KAREN BEST
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 - 09:00
Haldimand News - Haldimand County Mayor Marie Trainer and Caledonia Coun. Craig Grice delivered a starkly worded staff report on land claim issue impacts to Ottawa last week.
"Fiscal and social fallout from the situation is catastrophic," began page two. "All attempts are being made to keep the situation peaceful yet this peace is at serious risk (of) jeopardizing the health and safety of residents (both native and non-native) and the OPP."
The county staff report was presented to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada Minister Jim Prentice on June 7.
"The harm this situation has caused to Haldimand County and Caledonia is almost immeasurable," according to the report. The author pointed out the social disruption between and within both the county and Six Nations communities.
"With the temporary occupation of a development site in Hagersville, the development sector in Haldimand County is paralyzed with the fear of occupation of their lands if they proceed with development, no matter where the location is," the report continued.
New residential housing starts have dropped about 30 per cent since Six Nations community members moved into Douglas Creek Estates last February.
Because land claim settlement falls under federal jurisdiction, Haldimand County council is powerless, noted the report's author. "Yet Haldimand County and its residents are trying to live and cope with this volatile situation and the many uncertainties that surround it," it continued.
Since demonstrations began outside Caledonia, actions were threatened in other parts of the county from Jarvis to Dunnville, noted the author. The staff report asked Prentice to help with the county's recovery plan which must be updated to reflect realities arising from new occupations and demonstrations.
County officials are looking at a short term plan to locate new industrial and commercial development outside the Haldimand Tract, where projects may be less vulnerable to occupation threats. Longer term opportunities within the tract will be identified "once the land claims issue has stabilized to the point where occupation threats are unlikely", continued the author.
The report offered four areas where federal support for county recovery could be directed. The first was the county's "serious interests" in power generation including a nuclear power plant for the Nanticoke industrial area. For this and for establishment of a Lake Erie port for marine freight ferries, federal approvals will be required, noted the author.
The Nanticoke water plant that can serve Six Nations will cost $300 million. Caledonia needs new sewage treatment plant capacity which could also serve Six Nations.
While Trainer and Grice had the opportunity to share all this information with Prentice on June 7, they were not even given the chance to meet with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty on June 6.
Along with Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Monte Kwinter and Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant, McGuinty made an announcement about guns and gangs in Hamilton last Wednesday.
That's only 15 minutes down the road, said Grice. He first heard about McGuinty's meeting from a Chronicle reporter. Very disappointed, he said he would have made time for McGuinty.
Hamilton is not that far, said Trainer who did not hear a word about the premier's stop in the city. "Why doesn't he come and see what gives," she asked describing the omission as an insult. "If they are afraid to come to Caledonia, we would have gone to them."
McGuinty has yet to meet with Haldimand County council members and, like Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has yet to visit Caledonia.
"Now's the time to deal with Harper," said Grice.
After their meeting with Prentice, Trainer said it served a purpose because they talked about the need to settle land claims. Violence cannot continue, she told him. Prentice agreed, she reported.
Trainer took comfort that the federal aboriginal minister and David Ramsay, the Ontario minister responsible for aboriginal affairs, agreed that occupations like the temporary one in Hagersville cannot go on. Her comment on violence was related to stoppage of paving at a church beside DCE and new occupations.
"They are working together to help all of us," she said. "I think they are trying to move forward. A lot depends on Six Nations themselves. The ($125 million) offer was made on claims they wanted resolved."