IGNACE, Ont. — Even before it commits to agreeing to a nuclear waste disposal site nearby, the Township of Ignace is improving its infrastructure with help from the Nuclear Waste Management Organization.
NWMO has set aside $4 million each for Ignace and South Bruce, Ontario, the only two remaining candidate sites in the country.
Each community gets to decide on its own how to spend the money over three years.
Ignace announced Monday that two of three projects are already well underway.
One is the redevelopment of the Ignace Shopping Plaza on Highway 17, and the other is a seniors' walk/urban art trail.
About $620,000 of NWMO's grant will be spent on the two initiatives.
The third, and largest, project, will be the Silver Tops Senior Centre and Seniors Housing Complex, which will allow local residents to stay in the community as they age.
Mayor Penny Lucas said "the generous investment by NWMO has made these projects possible...As always, we continue to focus on furthering community and business developments."
NWMO vice-president Lise Morton said the organization "will continue to work in partnership to foster community improvements as we move towards selecting a site."
Lucas has previously acknowledged that some Ignace residents are "absolutely dead set against" nuclear waste disposal at a site about 35 kilometres away, while others have questioned why it's taking so long to get the storage facility started.
A coalition of organizations opposed to the project maintains that Ignace does not have the right to approve nuclear waste storage in Northwestern Ontario on its own.
