Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
TORONTO – Leaders from a Northern Ontario First Nation are meeting with federal and Ontario Indigenous ministers in Toronto today to push for a mercury treatment centre.
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 kilograms of the substance into the river systems in the 1960s.
Researchers have reported that more than 90 per cent of the people in the nearby Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong First Nation show signs of mercury poisoning.
Grassy Narrows leaders say they need a mercury treatment centre in their own community and that one could be built for $4.5 million.
They are set to meet today with Ontario Indigenous Relations Minister David Zimmer and federal Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott, who has so far committed to a feasibility study for a treatment centre.
Philpott says she is hoping to hear from the community what their specific needs are in a centre, but the federal government will “support some appropriate facility” once it has have more information.
