A remote Ontario community poisoned for decades by mercury from a paper mill remains unsatisfied with federal interventions after a top minister pledged to help it.

The money the Grassy Narrows First Nation received pales in comparison to the cash Canada doles out for international development, said Chief Rudy Turtle, who went to Ottawa with a new report on mercury-linked learning disabilities in hand last week.

“It feels like [Prime Minister Justin Trudeau] is just giving us pennies,” Turtle told Bloomberg Environment in an interview.

Grassy Narrows remains without compensation for all of the health and social impacts caused by mercury that the Dryden Paper Co. Ltd. leaked into the community’s water system in the 1960s and 1970s, Turtle said. Fish absorb mercury in water. Walleye, a freshwater fish found across North America, is a staple in the local diet.

Mothers who ate at least one fish per month during pregnancy were twice as likely to have maternal health problems, according to a recent study by Donna Mergler, a retired Universite du Quebec a Montreal professor.

The children of mothers who ate fish often were two times as likely to have a physical ailment and four times more likely to have a learning disability, a condition affecting education, or a nervous system ailment, the study, which relied on surveys with 353 children and youth, said.

Two pulp and paper companies that purchased Dryden’s assets agreed to give Grassy Narrows C$11.75 million ($8.8 million) in 1985, but mercury levels are still high in the area and the maternal impacts report shows that the effects are still being understood, Turtle said.

Minister Meets Community Representatives

Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott, whom Trudeau tasked with repairing Canada’s poor provision of basic health and social services in indigenous communities, met with Grassy Narrows representatives and Mergler in Ottawa on Dec. 5 to discuss the study.

The evidence points to several health issues that have been associated with mercury exposure, Philpott, a former physician, said in a statement to Bloomberg Environment.

Grassy Narrows wants Ottawa to fund a comprehensive study on mercury poisoning that would account for the larger social impacts of the mill. Philpott’s office said it had just received the report and couldn’t comment.

The ministry is working with Grassy Narrows to build a new health facility that could respond to some of the community’s needs, Philpott’s statement said. Funding for special needs education in Grassy Narrows has increased from C$207,099 ($154,640) in the 2015-16 fiscal year to C$539,512 ($402,745) in 2017-18, her office added. It added that reforms to Canada’s Indigenous child and family services program will also help Grassy Narrows.

Not Enough, Chief Says

But current commitments aren’t enough, according to Turtle, and federal officials still aren’t talking about a larger compensation package. The community has had to sponsor all major research into the mercury’s effects, including the most recent survey, he said.

Trudeau hasn’t responded to a request to visit Grassy Narrows, Turtle said. Trudeau has called the federal government’s relationship with Indigenous Peoples the most important on his agenda.

The Ontario provincial government, which shares environmental jurisdiction with Ottawa, announced a C$85 million ($63.5 million) grant in June 2017 to clean up areas affected by mercury. The amount is being shared among three different First Nations, according to Turtle.

Ontario ordered the Weyerhaeuser Co. and Resolute Forest Products Inc. in 2011 to clean up a part of the Dryden facility, which they previously owned. In an appeal the Supreme Court of Canada will hear in March, Resolute argues indemnification agreements between Ontario and the companies prevent the province from issuing the order.