At first glance, the smoking bylaw North Frontenac Council passed at its regular meeting last Friday in Plevna seemed a lot more ominous than it actually turns out to be.

For example, one section contains the phrase: “No person shall, smoke or vape within 20 metres of any point on the perimeter of the outdoor grounds of a community recreational facility and public areas.”

Now if you interpret that to mean the property lines of Township facilities, you might conclude that the bylaw extends into private property. For example, in the case of Barrie Hall, that would mean extending across Hwy 41, into Addington Highlands Township and onto the home of Addington Highlands Reeve Henry Hogg. It would also mean that in some cases, it would extend into Crown Lands (for example some boat launches).

But that’s not the intension, Clerk/Planning Manager Tara Mieske said Tuesday in an interview.

“It only pertains to Township-owned facilities and property,” she said. “The bylaw was updated to come into line with the updated Smoke-Free Ontario Act, which now includes cannabis and the bylaw is designed to reflect that.”

This means smoking is restricted to 9 metres from the entrance to a Township building and 20 metres from the ‘perimeter’ of a children’s playground, sporting area or recreational facility, but it doesn’t extend past the Township-owned property, she said.

“This includes the ballfield and tennis courts in Cloyne but not Township beaches and boat launches, or things that don’t have a roof like waste sites,” she said.

It also doesn’t include things like the Township garages and municipal office (although the 9 metres from the entrance still applies), she said.

Technically, the 20 metres doesn’t include fire halls but in some cases (notably Ompah and Snow Road) the fire halls are attached or adjacent to recreational halls and/or libraries where the 20-metre restriction does apply.

One other unclear aspect of the bylaw is what constitutes smoking.

“Smoke and Smoking includes carrying or holding of a lighted tobacco product, a lighted cannabis product, an activated electronic cigarette, or a lighted or heated water pipe,” would seem to prohibit the First Nation smudging ceremony, common at Powwows and other gatherings.

Mieske said that hadn’t been considered in the wording of the bylaw and she’d research the matter before bringing a report to Council.

 

• • •

On March 26, Mayor Ron Higgins sent an email to Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith asking about Central’s plans to fix potholes on Road 509 and Ardoch Road.

“How’d you make out?” said Dep. Mayor Fred Perry.

“You saw her response,” said Higgins.

“Although they did do some work,” said Coun. Gerry Martin.

“I didn’t agree with this action at all,” said Coun. John Inglis. “It was unnecessary and the tone wsas insulting.”

For the record, here are the two emails.

From Higgins to Smith:

“Frances, I was asked by Council to contact you about the road condition of 509 (near Ardoch Road) and 2-3 bad spots on Ardoch Road. We have been getting a number of residents asking if we knew what Central Frontenac was considering with regards to repair. They are concerned about vehicle damage due to bad road conditions.

“Would it be possible to provide us with any plans your Township has in regards to this issue?”

Smith’s response:

“Good morning Ron. I think it is the swamp on the flat that you are talking about. We are quite aware of it and as soon as the thaw permits, we will be dealing with it.”

 

• • •

With about a dozen members of the public in attendance at the meeting, Mayor Ron Higgins asked for a motion to move the public question period up on the agenda so that those members of the public who wished to could comment on the question of ANSIs (Area of Natural or Scientific Interest) in North Frontenac’s Zoning Bylaw could be heard.

Only Coun. Wayne Good voted against the measure.

Later in the meeting, Council voted to end the restriction that a public question period only be permitted if the Council meeting takes under three hours.

North’s meetings commonly exceed three hours. By comparison, Central and South meetings rarely exceed two hours and South has one or two meetings a year under a half hour.

 

• • •

In response to Kerry Skipper’s request for a Pickleball court in Cloyne, Coun. Fred Fowler challenged Dep. Mayor Fred Perry to the first game.

Fowler declined to offer Perry some sort of handicap even though Perry recently had surgery on his leg.

Pickleball is a racquet sport combining elements of badminton, tennis and ping pong using a whiffleball of some sort.

