Developers of the Stirling South subdivision who refused to sign a deal with the Six Nations Confederacy Council say the proposed agreement was an attempt to circumvent ongoing land claims negotiations.
The Confederacy council says it will embark on an information campaign warning would-be home buyers, sellers and developers that all lands in the Haldimand Tract are in dispute and subject to Haudenosaunee land rights.
The Haldimand Tract takes in all the land 10 kilometres either side of the Grand River from Lake Erie to its source.
Dave Van Elslander, of Venture Homes, said last night he and John Kragten have been advised the deal -- hailed by the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI) as a way for projects in disputed territory to carry on -- meant handing jurisdiction over the land to HDI.
"We've been advised 'jurisdiction' is a very powerful word," Van Elslander said. "It would mean they own it. Never mind negotiations to decide that fact, we would be handing it over."
Van Elslander said Venture Homes will continue construction on the Stirling South project. "We're working."
He said he fears the HDI tried an end run around the negotiations in the ongoing Caledonia dispute by trying to create facts or precedent.
Chief Allen MacNaughton said in a statement last night the council took the action after Kragten and Van Elslander broke the deal they had with the HDI that would have allowed the project to proceed.
MacNaughton said HDI lawyer Aaron Detlor found it "disingenuous" the developers would offer to provide payment of a development fee but would not recognize the jurisdiction of the Haudenosaunee.
MacNaughton, who was not available to comment on his statement last night, said development continues on disputed Six Nations lands, without approval or consultation.
"That kind of action by developers with the approval of Ontario and the federal government through their land registry system is causing our people to counter with direct action of their own," he said in a release.
Van Elslander said when the tentative deal was struck, he and Kragten were told they would not be required to pay a development fee but could make a donation to a worthy Six Nations cause, such as literacy.
They agreed, but when the deal to allow the subdivision to go ahead was drawn up, he and Kragten decided to find out what the use of the term jurisdiction meant.
"Basically we've been advised it meant everything was over, that's it and they own it," said Van Elslander.
In his statement, MacNaughton made it clear the HDI expects Ontario municipalities to fully consult with the Haudenosaunee of Six Nations before issuing permits for any developments in "unceded territory."
The Six Nations were given the land in 1784 by the British Crown and say it has never been surrendered, but Ottawa says the vast majority of it was sold by the 1850s.