Ontario NDP Environment critic Peter Tabuns says the government continues to let Grassy Narrows and Whitedog First Nations down.
His comments follow a new Toronto Star report indicating the province has found mercury in soil and possibly buried metal in the Dryden area, upstream from the two First Nations.
The findings come from the province’s own scientists and were found in a clearing identified by a former Dryden Mill worker, where he and a small crew dumped 50 drums of salt and mercury in 1972.
Tabuns says the findings confirm what too many First Nation families already know, the threat of mercury poisoning is very real for families living along the Wabigoon River.
He says in 2016, the Wynne government shelved a report showing that they were still at risk and delayed efforts to build a treatment facility where it was needed.
Tabuns adds the Liberal government is forcing people to suffer in silence.
The Toronto Star report indicates that the Environment Ministry will continue their site assessment and will be excavating areas where there are larger anomalies this coming Spring.
