First Nation land claims costs rise with ongoing delays & negogiations
It is interesting to watch who is actually receiving First Nation dollars from INAC .... "negogiators", "police overtime", "land developers", "local home owners", "provincial governments" ... makes one wonder if the First Nations involved will ever receive any compensation?
Ontario to ask feds for more than $25M to cover native occupation: McGuinty
Chinta Puxley, Canadian Press - Tuesday, October 24, 2006
TORONTO (CP) - Ottawa must pony up at least $25 million to cover the costs of an ongoing aboriginal occupation in Ontario, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday as he pressed the federal government to end what's being called the longest-running police operation in Canadian history.
The province's taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill for reimbursing local businesses, paying provincial negotiator Jane Stewart's $1,300-a-day salary and buying the land in question - a moribund housing development in Caledonia, Ont., south of Hamilton, McGuinty said.
"That doesn't include any additional costs connected with...policing, and we'll wait and see what we're looking at there," McGuinty said.
The final cost "certainly could be higher," he added.
The total cost of the occupation, which began in February when protesters from the neighbouring Six Nations reserve took control of the property, could be as high as $55 million with police overtime factored in, according to estimates by the Opposition Conservatives.
"The federal government has really been AWOL on this whole matter," said Finance Minister Greg Sorbara.
"It's time now they make their presence felt and they make their presence felt financially as well."
McGuinty said David Ramsay, the minister responsible for aboriginal affairs, was to meet this week with his federal counterpart to discuss compensation.
But Deirdra McCracken, spokesperson for Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice, said no meeting is scheduled and Prentice won't respond until he gets a formal request for funding.
"They're saying they're going to ask us, but we haven't received anything official yet and, until we do, we won't be commenting on it," McCracken said. The federal government has a negotiator at the table and has been actively involved in the talks to resolve the land claim, she added.
Ramsay said he'll be talking to Prentice by phone this week and hopes to arrange a face-to-face meeting next week.
"I'm going to present to him some ideas of how the federal government can be a financial contributor to what we're doing there and how they could become the dominant player in the negotiations, as they should be."
While critics accuse McGuinty of shirking responsibility for the ongoing occupation, more groups are joining the call for Ottawa to take ownership of the standoff.
Karl Walsh, president of the association that represents provincial police officers, said Ottawa seems virtually invisible on the Caledonia file, even though aboriginal land claims are a federal responsibility.
Ottawa should be stepping up efforts to resolve the dispute, and should send RCMP officers to help police the town, he added.
Walsh called Caledonia the longest-running police operation in Canada's history. The only operation that comes close, he said, is the 1990 aboriginal standoff in Oka, Que., when Kanesatake Mohawks set up a blockade to prevent encroachment onto a burial ground. It ended after 78 days.
"It's got to be costing money," Walsh said. "Enough's enough. We've been bearing the burden down there when it's a federal issue."
Ken Hewitt of the Caledonia Citizens' Alliance said many town residents agree the federal government isn't playing a large enough role in the dispute.
The alliance has been calling on the federal government to increase its profile in closed-door negotiations that seem to be moving far too slowly, Hewitt said.
"People want their lives back."
Opposition critics say the Ontario government is blaming Ottawa for its own bungled handling of the occupation. McGuinty realizes the standoff has lasted far too long and is now looking for someone else to take responsibility, said Conservative member Elizabeth Witmer.
"It's like everything else - they're simply not managing issues in this province in the best interests of taxpayers so they just push everything onto the federal government."
New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton said blaming other levels of government won't end the occupation and resolve the land claim.
"I think the public is sick and tired of that kind of scapegoating," he said.
Six Nations protesters descended on the property in late February, but it was April when police moved in, touching off a massive skirmish that prompted dozens more protesters to seize back the land and erect makeshift barricades which cut the town in half.
A number of clashes between protesters and local residents have erupted since; one was narrowly escaped just weeks ago when protesters rallied outside the site to protest what they called special treatment of aboriginals by police.