New centre marks push for Algonquin Land Claim

A new Consultation Office for the Algonquins of Ontario was officially opened today by the Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians, and the Honourable Brad Duguid, Ontario Minister of Aboriginal Affairs.

At his final meeting as a member of Frontenac County Council in 2003, former North Frontenac Mayor Stan Johnston handed over a thick set of binders to be given to the next North Frontenac member of county council, who happens to be current Mayor Ron Maguire.

“These are my files about the Algonquin Land Claim, which started in 1991. It won’t likely be completed in any of our lifetimes,” Johnston said at the time.

A bit later, when Robert Potts, a Toronto-based lawyer, took over as principal negotiator for the land claim, he said he was working towards an agreement in principle in two years. A year later he said the same thing, and the next year he said it again.

With the establishment of a consultation centre in Pembroke, the Algonquins of Ontario, which is what the negotiating team on the Algonquin side now calls itself, are marking two things.

Firstly, the negotiators on all sides now expect to reach an agreement in principle next year, in 2011, and secondly, there is a need to resolve issues of concern before an agreement is reached.

Three such issues that were referred to at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new centre on Monday, January 11 in Pembroke are:

• Working with the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry to establish new protocols for mining exploration and development activities on land where Aboriginal rights have been asserted;
• Engaging in consultations with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and other stakeholders in response to the report “Lightening the Ecological Footprint of Logging in Algonquin Provincial Park;” and
• Continuing discussions with regards to redeveloping the Rockcliffe and Lansdowne Park sites in Ottawa.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by Chuck Strahl, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs for the government of Canada and his Ontario counterpart, Brad Duguid, as well as Chief Kirby Whiteduck of the Algonquins of Pikwakànagàn First Nation.

The Algonquins of Ontario include the Pikwakànagàn First Nation, the only Ontario Algonquin community whose members have official “status” under the Indian Act of Canada, along with nine other Algonquin communities, including the Shabot Obaadjiwaan, based in Sharbot Lake, and the Snimikobe, formerly known as the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation.

There are other Algonquin communities, such as the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation under Honorary Chief Harold Perry of Ardoch, which remain outside of the Algonquin Land Claim talks.