Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluenote
Wasn’t it a few years back that city and the bands were all cool with the widening of Kenaston and the only hold up was the feds. Now the bands are not for it? Or they want money. What’s the deal anyway. Like the real issue here.
The city could like it’s done to all the homeowners just expropriate this land can they not ? Or do the people who have lived there all this time have no rights and yet an old abandoned army base given to the bands have rights ? This seems a stretch to me and if it is the case it’s prerty unfair to the home owners losing their homes to this.
We could always play hardball. Nice cement wall down Kenaston amd get rid of the sidewalk on one side. Get rid of the center median and add another lane each way. Amd allow ZERO access from this urban reserve to Kenaston. Wonder how that would float.....
Sorry I’m bitter. But for the last what 20 years we been fkd over by the bands and the feds fighting over this land. And now we are at it again. Like fffs
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This is why a good, working relationship is key.
Remember:
- It was the Feds who ripped off (under-delivered) on the amount of lands for reserves;
- It was the Feds who refused to hear the case for 110 consecutive years;
- It was the Feds who challenged it for the last 35 years (and which is still not settled for 1 of 7 of the reserves);
- It was the Feds who ignored the First Nations and attempted to sell the lands to the Canada Lands Corporation (CLC)
- It landed in court, the Feds refused to negotiate and sought the court remedies;
- The Feds lost in court in a decisive decision;
- The Feds appealed it and lost it in another decisive decision (3/3);
- The Feds (Harper) halted all negotiations and made a campaign promise not to appeal the decision if elected;
Today, 1 of the 7 First Nation still requires a Treaty Land Entitlement (TLE) settlement of around $106 million.
32 acres per person X 7,300 members = 233,600 acres - 21,500 existing acres = 212,100 acres
212,100 acres X $500/acre (average for TLE settlements) = $106M.
Even if offered in a timely manner, the First Nation would require a community vote in majority of approval for the $106M settlement offer.
Unless all the lawsuits and land claims are settled will I personally see more cooperation between the groups. Considering that the Feds have violated law for 151 out of 151 years that Canada has been a country, there needs to be more work done.
An Agreement in Principal was signed by T1 FNs and the Feds kind of recently. Such an agreement does not entail the need to surrender the lands to the City of Winnipeg.
And by law (as we've seen with legal precedence with urban reserves in Saskatchewan), a municipal government cannot deny an urban reserve, cannot deny a Municipal Services Agreement (MSA) nor do anything detrimental to the accessibility of well-being of an urban reserve.
Otherwise, First Nations can simply place a homeless shelter, lagoon, open-pit garbage dump or other eyesores on an urban reserve.
The relationship needs to be a working one.
Rather than commit to lateral violence (like towards your peers like First Nations), the movement should be directed to the adversaries (the federal government) to get things done.
By settling these land claims and lawsuits through negotiations, energy and efforts are now focused on well-being and development rather than revengeful or meaningless tactics as we've seen for the last 151 years.
Kenaston's widening is 100% possible. The City of Winnipeg needs to come up with an opportunity that the First Nations cannot resist and only then will we see movement in this gridlock and the Feds need to finally take leadership by resolving these long-standing issues that have stemmed since Canada became a country.
With every First Nation newborn, the cost of a claim goes up $16,000. Considering that the First Nation's population is 1.1 million and 50% of that number didn't exist 25 years ago, Canada could've saved $8.8 billion if they paid out land claims before those 550,000 First Nations were born.
Today, that land claim number is at $20 billion to settle and rising everyday. That's just in land claims alone. Lawsuits, funding short falls and so much more push that number into the multi-billions.
Thanks to the Treaties, Canada has legal permission to access natural resources which account for $254B in annual GDP. Canada's only receipt for the land are the Treaties (which are still upheld in Ottawa).
Considering that Canada reaps those benefits everyday without having to sue First Nations says that First Nations are upholding their side of the Treaties whereas Canada's mentality has changed with it's federal leadership term-over-term.
I think Canadians need to look beyond the simplicity and realize that this is a much more complicated situation than it is. It's workable and do-able. All it takes is for First Nations to have support by solidarity for moving past 150-year-old issues. Because when First Nations are constantly suing, protesting and taking up media space, it's almost like First Nations are crying wolf.
For the first time in Canadian history, information is easily accessible and the full breadth of the complexity of these relationships can be realized. As a result, everyday Canadians should stand behind First Nation in sorting these long-standing issues out.
Because if this was settled 50 years ago, Kapyong would've went to the CLC, Kenaston would've been widened 5-years-ago and we'd be in a completely progressive world.