The Ducharme family is pretty busy these days. Not only are they installing thousands of lights at just the correct location in the four acre patch of property that they decorate for Christmas each year, there is also the matter of preparing the Singing Trees.

“We store about 80% of the lights each year and put them up in new locations to keep the display new,”said Greg Ducharme early this week, “and tee Singing Trees are new for us this year. The lights are hooked in to a computer so they respond to the music that is played through the system. It really looks like the trees are singing when you see it in action.”

Ducharme is waiting for the final piece of equipment to come in from Kansas City to hook up four trees, and the singing trees will be the centrepiece of the display at Riverhill farms this Christmas season. The display will be complete and ready for the opening evening, which coincides with the Ompah-Plevna Santa Clause Parade.

Riverhill farms is located on Struthadam Road, which is off River Road. Riverr Road runs between Ardoch Road (near Ardoch) and 509 (at Ompah) in North Frontenac Township.

For the past four years, Ducharme’s past time of putting up Christmas lights, which started in 2008 with the birth of his grand-daughter, has been a public event that is a highlight of the Christmas season in the region.

“We kept adding to it and adding to it as each year progressed, more and more people were coming in the driveway. We tried opening it to the public for the first time four years ago and it has been very successful,” he said.

The lights are turned on each evening between November 25 and New Years, and the Ducharmes keep then lights on until 9pm on weeknights and 10pm on weekends.

For three Saturday evenings during that time (December 2, 9, and 16) between 5pm and 8pm there will be wagon rides, hot chocolate, coffee, donuts, and pancakes and sausage or bacon and home-made maple syrup available as well.

Bus trips for 30 passengers or more can be arranged by calling Greg at 613-282-3276. Please provide one week’s notice.

The entire enterprise is about sharing the Ducharme families’ passion for Christmas lights that bring joy to the cold, dark fall evenings.

“I’ve lived a pretty blessed life,” said Ducharme, “and this is my way to give back some joy and Christmas spirit.”

The Riverhill Christmas Lights Show is free to view. The only charge is for refreshments on the three special Saturday Nights. There is a jar available for donations to help cover costs.

Ron Higgins sees himself as a kind of hub in the wheel that is rolling towards a major change in the economic and social reality in North Frontenac Township over the next ten years. He is neither and investor nor a proponent for any of the series of projects that are in various stages of development, but he has been at the centre of the effort to put groups and individuals interested in starting new ventures with the governmental and non-governmental agencies that can help make the ventures come to fruition.

Higgins brought the projects together in one package at a special meeting of Council almost two weeks ago. He was seeking Council’s support in principle in order to advance one of the projects, a power generation proposal, which is still in the conceptual stages, but the meeting provided an opportunity to bring forward two other initiative that are at a more advanced stage, even though they do not require council action.

In an interview with the News last Friday (November 19) Higgins took the opportunity to clarify where all of the threads of the complicated set of initiatives are located, both physically and in terms of time frame.

The proposal for a wellness centre, wood shop and apiary is the first that will get underway. It has a location that has already been purchased. Planning is underway now for a renovation to the former Tooley house and 36 acre property which has road frontage in Plevna on Road 506. The property has commercial-residential zoning and starting up the new ventures will not require any planning applications. However renovations to the 2,275 square foot house on the property to create an interim home for the wellness centre will require a building permit, which has not been acquired as of yet. The proposal that was presented to council said that there is potential for the centre to offer the following services: massage, including Reiki, Shiatsu, accupressure and other types, chiropractic services, physiotherapy, First Nations healing or crystal/herbal healing, and primary care services offered by three medical doctors, and the services of a locally based Nurse Practitioner and midwife.

There is a large garage/worskhop on the property, and the plan is to build a canoe this winter to “show the community the quality of canoes that can be made here in North Frontenac. Publicity would be enhanced by raffling off the canoe,” according to the report on the “One Small Town Implementation Plan that Higgins submitted to Council on November 3.

The other project slated to get underway in the near term on the Tooley property is an apiary. All of the projects will be taken on by a co-operative called C&T North Frontenac (C&T stand for Contribute and Thrive). Part of the operating mandate of the co-op is that members who contribute 3 hours per week to one of the projects will receive a share of the benefits. In the case of the canoe factory, if one develops, that would amount to a free canoe.

