Fort William First Nation settles 17-year-old land claim
Claim stems from 1905 appropriation of 1,600 acres of First Nation land
Fort William First Nation (FWFN) and the federal government have officially settled a land claim for over 1,100 acres of land appropriated by the Grand Trunk Pacific (GTP) railroad more than a century ago.
At a ceremony held in the community's council chambers on Friday, representatives of the First Nation and Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) officially signed the settlement documents.
The signing came after nearly 20 years of negotiation, and put a formal end to the process.
"I feel somewhat of a big burden off my shoulders," said Fort William Chief Peter Collins. "It's been a long negotiation process."
"If you look at from the time we filed for negotiation in 1999, that's 17 years," he said. "It's an exciting moment for our community, and I look forward to getting to the ratification process."
Under the settlement, Fort William has received about $99 million from the government, which includes a contribution toward legal, negotiation and ratification costs, as well as costs associated with land acquisition, environmental assessments and surveying.
The land in question is located at the northern end of the First Nation, along the Kaministiquia River.
It was appropriated under the Railway Act by GTP in 1905; the railroad company intended to build a terminus there.
Community uprooted
The land appropriation uprooted the community, said Ian Bannon, the First Nation's director of lands and property management.
"It involved the actual relocation ... of the membership, their homes, their farmland," he said.
A church and traditional burial site were also moved, with half of the First Nation's members relocating to Squaw Bay, and the other half to the Mountain Village.
However, GTP went bankrupt and the terminus was never completed. The land was taken over by Canadian National Railway (CNR).
Fort William repurchased about 1,100 acres of the land from CNR in 1999, and those lands can now become part of the First Nation.
'We didn't want to right a wrong with another wrong'
Collins said Fort William didn't seek the return of all 1,600 acres as about 500 acres had already been sold.
"We didn't want to right a wrong with another wrong by forcing people out of that property that they had purchased," Collins said. "We just went after the vacant and unoccupied land."
Bannon said the land will remained zoned as industrial.
"The First Nation has to start thinking in a business sense," Bannon said. "As landowners, we have current tenants, who will remain."
"There's going to be negotiations with the City of Thunder Bay on a tax component, because the First Nation will have to ultimately become the service provider for those tenants," he said. "So there's a lot of negotiations and agreements that have to be put in place."
Bannon said there's interest from other potential industrial tenants in moving to the land.
The settlement still requires approval by Fort William First Nation's membership.
That vote is scheduled to take place in February, 2017.