The Canadian Press
Allison Jones
TORONTO–Ontario’s government has had a report in hand about mercury contamination upstream from the Grassy Narrows First Nation for more than a year, but the premier says she didn’t see it.
Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation minister David Zimmer said this week the report was received by the government in September, 2016.
But it apparently never made its way to Premier Kathleen Wynne.
“We are not sure exactly how that information hadn’t made it to my desk, but we’re asking that question,” Wynne said Wednesday.
“It is always a concern if we don’t have the information that we need to make good decisions.”
Zimmer said the report was received by the Ministry of the Environment, though he was unsure of whether it also was received by his ministry.
He would “not categorize it as a communications breakdown,” he said.
“Ministries do not keep the premier of the day in the dark,” Zimmer stressed.
Mercury contamination has plagued the English-Wabigoon River system in Northwestern Ontario for half-a-century, since a paper mill in Dryden, Ont. dumped 9,000 kg of the substance into the river systems in the 1960s.
Researchers previously have reported that more than 90 percent of the people in Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong First Nation show signs of mercury poisoning.
The Toronto Star reported last week on a 2016 report by an environmental consulting firm for the mill’s current owner, Domtar, that showed the contamination continued to linger for decades.
And it likely still does–despite repeated assurances from public officials over the years that there was no ongoing source of mercury in the river.
The Ontario government announced in June it would spend $85 million to remediate the mercury contamination, months after a report commissioned by the Grassy Narrows community suggested there was ongoing contamination.
Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister said he believes Wynne.
“She’s the only premier in Ontario that has committed to this clean-up although we have been demanding it for years,” he noted.
Fobister said, however, that the community has met with top bureaucrats from the province, adding it is disappointing they were not upfront about its knowledge of contamination dating back to 1990.
“It seemed like we had to scratch and claw to find out, you know, what is really going on,” he stressed.
“The bureaucracy works in mysterious ways,” Fobister added. “What they know doesn’t necessarily mean their political masters know.”
Judy DaSilva, the environmental co-ordinator for Grassy Narrows who says she suffers effects of mercury contamination, believes Wynne may not have read the report but top advisers must have been aware.
“They should have told us,” she said. “It is not all on her. . . .
“We are used to people not treating us like humans, that we are not worth it.”
The situation in the community has been grossly mishandled, DaSilva added, noting Ottawa also has turned a blind eye.
“Maybe now it is time for them to step in,” she said.
Wynne also urged the federal government to work with Ontario on a compensation fund.