David Craig, one of the main proponents of the Talking Trees project, which will be discussed below. According to Ron Higgins Craig will be involved in the renovation project in Plevna and will be living and working in North Frontenac this winter. He has been residing near Perth until now.

The second initiative covered in the plan is the Talking Trees Earth Ship project, which has been the subject of articles in the Frontenac News as early as last spring. In its current incarnation, the project envisions constructing 89 Earth Ships, homes built from used tires and concrete, built into the land to make them self sufficient in terms of electrical power and heat/cooling. The land for this project has not been purchased but there are un-comfirmed reports that a property that is suitable for the project has been located to the east of Ompah towards Snow Road, close to Road 509.

Higgins said that this project will require planning approvals from Frontenac County, likely a Plan of Condominium will need to be prepared and approved before lots can be created and construction of the pod based community can get underway.

“I don’t think the process will create the same amount of controversy among neighbours as a proposal to create 20 or more waterfront lots would,” Higgins said, comparing the Talking Trees initiative with the Ardoch Lake Plan of subdivision, a project in North Frontenac that is being opposed by neighbouring property owners. In the plan that was presented to Council, construction on the Talking Trees project is slated to begin in late 2018, although Higgins said he does understand that may be an overly optimistic given the land has not been purchased and planning processes in Frontenac County tend to be slow.

The longest term plan is the proposal for electrical generation and aquaculture projects, which will require some land that includes waterfront because the generating process requires water to be drawn from a water source, processed and then returned to the water source. A second factor about site selection for this project is proximity to the electrical grid to feed power into the hydro system. The aquaculture project will be energy intensive and will require the electrical generation to help it remain competitive in the market place. The municipality will need to be the owners of the power project, but Higgins said that Langenburg, the company that has expressed interest in building the project, is prepared to cover all the costs in exchange for the profits that will be generated, making North Frontenac a power producer in name only.

There is no time frame set out for this part of the One Small Town initiative.

MALLA  (Malcolm and Ardoch Lakes Landowners Association) started up a Walleye spawning bed enhancement project on the two lakes back in 2008. Enhancements took place on Malcolm Lake between 2008 and 2010 but then the program was suspended. The Junior Rangers, who had helped with the physically demanding work of loading and unloading tons of washed river stone, were no longer available after the Junior Range program was cancelled, and project funding also became harder to find. Dan Weber, who chairs the fisheries committee at MALLA, wondered if plans to enhance two spawning beds on Ardoch Lake would ever come to fruition. Then, early this year things began to fall into place. The Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) had money available.

While MALLA does not have the legal status to accept federal grants, Watersheds Canada, a Perth-based Not For Profit that is active on the Mississippi and Rideau River Watersheds, offered to administer the grant as it did for 8 other projects. They worked with the DFO and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to get the project underway. Also, and a new Junior Rangers group, based out of Minden, was available to help out, and with the help of local volunteers the project was ready to roll in mid August.

Over two days (August 15 and 16) thirty five tons of River rock were loaded onto milk crates, brought over to specially selected shoals on Ardock Lake, and unloaded in place. 18 volunteers, including MALLA members, 4 Junior Rangers, Barbara King (Executive Director) and Melissa Dakers (Lake Stewardship Co-ordinator) from Watersheds Canada, and Pat Nobbs and Lauder Smith from Conservationists of Frontenac Addington, put their muscle power to work on the first day. 19 volunteers, including many from the first day and 9 Junior Rangers, worked on day 2 to get all the rock in place. Dan Weber said that MALLA has also been involved, since 2008, in monitoring the success of the shoal enhancement program. In the early spring, as soon as the ice goes out, they check the spawning beds to see if Walleye are spawning, and they do netting in the summer to evaluate the population as well. Now that two locations have been enhanced on Ardoch, Weber thinks Ardoch and Malcolm are done with bed enhancement.

