THUNDER BAY—For Jim Bailey, the assignment of two high-level federal bureaucrats to a meeting in Thunder Bay this month was a promising sign of renewed attention to the mercury-contaminated sediment in the north end of the harbour.
Bailey is the coordinator of the Thunder Bay and area Remedial Action Plan, a government-funded environmental cleanup program that aims to identify and treat contaminated waterways.
After Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Patty Hajdu intervened with cabinet colleagues recently, Transport Canada's regional director for Ontario and Environment Canada's Associate Regional Director for Ontario were both dispatched to the city.
Bailey says they sat down last week with other stakeholders including Ontario's environment ministry, Lakehead University, the Thunder Bay Port Authority and the Public Advisory Committee to the RAP.
Bailey was happy to see a spirit of cooperation among the parties, and an agreement to reconvene a steering committee.
They decided, he said, that "the route forward might be a little easier if the load was shared."
The groups are expected to gather again in Thunder Bay in June, and will appoint a steering committee that will work to develop a sediment management strategy.
Bailey said that committee will also reach out to other organizations as it begins its work, "perhaps surrounding landowners, the city, that sort of thing, and re-engage."
A key outstanding issue to be resolved by the committee is determining which organization will take the lead in any remediation effort.
According to Bailey, an option considered previously—adding the north harbour to the Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan, under which cleanup funding could be provided—has now been ruled out.
He said it's noteworthy, however, that Transport Canada—the legal owner of the harbour bottom—has agreed to cooperate.
"I wouldn't say we're in a perfect situation by any means, but it does seem that we've arrived at some degree of cooperation going forward," Bailey said, adding "there's a long way to go yet."
