By Samantha Craggs
The Belleville Intelligencer
March 24, 2007
Native demonstrations in and around Deseronto have already hurt the town’s reputation with developers, says Mayor Norm Clark.
Clark said Friday he has talked to two developers recently who were looking at building in Deseronto. Both, said the mayor in an interview, would have generated about $100,000 in tax revenue per year, but the developers have walked away.
The reason? Deseronto already has a reputation as a town where developers will find they are liable to clash with natives and it’s a deal killer, said the mayor.
“If it continues, it’s going to have a huge effect on the future of Deseronto,” he said of the current blockade by a group of Mohawk protesters on land near the town. “Developers won’t invest in Deseronto if they don’t know what’s going on. Young families who want to move into town will hesitate.”
About half the town is included in a specific land claim filed by the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte (MBQ) with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. The claim has been acknowledged as valid and negotiations are ongoing. Minister Jim Prentice has appointed Sean Kennedy has lead negotiator, and Douglas Forbes as a community liaison.
Mohawk demonstrators have occupied a gravel quarry on the town’s outskirts since Thursday. If the quarry is not closed, the demonstration will escalate to local roads and bridges, warned demonstration frontman Shawn Brant.
Clark said he is “kind of disappointed, to be quite honest.” With negotiations between Mohawks and the federal government in the initial stages, “I was hoping there’d be no demonstrating,” he said.
In Haldimand County, where Caledonia is located, the impact has been deep and divisive, said Mayor Marie Trainer. A protest in the southwestern Ontario town has been ongoing for more than a year. Deseronto officials called the county Friday to arrange a meeting between the mayors, Trainer said.
The bad publicity scared away a 1,500-unit development, and the Douglas Creek Estates plan on the disputed land would have seen 650 homes, Trainer said. Each home would have generated about $3,000 in tax dollars.
Also impacted are the tradespeople.
The Caledon mayor says one of the workers who would have done the siding on Douglas Creek Estates contacted her to say that he is laid off.
Revenues at the local Tim Hortons have dropped $50,000 per month, she said. Other businesses have seen big losses, as well.
“It’s not the land claims that are the issue,” she said. “I haven’t met anybody here who disagrees with the land claim. It’s the occupation.”
But Brant said Friday that with land claims currently dragging on for years, occupation is the only way to get results. The Mohawks would like to see their harmonious relationship continue, and much of Deseronto’s population is aboriginal, he noted.
But that harmony should not be contingent on First Nations accepting years of injustice.
“It’s not our intention to move those relations away from the way they have been,” he said. “But it is not proper for us to say that ‘we will not stand on our land because we’re afraid you might get pissed off.’ How good are those relations if they’re based only on what we do for them?”
Demonstrations have not yet impacted Tyendinaga Township’s development potential, said Reeve Margaret Walsh.
The biggest impact in the foreseeable future will be in May, when the township usually gets gravel from the pit for its southern roads. It will have to transport gravel from the pit in the township’s north end.
But, Walsh hopes it will not be an issue.
“We’re hoping it will not be a long, drawn-out affair.”