“There are a lot of other lakes that can benefit from this,” he said “we’ve had our turn.” MALLA will continue to study the lake over time to see if the fish are thriving, partly as a way of evaluating the overall health of the two lakes.” Ardoch Lake has been in the news recently as the result of a proposal to create 24 waterfront lots and 6 back lots in the vicinity of one of the enhanced Walleye spawning beds. The location of the beds is one of the factors that the Frontenac County Planning Department will take into account when evaluating the proposal.

St. Kilian’s Catholic Church in Ardoch celebrated 125 years as a parish last Sunday with special guests, a special mass and luncheon. The current building celebrated 50 years.

Wayne Manion, chair of the cemetery board has been around for many of those years and shared some of his memories.

“I’ve known Father Murphy for a long time — I was at his ordination,” Manion said. “That’s why I was picking on him (during the service).

“In the city, they probably would have thrown him out of town but he fit right in here — always joking around.”

Manion said St. Kilian’s is a “mission parish” of the Flinton parish.

“This goes back to the days of horse and buggy,” he said. “Now it’s a short trip but in those days it would take at least half a day to make the trip so we had to have a place here in Ardoch where the priest could sleep.”

He said it was hard for him to put into words what the church has meant to the community and how things have changed.

“It helps keep the faith,” he said. “But it’s mostly older people now.

“When we were kids, Plevna was mostly Protestant and Ardoch was more Catholic. And now, the parish serves a much larger area, from Vennachar to Myer’s Cave and up to the Mazinaw.”

But, he said, there are some changes for the better, for one thing the way different faiths are coming together.

“When we were kids, Protestants were ‘evil’ and they thought Catholics were ‘evil,’” he said. “But now ecumenical services are becoming more popular.

“Churches are starting to emphasize the things they have in common.”

The church’s current pastor, Rev. Paul Njoku, had similar sentiments.

“We’re just the chief actors in the joy we’re celebrating,” he said. “I send my greetings to parishioners in all parts of the world.”

But he also had thoughts for the men and women who built the church and those who kept it going.

“The many founding mothers and fathers couldn’t be here to see this today,” he said. “May the Good Lord grant them eternal repose.”

A Central Frontenac Township man was killed Saturday night after the pickup truck he was driving went off the road and hit a tree on Ardoch Road in North Frontenac Township.

At approximately 9:40 p.m., Frontenac Ontario Provincial Police officers, along with emergency services, responded to a single-vehicle collision on Ardoch Road between Lodge Road and Crotch Lake Access Road.

According to an OPP news release sent out late Monday afternoon, a passerby noticed tire tracks on the roadway leading into the north ditch and noticed taillights from a red Ford pickup that had come to rest against a tree. With the assistance of an off-duty firefighter, the driver, who had been ejected from the vehicle, was located.

The lone occupant of the truck, Richard Allen Herns, 63, of Central Frontenac Township was pronounced dead at the scene.

OPP technical traffic collision investigators responded to the scene and are assisting with the ongoing investigation, said the release.

The Frontenac Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is requesting assistance from the public regarding a fire investigation that is currently ongoing. At approximately 01:25 AM on August 16th, 2016 OPP attended to assist in the investigation of a multiple structure fire in the Schonauer Road area.

Investigators are requesting that anyone who witnessed the fire prior to the arrival of the Fire Department, or any persons in the area at the time to contact Frontenac OPP directly. Anyone with information can contact the general administrative line at the Frontenac OPP office at (613)279- 2195. Alternatively, anyone with information can call the OPP at 1-888-310-1122.

Contact:

D/C Lori Lobinowich #11542
Frontenac OPP Crime Unit
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
(613) 279-2195

 

The Kashwakamak Lake Association (KLA), has been busy. Its lake sustainability sub-committee recently completed the draft Kashwakamak Lake Sustainability Plan and it will be voted on at the KLA’s upcoming Annual General Meeting on July 9 at the Harlowe Community Hall from 9:30 – 11:30 am. The bulk of the AGM will be a presentation, which will summarize the Sustainability Plan, discuss next steps and be followed with a vote. Non-members are welcome at this meeting and people interested in joining the KLA can do so at the door for only $15.

