Grassy Narrows First Nation moved closer to its goal of building a care home on reserve for those sickened by industrial mercury poisoning after the federal government signed an agreement to cover the entire projected cost of construction.

The agreement, reached Thursday night between Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller and Grassy chief Rudy Turtle, commits Ottawa to spend $19.5 million to build the home, which is expected to offer palliative care, physiotherapy, counselling and traditional healing.

The federal money commitment was a sticking point in a previous, failed attempt to reach an agreement. Last summer, then-minister Seamus O’Regan went to Grassy Narrows with a draft agreement that called for $10.5 million toward construction — far less than the total cost to build, according to a feasibility study — and that said Ottawa could walk away from the deal for any reason with 60 days’ notice.

This bothered Turtle, who said the proposed agreement did not offer the certainty that O’Regan had been promising: the money was “booked” and “approved,” and the funding agreement the government wanted the Indigenous community’s leaders to sign was “for keeps” and “legally binding,” O’Regan had said publicly.

The government said at the time that the draft agreement contained standard contractual wording and was not a reflection of Indigenous Services’ record on following through on its promises. Turtle refused to sign.

Asked why he signed this version of the agreement, Turtle told the Star: “Canada has accepted our plan for the Mercury Care Home. With the full building cost committed, we can finally move forward with the vision that our elders, youth and community members have tirelessly pursued. I am proud of my people.”

The new deal also commits Ottawa to provide long-term funding for operations and maintenance, including federally funded services such as nursing, personal support workers, dieticians, palliative care and mental health counselling programs.

“This historic framework agreement is the beginning of an important turning point. Reflecting on what should have happened a long time ago, I take great pride and promise in what can be done so that specialized care can be accessed and close to home,” Miller said in a statement.

The feasibility study estimated that, after construction, the care home would cost close to $70 million to operate for 30 years. The facility will include rooms for 22 full-time residents, a rehabilitation room and customized showers and tubs — not currently offered by the community clinic. It will offer both in- and outpatient services.

The deal signed Thursday says that 14 days after the next federal budget is passed, Miller will meet with Turtle to finalize the projected operations costs over the next 30 years, then Miller will ask the Treasury Board or Cabinet to fund these services through an upfront payment or trust.

“The minister has solemnly promised to me that he will do what is in his power to get us the funding amount that we need fast, and to give 30 years of funding up front so that we can be sure that our loved ones will be cared for properly,” Turtle said. “I expect him to honour his word.”

For years, Grassy Narrows leaders have asked for help for survivors of the pollution. Many residents have had to leave the community to get the care they need in Kenora, Ont. — an hour-and-a-half drive to the southwest — or other towns and cities farther from home. After a long battle with a degenerative neurological disorder, former chief and care home advocate Steve Fobister died in 2018, not at home close to his relatives and culture, but in a Kenora hospital after shuttling between there and a Thunder Bay facility 600 kilometres from Grassy Narrows.

During the 1960s, the Dryden pulp and paper mill, operated by Reed Paper, dumped 10 tonnes of mercury into the Wabigoon River that feeds Grassy Narrows downstream. The potent neurotoxin contaminated the river’s fish and poisoned the people who ate them. The community’s residents developed tremors, slurred speech, impaired hearing, tunnel vision and lost muscle co-ordination.

Over the past three years, the Star and scientists have revealed that fish near Grassy Narrows remain the most contaminated in the province, that there are mercury-contaminated soil and river sediments at or near the site of the old mill, and that the provincial government knew in the 1990s that mercury was visible in soil under that site and never told anyone in Grassy Narrows or nearby Wabaseemoong (Whitedog) Independent Nations. Scientists strongly suspect that old mercury still contaminates the mill site and pollutes the river.

In 2017, while these findings were coming to light and soon after the Star found mercury-tainted soil behind the mill, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office said that Ottawa wanted to help “deal with this issue once and for all.” In a letter to the chief later that year, then-Indigenous Services minister Jane Philpott committed to funding a feasibility study of a care home “as well as the construction and operation … once the design work and programming is ready.”

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By the summer of 2019, Turtle was concerned that development of the home had stalled, with the government only paying for the feasibility study. Turtle had said officials told him Ottawa wouldn’t spend more until the provincial government committed to covering some of the medical care provided in the home.

But that barrier cleared in May 2019 after a northern Ontario health official committed to covering the cost of doctors and other specialists.

Shortly after taking over the job as Indigenous Services minister, Miller met with Turtle in Ottawa on Dec. 4 and committed to fully fund the construction of the mercury care home, according to a Grassy Narrows news release.

Construction of the home is expected to take two to three years.