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Hamilton Spectator
Q: Were you shocked by the cancelled meeting in
A: It was almost surreal. I was standing in the office, we had a pleasant round of introductions, when Prentice's chief of staff came into the room ... He did a two-minute speech about what had happened that day, what he called a "media circus," and said under those conditions ... there'd be no meeting. The minister had gone home to be with his family.
Q: Prentice said you had open lines of communication, but a week ago things changed. What happened?
A: A couple of things ... On another front, but related to the relationship (with Prentice), we were seeing unsafe conditions in regards to drinking water on our northern reserves. I was expressing my anger that this was being allowed to happen ... There was mounting pressure here from critics that the
Q: Prentice says policing, property and civil rights are provincial matters and argues it may be a joint jurisdiction on the land claim.
A: We're not saying we don't have a role here. We're saying it's the federal government who should have the lead role. The Ontario government can't settle a land claim on its own ... This has all been our plan and initiative and we're saying now we've exhausted all we can do as a province and to conclude this we really need the federal government to take over.
Q: It doesn't sound like that's going well.
A: We were hoping out of last night that we'd get some sort of an agreement ... We're all big boys and girls in this game and it is a full-contact sport ... Jim Prentice knows that, too. There's no room to be overly sensitive.
Q: So Prentice is being overly sensitive?
A: I think so. Politics is politics ... We have a very important responsibility to aboriginal people and to all the people in Caledonia ... I've asked my staff to reopen discussions at the staff level and when this dies down to reschedule the meeting. I'm not going to let this set us back. We've got work to do.
Q: Are you still hopeful
A: We hope they will agree to pay their fair share.