labs.
In doing so, it failed to prove that the NSDF is the “best solution” to protect bats and turtles protected under the Species At Risk Act (SARA).
As a result, Justice Zinn overturned a decision by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to issue a permit for the NSDF project, and sent the issue back for reconsideration.
Justice Zinn said the Ministry’s decision was unreasonable “due to fatal flaws in the interpretation and application of key elements” of SARA.
“The record shows that CNL restricted its site selection to AECL-owned properties, artificially narrowing the scope of ‘reasonable alternatives’ as required by the Act,” Zinn wrote in his decision.
“Despite this self-imposed restriction, the (Ministry) approved CNL’s approach without explaining how it satisfied the statutory requirement to assess all viable alternatives capable of reducing harm to protected species.
“This unreasoned approval undermines the (Ministry’s) conclusion that CNL sufficiently complied with the statutory requirement under (SARA)”…
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