Expect long and deep conversations with Aamjiwnaang First Nation about ensuring human health is a top priority, says one of Sarnia’s city councillors in the wake of preliminary findings from a United Nations investigation into dangerous substances and waste in Canada.

“It will be I think a topic that requires a lot of consultation and has to have that lens of human health and making sure that we’re doing everything we can as a municipality to encourage, promote and work with industry to ensure human health is the top priority,” said Coun. Brian White, one member of the city’s United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples working group.

“These aren’t new issues for the people who’ve been living in these areas, so I think it’s incredibly important and validating that they’ve had the opportunity to participate in something like this.”

Baskut Tuncak, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights, hazardous substances and waste, spent two weeks visiting eight Canadian locations, including Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver and Montreal, as well as Grassy Narrows, Fort McMurray and Aamjiwnaang, the First Nations community bounded by chemical plants and refineries in Sarnia’s Chemical Valley.

In his preliminary report released Friday – the full report is expected at the September 2020 session of the UN Human Rights Council – Tuncak wrote “Indigenous peoples appear to be disproportionately located in close proximity to actual and potential sources of toxic exposure” in Canada.

He praised Canada for having ratified all international treaties for chemicals and waste, and for being “an active participant in a non-binding policy framework for toxic chemicals and wastes,” but said, “in general, there remains a need for the government to better acknowledge that decisions, actions and inactions made regarding toxic pollution have deeply wounded its relationship with Indigenous peoples and strained their relationship with their land and culture, as well as their environmental rights.”

Air quality, while improved with the recent elimination of coal power in Ontario, could be enhanced with legally binding ambient air pollution standards nationally, Tuncak said. He also argued for the recognition of workers as a vulnerable class under Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan while pushing for better access to justice for victims of chronic exposure to toxic pollution.

“The condition of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Sarnia is deeply unsettling,” he said, calling its peoples’ exposure to toxins “an ongoing tragedy, a legacy of land use planning that would not be allowable today.”

It’s important to note co-operation between the community and Chemical Valley companies has increased in recent years, Tuncak said, but considerable room remains to improve monitoring, the enforcement of standards, and the investigation of health impacts.

Attempts to reach Aamjiwnaang Chief Chris Plain were unsuccessful.

White, who said he’s looking forward to seeing the full report, is also planning on bringing a motion on June 17 for Sarnia to declare a climate emergency.

A big part of that is acknowledging the rights of Indigenous communities such as Aamjiwnaang, he said.

Making a climate emergency declaration would potentially mean changing city procurement policies so capital work in Sarnia leaves a smaller environmental footprint, White said.

“Whether that’s concrete for curbs or hybrid vehicles and so on,” he said.

Having an impact on emissions from Chemical Valley companies is more the realm of higher levels of government, but the municipality can encourage brownfield redevelopment and create demand for eco-friendly products, he said, noting the importance of “being willing partners, rather than imposing restrictions.”

Locally, the push for a declaration has been led by grassroots group Climate Action Sarnia.

tkula@postmedia.com