The mercury contamination has caused health problems for some members of the First Nation.

The chief of a northwestern Ontario reserve – and an NDP candidate in this fall's federal election – is calling on Indigenous Services Minister Seamus O'Regan to sit down to hammer out an agreement on a long-promised treatment facility for mercury poisoning.

The chief of a First Nation in northwestern Ontario long-plagued by the debilitating impacts of mercury contamination says he is worried about the fate of a federally promised treatment facility.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is apologizing for what critics called his "smug" response to protesters who hoped to draw his attention to mercury contamination in Grassy Narrows.

The two sides have been at odds since the province ordered the companies in 2011 to remediate the former mill site in Dryden, Ont., where some 9,000 kilograms of toxic effluent was dumped in the English-Wabigoon River system in the 1960s.

The people of Grassy Narrows continue to bear the physical and emotional scars of mercury contamination, and that the community needs specialized equipment to help people deal with the lasting impacts of poisoning, the community's chief said.

The Ontario government announced in June that it would spend $85 million to remediate the mercury contamination.

Environment Minister Glen Murray says the funds for the remediation of the English-Wabigoon River system in northwestern Ontario will be used to design and implement the cleanup, and for long-term monitoring.

A northwestern Ontario First Nation plagued with mercury poisoning for more than 50 years said Tuesday it has evidence that toxic material is still leaking from an upstream paper mill.