Michael-Allan Marion
Sept. 13, 2007
Brantford Expositor
Local political leaders say they have lots of problems with a protocol released by the Six Nations Haudenosaunee that covers development around the Grand River.
The council of the traditional Confederacy has implemented a development protocol it says will affect every building project in the Haldimand Tract area, six miles on either side of the Grand River, granted at one time to Six Nations.
It calls on developers to approach the Confederacy council, get its blessing and pay fees. It also calls on municipalities to refuse to grant permits to developers who don't follow those rules.
Mayor Mike Hancock said municipalities can't possibly comply with parts of the protocol because to do so they would be breaching the Ontario Municipal Act and other pieces of legislation.
"In reality, the answer remains what it has always been - municipalities have no jurisdiction to deal with native land issues," he said.
"Ceasing to grant development permits, we can't do that even if we wanted. We don't have the luxury of deciding what laws to apply and not apply. If an applicant follows all the rules, we are duty bound to give the permit."
He said the Confederacy's focus should be on the people who make the laws that municipalities have to observe.
"We have no room to move. We are not a level of government. We are not the Crown. We are a corporation, a creature of the province."
Brant Liberal candidate Dave Levac said the release of the protocol is another example of the Confederacy pushing the envelope in the ongoing land claims dispute.
"It's another in a series of actions that some Six Nations people are taking to get the federal government to recognize and deal with their claims," he said.
Levac said the government stands by its land registry and the Confederacy announcement is not based on Ontario law.
Meanwhile, Brant MP Lloyd St. Amand has written a letter to Chuck Strahl, the Harper government's new Indian and Northern Affairs Minister, urging a speedier end to 17 months of negotiations over the Caledonia land claim dispute that eventually fomented wider occupations, protests and native delegations in Haldimand County, Brant County and Brantford.
"My concern is growing that there is a very substantial disagreement between the parties as to how the matter will ultimately be resolved," writes St. Amand.
"If that be the case, I am not at all confident that several more months of negotiating will yield a positive result.
"In the meantime, lives and livelihoods are unnecessarily being disrupted. Work stoppages have occurred and it is not an exaggeration to suggest that residents, contractors and developers have been left in a state of uncertainty."