“I’m very proud of the work that our sub-committee has done,” stated Gordon Hunter, president. “We have an incredible group of talented people who have worked on this effort for fiveyears,” he added. “I’m excited to see the presentation and hear the comments and discussions around the plan’s recommendations.”

The committee began this effort in 2011 and the Kashwakamak Lake State of the Lake Report was presented at the July 2013 AGM as the first step in preparing a lake sustainability plan. They received public comments and did further research and have now completed the draft Sustainability Plan. In order to complete this third step they need their membership to read the plan, come to the AGM and vote.

For the first time there will also be a FREE barbeque immediately following the AGM sponsored by James Train, Cottage Docks, www.cottagedocks.com. People are asked to RSVP by June 30 so there’s enough burgers and hot dogs on the grill. RSVP to Gord Hunter, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 613-336-7345.

There are also a limited number of printed copies available for people without access to a computer and three copies of the plan are at the public library in Cloyne. To request a printed copy, KLA Members and those interested in the Kashwakamak Lake community are asked to email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call Judy McIntyre at 613-336-2882 and leave their name and mailing address. With a possible postal strike looming as early as July 2nd the KLA is asking people to make this request as soon as possible.

Ever since the Ardoch Lake Development Corporation began planning to develop lots on a large section of Ardoch Lake about five years ago, there has been keen public interest in the project, mainly from the few other property owners on the lake, and the more numerous residents of Malcolm Lake, which adjoins it.

It was not surprising, therefore, that the Clar-Mill Hall in Plevna was full on August 22 for a public meeting on the proposed 34 vacant lot condominium on the property.

A vacant lot condominium is similar to a subdivision. It is a planning tool that allows a developer to sub-divide a single large lot, in this case a 200 acre parcel with frontage on about half of the small lake. The laneway that connects all these properties to the nearest township road will be built by the developer, and maintained by a condominium corporation that will need to be established. In this case, the condominium corporation will also take legal responsibility for the type of septic systems that each of the eventual property owners puts in on their own lots.

Because Ardoch Lake is small, and there is a potential for increases in phosphorous levels in the lake as the result of septic runoff, this is a key element to the proposal.

The first presenter on the application was Joe Gallivan, who is playing a dual role in the planning process. As the staff planner for Frontenac County, he represents the county's interest as the approval authority for the plan of vacant land condominium. As the contract planner for the township (under an agreement with the county) he represents the township's interests in dealing with a site plan agreement and a zoning application that is part of the proposal.

Gallivan outlined the way the latest phase of the process has developed, including the reports from commenting agencies such as the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority, Kingston Frontenac Public Health and others.

Chief among the concerns expressed by MVCA are those dealing with potential impacts of the development on water quality and the fact that if the development is approved as proposed, the capacity of the lake for development will be used up. None of the three or four other property owners on the lake will be able to create new building lots on their properties.

Speaking for the developer, planner Peter Josephs said that by insisting that the septic systems on each of the 34 lots are built using recently approved technology the impact of phosphorous on the lake will be minimised, and the lake will be able to maintain a level of phosphorous under the provincial standard of 20 micrograms per litre.

Other groups also made presentations raising concerns about the proposed condominium, including the North Frontenac Lake Associations Alliance, and the Malcolm and Ardoch Lake Association.

Speaking for his family, Brian Schonauer talked about the decades-old cottages his family has put up on the other side of the lake, and said they might want to put up a few more at some point. Then he went further, introducing Gord Neilson of Michalski Neilson, a environmental planning and lake capacity assessment company based in Bracebridge, Ont.

In a detailed report, Gord Neilson questioned the target of 20 mirograms per litre of phosphorous in a lake that he described as "oligotrophic". Oligotrophic lakes are prized for their “excellent water quality and clarity”.

“Results of ministry-sponsored surveys show that Ardoch and Malcolm Lakes have low levels of phosphorous coming from natural sources, making them very clear as well ... the long-standing provincial water quality standard for oligotrophic lakes reads as follows:

'A high level of protection against aesthetic deterioration will be provided by a total phosphorous concentration for the ice free period of 10[micrograms]/Litre or less. This should apply to all lakes naturally below this value.'"

