The federal government will not expropriate land to settle the Culbertson Track native land claim, the chief negotiator for the claim confirmed Thursday.
Vivian Bercovici met with Deseronto politicians to ease concerns over how the process to return 923 acres of land to the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte will be handled.
"The claim policy sets out clearly that land is not expropriated; it is bought and sold on a willing-buyer, willing-seller process," she told The Intelligencer, as politicians left the Deseronto Arts and Cultural Society following a nearly three-hour private meeting.
Although that point has been expressed by the government to town officials before, Mayor Norm Clark said last week he would use Thursday's meeting to get clarification from the government about rumours that the policy had changed.
He also used the meeting to express concerns Deseronto has not been given a seat at the negotiating table.
The Culbertson Track covers about half the municipality, yet council, Clark said, has few clues on how to plan for the future, as the settlement could drastically change the landscape of the town.
"We're outside the circle, so we're relying on second-hand and third-hand information," he told The Intelligencer, following the meeting.
He added he hopes the town can be included as a "silent partner" in the negotiations, so a town official or a lawyer can at least listen in on meetings between the government and the Mohawk band.
Thursday's meeting allowed the town to raise plenty of questions, but few answers were given.
Clark said Bercovici couldn't discuss, specifically, how the settlement was unfolding, as all federal negotiations are kept confidential.
All the town could really do, he said, was preach the importance of a quick settlement, so the two neighbouring communities can move on peacefully.
And while Clark said the news that land won't be expropriated is comforting, it doesn't put an end to the town's worries.
If Deseronto residents willingly sell homes or land to those in the native community, the new owners could potentially apply to have that land put back into Mohawk control.
That could have a crippling effect on the town's economy Clark said, because it would lose tax revenue from the land.
He is lobbying for the government to offer financial compensation to the Mohawks, so that as little land as possible is turned over.
"If the federal government and the Mohawks come to financial settlement, it should be OK," he said. "The Mohawks would get money and Deseronto would get the land."