A newly released scientific study says the safe cleanup of the Wabigoon River-English River system in Grassy Narrows is possible.

 

Armed with that information, Kenora-Rainy River MPP Sarah Campbell called on Premier Kathleen Wynne to commit her government to cleaning up the mercury contamination that has affected the community for more than 50 years on Monday, May 30 during Question Period.

“Will the premier commit today to an action plan to clean up the Wabigoon River so future generations don’t have to grow up poisoned and that the community of Grassy Narrows can heal?” Campbell asked.

Wynne said in response that she had not seen the new report and wants to see the science it’s based on. She also said there is currently a working group in discussion about solutions.

“The group will have a broad scope of inquiry, but there are complicated issues around the settling of the mercury in the water at Grassy Narrows,” Wynne said. She added that the government was committed to Grassy Narrows before the report came out.

The report summary said the government’s current Monitored Natural Recovery plan is not working because fish mercury concentrations in Clay Lake are not declining or declining at an imperceptible rate.

Campbell referred to members of the First Nation that will travel to Queen’s Park “as they do every year and call on government to do something, to act on the contamination of their traditional hunting and fishing land.”

She added that the Ministry of Environment’s response to media on the possibility of a cleanup is “word for word the same as the ministry comment in February.”

Craig Benjamin is from Amnesty International and has worked with Grassy Narrows for more than a decade.

At a Queen’s Park press conference this morning, the report’s lead author John Rudd said the river could be cleaned up today and could have been cleaned up 30 years ago, which Benjamin said he found “deeply shocking.”

“The implication is that there’s been 30 lost years for setting things right for the safety of this community,” he said.

“To think that the province has not only been sitting on this science, but have been publicly denying it, to be saying for years that there’s no evidence and saying that the river couldn’t be cleaned up. It was a dereliction of their duty.”

Benjamin added that at least Wynne seemed open to the new information in the report, but at the same time the government must take responsibility for the fact they had access to similar reports before.