January 6, 2011 Hamilton Spectator
ANCASTER The Hamilton Conservation Authority has decided to ask the provincial and the federal governments for clarification about native hunting rights on conservation lands.
At the first board of directors meeting since a controversial deer hunt by Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy in the Dundas Valley a week before Christmas, the HCA board voted to ask the ministries of the attorney general, aboriginal affairs and natural resources for in-depth information about the natives’ treaty and spiritual rights to hunt in the area.
But the board also voted to take an official position that it does not challenge the natives’ legal and spiritual rights to hunt on conservation lands.
“We are asking questions, but we don’t want to challenge their treaty and religious rights,” HCA board chair Chris Firth-Eagland told the directors. “What is very important is to continue to develop their co-operation and our growing relations with them.”
The HCA board also moved a motion by board member Councillor Brad Clark to develop a firm policy on public notification when it decides to close trails based on public safety concerns.
“I got quite a lot of e-mails and calls about the lack of notification,” board member Councillor Robert Pasuta said.
Native hunters informed the province and the conservation authority that they would be exercising their treaty rights to begin a hunt in the Dundas Valley on Dec. 19 right through until the end of the year.
HCA general manager Steve Miazga closed several kilometres of trails with trailhead signage between Martin and Paddy Greene roads in Ancaster but did not inform neighbours directly.
Two days after the hunt began, pressure from board members forced Miazga to negotiate with the Haudenosaunee hunters to make what Firth-Eagland called a “gracious withdrawal” by Dec. 25.
Under a new notification policy, the HCA will likely send letters to residents and publicize any safety-related closures in local newspapers and in public service announcements.
Miazga also pledged to take a much more active role in the Iroquoia Heights Deer Management Committee, a multi-stakeholder group examining how to deal with the overpopulation of deer in the pocket of conservation land on the Escarpment brow between the Meadowlands and the Chedoke golf course.
Firth-Eagland said the advisory committee is expected to make recommendations that will have an impact far beyond the management of Iroquoia Heights on issues such as native participation.