Builders take new approach to natives

03/26/2007

As Caledonia talks drag on, others find talking to the band smoothes the road

BY KATE HARRIES
Special to The Globe and Mail

OHSWEKEN, ONT. -- Frustrated by the slow pace of talks between the federal government, Ontario and the Six Nations, developers are starting to go directly to the reserve to seek assurances that their projects won't be stalled by a land-claim dispute or, worse, a lengthy occupation.

Talks resumed last week with Six Nations Chief David General at the table.

Earlier this month, federal and provincial government representatives walked out after some community members outside the building physically prevented Mr. General from attending. There's a split between Mr. General, the elected chief, and the traditional Six Nations Confederacy chiefs who led the negotiations that started after the occupation of a Caledonia building site.

Such rifts bedevil politics on the reserve and the efforts to negotiate an end to the dispute that flared into the occupation more than a year ago. Wednesday night, about 150 people who turned out to hear lawyer Aaron Detlor talk about the confederacy's development policy went home disappointed after Six Nations police arrived to arrest a suspect in the crowd and organizers closed the meeting.

In an interview later, Mr. Detlor said the presentation was part of a community consultation process that started a few weeks ago on the confederacy's proposal for a consistent response to inquiries from as many as 50 developers in the past few months.

"One of the goals is to provide some certainty over the [Haldimand] tract," he said, referring to land, 10 kilometres on either side of the Grand River, that was granted to the Iroquois in 1784 in recognition of allegiance to the British in the American War of Independence.

Six Nations' interest isn't limited to the parcels it might own that are the subject of land claims, Mr. Detlor said. "The word 'ownership' is an English word that doesn't translate to the interest of the Haudenosaunee in these lands."

The confederacy has two criteria for evaluating development, he said. "The Haudenosaunee need places to grow, we need to be considered where development is taking place."

And environmental concerns are a priority in an area where development is fuelled by the leapfrog effect of green-belt protection around Toronto and Hamilton. Most important is the health of the Grand River, Mr. Detlor added. "It's the source of much that is sacred to the Haudenosaunee people."

First Gulf, a developer based in Mississauga, has been in talks with confederacy representatives for several months and First Gulf lawyer John Rowinski appeared before the band council last Tuesday.

A protest this month by Six Nations people at a southeast Brantford site where First Gulf has started site preparation for a $40-million shopping centre halted work for a few hours, Mr. Rowinski said.

Fears of something like the year-long occupation that derailed the Caledonia subdivision, which is on the edge of the Six Nations reserve, are part of what is driving First Gulf's overtures, he said, "but I think there's more to it than that. . . . It's a matter of good faith and good community relations to work out an arrangement where everybody's comfortable, unfortunately without a lot of help from the government so far."

Mr. Rowinski is critical of the failure of any level of government to alert First Gulf to the fact that the property it purchased was the subject of an unsettled land claim, given the amount of preparation and lengthy approvals process for such developments.

First Gulf found out only in May from a Six Nations member, he said. "Certainly the federal Crown knew that this was an ongoing, long-standing land claim and that given that was the case, certainly people who were investing and developing in the area ought to have had some notice of it."

Steve Charest, president of King & Benton, a Brantford developer, believes it's just good business to take the Six Nations presence seriously by trying to take positive steps to resolve problems.

King & Benton is redeveloping a former aggregate mine on 170 hectares in the middle of Brantford, in an area where Mr. Charest said there's documentation to show it was surrendered properly. "I'm hoping that we can have that confirmed by the confederacy and we've asked them to assist us with that."

Mr. Charest faults the federal government for a lack of commitment to resolving the Six Nations claims. "Best I can tell, the federal government's position is it's not their problem," he said. "I think that's the wrong attitude and my preference would be to see the federal government as part of the solution."

Eight months into negotiations over land claims and other issues related to the Haldimand Tract, many express the feeling that talks between the federal and provincial governments and Six Nations are going nowhere.

"They should offer something on the table, something concrete," said community member Joe Skye on his way to sit in on Thursday's session. "It's too slow."

At the end of the day, federal negotiator Barbara McDougall disagreed. "Negotiating is the only thing that really produces positive results and it takes a long time, this is a 200-year-old dispute," she said.

The federal government has dismissed the Six Nations position on the Plank Road claim along Highway 6 which includes the occupied site as without merit, while confederacy chiefs have responded with documents to show land there was sold before the date it was supposedly surrendered.

Those are legal positions, Ms. McDougall said. "It doesn't mean that there aren't things that we can talk about, maybe not that particular one, and what we need to do is put that aside and talk about some things that we can fix."