NHH Board Says Include Health Care in Wesleyville Planning
(Today’s Northumberland file photo)
By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
With all the intricate planning that will go into the new Wesleyville nuclear project, the Northumberland Hills Hospital board is urging planners to include input from the health-care community.
The request came at the board’s February meeting, following a presentation on the project by Port Hope Chief Administrative Officer Mike Melinyshyn and Ontario Power Generation Senior Manager of Stakeholder Relations Carrie-Anne Atkins – coincidentally on the day that Minister of Energy and Mines Stephen Lecce had been to Port Hope to sign a $4.5-million Memorandum of Understanding – “to upscale us, resource us,” Melinyshyn said.
“We are a traditional history and tourism town, not quite ready for the world’s biggest nuclear generation.”
OPG is the partner in Ontario’s electricity system that generates electricity, one step below the Ontario Energy Board (which sets rates and enforces compliance with regulation) and one step above Hydro One (which manages transmission lines and distributes power).
Wesleyville is ideally suited for several reasons. It’s a 1,300-acre site already municipally zoned and maintained for electricity generation. It has existing access to transmission, railways and roads, offering a sufficient exclusion zone and emergency-planning considerations.
It has the potential to produce up to 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Since the current largest generator in the world is a plant in Korea that puts out 7,500, Melinyshyn said, this will make it the biggest in the world.
The current stage is the impact assessment process. Site preparation activities and construction will take place from the early 2030s to mid-2040s, after which it will be in service. Throughout that time, engagement and consultation opportunities will continue.
These include significant consultations with Indigenous communities and First Nations, Melinyshyn noted, without which things come “to a screeching halt.”
Economic spin-offs over its 95-year lifespan (according to the Conference Board of Canada) include a $65.7-billion boost to the local GDP, a jump to overall local employment levels of 15 to 20%, and such local benefits as supply-chain spending, employee spending, and corporate and employee charitable giving.
Since early last year, OPG has engage with more than 6,000 people in Port Hope and surrounding communities. They have opened the Port Hope Nuclear Discovery Centre for members of the public to drop in and learn more, as well as setting up information booths at community events.
Melinyshyn says preparations include updating the municipality’s Official Plan to be more “growth-ready.”
“We are not talking 10 to 15 years, we are talking three to five years,” he projected.
NHH is currently compiling its own Master Plan, and Melinyshyn promised better data on population-growth projections within six to eight months, agreeing that medical support within close proximity is important.
“We are already struggling to serve our population, as you well know,” Dr. Kate Everdell pointed out, advocating for including the medical community in the consultations.
As for physician recruitment, Melinyshyn foresees the evolution of a more prosperous community, which will therefore be more attractive to prospective recruits.
“I think you can see how important this conversation is to us – you need to keep connecting with us and the doctors in the community,” Board Chair Cyndi Gilmer said.