With the limited amount of development already existing on Ardoch Lake, the mean phosphorous concentration in testing between 2010 and 2013 is 6.8.

Neilson also said that “The typical pattern for new shoreline development on small cottage-country lakes is through individual severances, which result in small, incremental changes in lake values ... Larger plans of subdivision or plans of condominium are often contemplated on large lakes, the size and flow characteristics of which provide considerable resiliency against the scale of such development. It is extremely unusual for an application to be advanced that would see an increase of 25% or more in the number of residential units on a lake, let alone the approximately 400% increase in this case.”

Members of the public also expressed their concerns about the proposal, particularly because all of the calculations for impacts on the shoreline and water quality are based on seasonal use. However cottages do get four-season use.

Peter Josephs said that the road that will be put in will not be ploughed in the winter, limiting the use of the residences.

Joe Gallivan said that the proposal and all of the commentary will allow his office to provide a recommendation in the coming weeks.

Feature article,April 28, 2005

Feature articleApril 28, 2005

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Elections intended to rejuvinate land claim process

by Jeff Green

The Algonquin land claim, which has been on hold for years now, might start moving forward again, and Algonquin Chief Negotiator Robert Potts is hoping to set up a preliminary meeting with Canadian and Ontario Officials in May, to set up a full resumption of negotiations this September.

Early this month, four of nine Algonquin communities have acclaimed what are being called Algonquin Negoritation Representatives (ANR) and five others will be holding elections in the next two weeks. An election was held for the Sharbot Lake representative this Monday.

The nine Algonquin Negotiation Representatives will then join with members of the newly elected Council of the Pikwakanagan First Nation of Golden Lake, representing Algonquins of status under the Canadian Indian Act, in forming a negotiating group in order to resume Land Claims negotiations with the Federal and Provincial governments. Negotiations have been on hold for several years now, awaiting negotiators from the Algonquin side.

The process has not been without controversy, however, with critics charging that the timing of all- candidates meetings and mail-in ballots were set up in an unfair manner.

The process was organized and administered out of the Toronto office of Algonquin Chief Negotiator Robert Potts, and critics charge that the time frames and practices established did not allow for enough information to flow to electors, ultimately providing an unfair advantage to candidates who were already well known in their communities.

One such critic is Melinda Turcotte, a candidate for the ANR role in the community of Sharbot Lake.

In Melinda Turcottes case, her opponent Doreen Davis is well known by the Sharbot Lake electors since she is the Chief of the Sharbot Lake Algonquin First Nation under the Algonquin National Tribal Council.

The all-candidates meetings were scheduled two months prior to the date they were to take place, Turcotte told the News, but I was only notified ten days prior to the date they were set for. This to me is unfair. In my case I had a prior commitment on the date of the candidate meeting that could not be changed.

Turcotte sent her husband to the meeting, which took place on April 14 at St. James Church in Sharbot Lake. The election ballots were also sent out before I had a chance to send out my biographical information, and before the candidates meetings, Turcote said. This is a serious problem because the ballots included an encouragement to fill them in and send them back as soon as possible. How was I supposed to get my message out to people who had already voted?

And finally, Turcotte adds, if I decide to appeal the result, the appeal process gives me 24 hours after the results are announced to file an appeal and pay $200 to do so. Why only 24 hours, and why $200?

For her part, Chief Doreen Davis said she found the election had been professionally organized, and she had no problems with the way it was run. I will say that I also had a conflict with the date of the all-candidates meeting, but I rescheduled in order to be available for it.

Doreen Davis also made it very clear that the Algonquin Negotiation Representative election process was run completely independently of the Algonquin National Tribal Council.

We signed a protocol last July with the Pikwakanagan First Nation establishing the independent process, and have been hands off ever since. I received the same notification as my opponent did, Davis said.

As recently as last spring, Chief Negotiator Robert Potts was saying that the Algonquin National Tribal Council elections, which were to take place in the fall of 2004, would result in democratically elected chiefs that could then represent their communities to the land claims process. After several divisive meetings, Mr. Potts had a change of heart and decided an independent process was necessary.

