GULL BAY FIRST NATION – Residents of Gull Bay First Nation will vote on Sept. 10 to accept or reject an $8.2-million timber claim offer.
Chief Wilfred King in a release said the Timber Royalties Specific Claim addresses the country’s failure to fulfill fiduciary duties and legal obligations when awarding contracts to outside contractors allowing them to remove resources from within the Aboriginal community’s boundaries and the subsequent payments owed to the First Nation.
King said he’s pleased the process has arrived at an offer and that a vote is imminent, after an eight-year process.
“Gull Bay First Nation continued to push onward. We engaged a team of professionals to review the evidence, to produce new historical reports and to develop estimation models as to damages and losses incurred,” King said in the release.
“It has taken a good amount of work over a very long period of time and the maintenance of a strong position by Gull Bay First Nation to present our circumstances as to the full scope of impacts.”
Community meetings will take place in Thunder Bay on Aug. 24 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and the following day at Gull Bay First Nation’s recreation centre from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
King said the ratification officer, responsible for holding and overseeing the vote, will also be on hand to answer questions about the mail-in ballot documents.
“It is once again critical that all Gull Bay First Nation members are encouraged to update their contact information to ensure their full participation in this and upcoming processes of their nation,” King said, noting there are three outstanding claims in progress and that he remains hopeful the Crown responds to requests to discuss a resolution of the band’s land-base claim filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice this past February.
According to King, the country failed to recognize Gull Bay First Nation under the original Robinson-Superior Treaty in 1850, and says the band is owed back-dated royalties between that time and when the community was officially recognized.
Negotiations continue in an ongoing flood grievance claim between the community and both the provincial and federal governments. Gull Bay First Nation settled a $12.5-million claim with Ontario Power Generation related to the same grievance.
The band is also pursuing a highway expropriation claim.
“Our nation simply seeks fair and just resolution to longstanding issues,” King said. “It has always been our preference to work together to address the errors of the past. It is the intention of Gull Bay First Nation council to ensure our rights are protected under the treaty and we hope that the governments will move quickly to negotiate disputes rather than force our matters through litigation.”
