After years of waiting, Grassy Narrows breaks ground on a care home to treat victims of mercury poisoning
The long-awaited facility will house some of sickest people in the northern Ontario community poisoned by industrial pollution.
After years of delay, construction is at last underway in Grassy Narrows First Nation of the long-awaited mercury care home, which will help some of the sickest people in the northern Ontario community poisoned by industrial pollution.
Leaders from Grassy Narrows and the federal government attended a ceremonial groundbreaking today at the First Nation, located roughly 100 kilometres north of Kenora.
The care home will be able to house 22 people, as well as provide outpatient services to all members of Grassy Narrows affected by mercury poisoning. The care home is expected to be complete in 2027.
“At last, my people will have access to dignified care for the terrible impacts of mercury on our health. I honour the past leaders, as well as the many grassroots people, who persevered for so long to make this dream come true,” Grassy Narrows Chief Sherry Ackabee said.
The legacy of mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows and nearby Wabaseemoong (Whitedog) Independent Nations began in the 1960s, when a pulp and paper mill upstream dumped 10 tonnes of the neurotoxin into the English-Wabigoon River.
The mercury contaminated the fish and poisoned the people who live downstream. They developed tremors, slurred speech, impaired hearing and tunnel vision, and lost muscle co-ordination.
The federal government committed to help build the mercury care home in 2017. Over the ensuing years, there was fear the project had stalled as there was back-and-forth over funding. In 2021, Ottawa committed roughly $70 million in a trust to cover operations costs over 30 years, on top of the $19.5 million it had previously agreed to provide for construction costs.
“Having health care at home means members can get care without leaving their community,” Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services of Canada, said in a press release announcing the care home’s groundbreaking.
“We will be there for as long as it takes to support the community as they continue to grow and heal.”
A Star investigation revealed that in 1984, Ontario’s then-environment minister recommended that the river be cleaned up, but the government of the day ignored his recommendation and chose instead to let the river clean itself naturally.
The strategy didn’t work. In recent years, test results from soil, fish and river sediment reveal there are still dangerously high levels of mercury.
And ongoing industrial activities in and around the Grassy Narrows territory is exacerbating the impact of the toxins still in the river — and threatening to continue making new generations sick.
Sulphate-infused industrial wastewater discharged by a paper mill upstream is speeding up the bacterial process that creates a dangerous form of mercury, making the already existing contamination “worse than it would otherwise be,” according to a 2024 study written for Grassy Narrows leadership, funded in part by the province.