When contacted this week, Robert Potts said the process that was set up has been successfully carried out. Our first objective was to establish a list of electors that was not suspect in any way. To do that we engaged Joan Holmes, who has impeccable credentials as a genealogical researcher, and she has done a thorough and complete job.

Our second objective was to have an election that wouldnt preclude anyone from voting, or running in it. We have done that as well, with the hard work of Robert Johnson, who has acted as the electoral officer, Potts said.

While he acknowledged some of the timelines were tight, Potts said the process was fair.

We did have a problem with the time it takes for mail to be delivered, which is why we sent everything out from Ottawa instead of Toronto, and it is true the ballots arrived before the candidates biographical material. But very few ballots came back before the biographical material went out, we had a very good all-candidates meeting in Sharbot Lake, and a good turnout on April 25 at the polling station that was set up. I think we made an honest effort to ensure that the ballots reached the right people in time, he said.

As to the short time for an appeal, and charging a $200 fee, which pales against the high cost of the process as a whole, Robert Potts said, We want to get on with negotiations, and I think anyone who is seriously thinking about an appeal will be considering that long before the ballots are counted on May 7. The $200 fee is an attempt to recover some of the costs of the appeal.

Ardoch Algonquins

One of the reasons the Algonquin Negotiation Representative process was undertaken was to deal with the competing claims to the name of Ardoch Algonquin by two groups. This precipitated a dispute over membership lists. By setting up a new enrolment process, Robert Potts attempted to bypass the whole problem. People could affiliate themselves with Ardoch and vote for whomever they pleased without regard to who they considered to be the chief of the Ardoch Alghonquins.

In the end, the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation (AAFNA), under honorary Chief Harold Perry, the original Algonquin first Nation in Frontenac County and one of three off reserve groups that were involved in the land claims process when it started back in 1992, decided to opt out of the Algonquin Negotiation Representative process.

Their decision was explained in an ad that ran in this newspaper last week on page 6. In that ad they charge that the The group known as the Algonquin National Tribal Council is the only non-status group to have political access to the Algonquin Negotiation Representation Process. Through their lawyer they have constructed a process that ensures their leaders will be the elected representatives.

As well, AAFNA argues that they have been excluded by the Algonquin National Tribal Council, the Pikwakanagan reserve, and Ontario because AAFNA maintains a traditional governance structure.

The preference AAFNA chooses is to hold off on negotiating a treaty until the Algonquin people are in a stronger position. Their ad concluded, Although there are serious problems among Algonquin people, at no time in the past hundred years have so many people taken pride in their heritage and recognised their sacred responsibility to the Algonquin homeland. Algonquins are on a healing path. Just think what kind of treaty will be made when we are whole again.

The boycott of the Algonquin Negotiation Representative process by the Harold Perry group left Randy Malcolm, the Chief of the Ardoch Algonquin first Nation that is recognised by the Algonquin National Tribal Council, as the sole candidate for Negotiation Representative from Ardoch, and he was acclaimed to the position.

The position taken by Harold Perry and AAFNA is echoed throughout the Algonquin Nation, but others have decided to stay in the process rather than stand aside.

Heather Majaury, who is affiliated with the Sharbot Lake Algonquins, and was involved in the establishment of the Algonquin National Tribal Council but has become a sharp critic of the organization, said I publicly do not endorse the [Algonquin Negotiation Representative Process] and feel the way it was carried out was really problematic, but still I voted. I didnt walk away.

Lynn Gehl, a doctoral candidate in the Native Studies Department of Trent University, and an affiliate of the Greater Golden Lake Algonquins is a contestant in the election that is being held in her home community, greater Golden Lake against two other candidates, one of whom is her own brother.

She has similar concerns about how he election has ben run as Melinda Turcotte of Sharbot Lake does., The election process has undermined the efforts of new people coming in, she said, but she still feels her chances of being elected are excellent, even though her brother, Patrick Glassford, is the Algonuin National Tribal Council chief in greater Golden Lake.

If we have good, qualified leaders, were probably going to get a better deal, she said.