Six Nations development fee refused

JAMES RUSK

September 12, 2007
Globe & Mail

A small Brantford development company will not yield to "extortion" by paying the Six Nations Confederacy Council a fee before it goes ahead with the construction of four semi-detached homes, its owner said yesterday.

Mike Quattrociocchi said that under the terms of a so-called development protocol, the aboriginal group wants him to give it about 4 per cent of the estimated $1.2-million value of project. He said he plans to resume construction next week, even though it is likely to trigger protests.

"They are going for the small guys because they know they can squeeze us," said Mr. Quattrociocchi, whose project was shut down last week by native protesters.

Earlier this week, the confederacy council, which represents the hereditary chiefs of the Six Nations, announced the creation of the Haudenosaunee Development Institute, an agency that the chiefs say will "oversee" the development of lands in the Haldimand tract, an area six miles on either side of the Grand River.

The document creating the institute says that the native group may charge development fees.

Toronto lawyer Aaron Detlor, who acts for the confederacy, said the natives want developers to sign a protocol with their agency before development proceeds, and that it will soon be in talks with municipalities along the river about how the process would work.

He said the chiefs see the development protocol process as filling the void in which developers have been caught because Ottawa and the province have not resolved Six Nations land rights.