Ontario will test mercury levels in waterways near Grassy Narrows First Nation

Ontario agreed to spend $300,000 to test mercury levelsin fish and in the sediment of the English and Wabigoon River systemfollowing a meeting Monday between two Liberal cabinet ministers andleaders of the Grassy Narrows First Nation.

Environment Minister Glen Murray and Indigenous Relations andReconciliation Minister David Zimmer issued a statement followingtheir visit to the remote northern community near the Manitobaborder, saying the province would work with Grassy Narrows on theEnglish-Wabigoon Remediation Project.

The initial mercury testing will take place between Dryden andBall Lake.

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"This field work has been identified by the Grassy Narrowscouncil as their top priority and we will work with the community toensure that it begins immediately," the ministers said.

A chemical plant in Dryden dumped 9,000 kilograms of mercury inlocal waterways in the 1960s, but a recent report found levelsremain dangerously high even though the plant closed in the 1970s,and suggested there may be an ongoing source of contamination.

"We agreed on the need for immediate and collaborative actionbased on the recommendations of the recently released reportprepared for Grassy Narrows First Nation," the ministers said.

The government promised the remediation project "will considertraditional ecological knowledge" and respect for the traditionsand wisdom of the local First Nation leadership.

It also vowed to "get to the bottom" of claims by a formerworker at the Dryden plant who said he helped bury 50 barrels ofmercury and salt at the long defunct operation.

Wynne doesn't want to worsen situation

"We will conduct a geophysical assessment of the area that willallow us to verify whether barrels are buried beneath the surface,"said the ministers.

"Our findings will be shared with the community as soon aspossible, and we will take immediate action if evidence confirms theexistence of any of the buried barrels or other new sources ofmercury contamination at this site."

Earlier Monday, Premier Kathleen Wynne said she wanted to cleanup the mercury contamination that has plagued Grassy Narrows fordecades, but doesn't want to make the situation worse.

"I am deadly serious about this," said Wynne. "I want this tohappen, but I am not going to go ahead unless we're sure that we'renot going to do more damage."

Zimmer and Murray's statement said the field testing will provide"the critical information needed to develop options to remediatethe English-Wabigoon River system."

"Ontario will work with Chief (Simon) Fobister and the communityto develop this key piece," the statement said.

Family calls for inquest

Meanwhile, a Grassy Narrows family wrote Wynne asking for acoroner's inquest into the suicide of 14-year-old Azraya
Ackabee-Kokopenace, who took her life after the death of her brotherCalvin, 17, who suffered from mercury poisoning and musculardystrophy.

In April, Azraya was out past curfew at the group home where shelived, was picked up by police and dropped at the Kenora hospital,where she walked away at about midnight. Two days later, she wasfound dead in the woods across the road from the hospital.

"The same system that took her out of her community and awayfrom her family is the system that failed her," Marlin Kokopenace,Azraya's father, said in a release.

"We want that system held accountable, and we want it tochange."

New Democrat MPP Sarah Campbell also wants an inquest, and saidit's "heartbreaking for any parent to know that their child cansimply walk away, never to be seen alive again, when they weresupposedly in the care of child services and the hospital."

But Wynne said it wasn't up to her to call an inquest.

"We don't direct the coroner," she said. "The coroner willmake that decision."