TORONTO — The NDP’s Indigenous relations critic is demanding the province provide answers about what it’s done to fulfill promises made to address mercury contamination in Grassy Narrows First Nation.

France Gelinas was reacting to research made public on Tuesday that showed 90 per cent of Grassy Narrows’ residents show signs of mercury poisoning.

“It took Japanese researchers, not this government, to provide the only public data on the health effects of mercury poisoning on the people of Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong,” Gélinas said in release issued on Wednesday by the NDP.

 “You committed $300,000 in May to immediately begin field work.  Will you show the local people there what’s been done, how much has been spent, what samples have been taken so far, because we have found nothing.”   

The report was presented at Queen’s Park on Tuesday.

The environment minister amazingly stood in this house and said, ‘I can’t imagine we could be doing more.’  Well, Chief (Simon) Fobister seems to think you could be doing more. The people of Grassy Narrows, world renowned scientists, and Ontarians, we all think you could be doing more,” Gélinas said.

“Will the premier follow the Japanese lead, clean up the English-Wabigoon River of mercury so that the people can drink the water and eat the fish?”

The local fishery was shuttered by the government in the 1970s, which led to a raft of social issues in the community, Fobister told the Globe and Mail, calling the lack of action shameful.

“There’s been no real, clear commitment that a cleanup will take place if the scientists say it can be cleaned up,” he’s quoted saying in the Globe and Mail article, adding he wants financial assistance for residents suffering from mercury poisoning and to help restore Grassy Narrows’ economic stability.