Kenora MP Bob Nault was surprised Grassy Narrows First Nation’s council and Chief Rudy Turtle didn’t sign a memorandum of agreement for a mercury health care centre when he and Indigenous Services Minister Seamus O’Regan visited the community May 29.

Local and national media went to the community to witness the signing — however, the planned press conference at the local school went awry when the First Nation’s leadership and the federal politicians held a private meeting in which Turtle said he wouldn’t sign the agreement.

Grassy Narrows First Nation is plagued with the effects of mercury contamination, stemming from a Dryden-area paper company dumping 9,000 kilograms of the metal into the English-Wabigoon river system in the 1960s.

“The minster came in today and he was hoping we would sign a memorandum of agreement, but the proposal they put forward was not adequate. It wasn’t good enough,” Turtle said outside the band office May 29.

“It was a surprise to us, maybe naively it was a surprise to us, that the officials weren’t aware that there were problems,” Nault said in an interview two days following the meeting. “We are totally committed to this and we are going to get this done, it’s just now a matter of how long it’s going to take.”

The crux of the discussion was whether to put money into a trust, which is what the First Nation’s leadership wants, or ink the facility through a contribution agreement, Nault said.

“Legally, the Government of Canada and the ministry cannot move any money without a contribution agreement because it’s a requirement under the financial administration act. No nickel, no dime, no quarter, nothing, no billion dollars, $100 billion or anything can move,” Nault said.

Nault provided a copy of the government’s work plan summary to the Miner and News.

In the plan — which would’ve been set in motion had the agreement been signed — preliminary site servicing, including road and water infrastructure, would break ground this summer.

The work plan also detailed the timeline and costs of two facilities — an “expanded health facility” and a “new assisted living housing with specialist treatment complex”.

Turtle previously told media the government’s offer only included the assisted living facility.

The facilities would have opened in March 2021, according to the work summary.

Also included in the trust Turtle and the council want is $30 million in operations and maintenance funding, Nault said, which he called unprecedented.

Asked whether the federal government should’ve been aware that Turtle wouldn’t sign the agreement considering the chief had told the Canadian Press he wanted the money in a trust a week previous, Nault said the ministry and Turtle continued their negotiations in the time between the Canadian Press interview and the planned agreement.

epindera@postmedia.com