Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll start commenting and then Jennifer can comment further. One of the things is this. Despite the recommendations not to consume fish from the river system, individuals, because of their cultural links to the fish, which are a very important dietary source, will from time to t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Perhaps I'll make an additional comment. I think Canada has never been so close from a medical standpoint to actually supporting the communities. It is a moral obligation to support the communities to have a medical facility to help support disabled individuals who are having pr

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I won't comment on that question. In my transition from the Public Health Agency of Canada to the first nations and Inuit health branch and in the short time I've been here, I've seen significant accomplishments by all of the staff in trying to work with the communities, trying

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Perhaps I'll ask Jennifer Mercer, the director of the program, to speak to that. What you described was something in the past. However, the department has spent a lot of time working with ethicists at the research ethics board and the community and has poured in additional resou

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are, to this day, still children who are born with impacts of the mercury poisoning of the past. We have observed a decreasing trend of that over the course of the last 40 or 50 years. However, it is still occurring at this point and is related to a mother's being exposed t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That is correct. However, that's been decreasing over time.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much for the question. My expertise is in the domain of medicine and public health. I will actually turn to my colleague, Susan Humphrey, from ECCC, to comment on the environmental sources of the mercury contamination. As Susan had talked about, there is a strong