For immediate release
December 14, 2007

Barrett calls for answers to government land-freeze
10 attempts to determine status of ORC properties

Queen’s Park— “On at least 10 separate occasions, I’ve tried to get answers from the aboriginal affairs minister about newspaper reports of a development freeze on local Ontario Realty Corp. properties because of the Six Nations/Caledonia land dispute.”

With that opening salvo at the Ontario Legislature, MPP Toby Barrett launched into a series of questions – that so far remain unanswered – on the veil of secrecy that has confounded local residents wanting to know how they will be impacted by ongoing land dispute negotiations.

In the Legislature, Barrett listed properties reportedly frozen:
“the Sprucedale correctional centre, a former OPP office and a horticultural research farm—all near Simcoe—the Jarvis and Canfield MTO yards, the Cayuga courthouse, Rock Point Provincial Park, Selkirk Provincial Park, 4,700 acres in South Cayuga, 1,400 acres in Townsend, as well as over 500 acres at both the Burtch Correctional Centre and Douglas Creek Estates.”

The MPP went on to air further queries that are being asked of him by local residents.

“If, indeed, these properties are being used as a bargaining chip, the question is, why? Will they be handed over to Six Nations?” Barrett inquired. “Which side of the negotiating table asked for this in the first place? Why is Norfolk County being targeted?

“Local mayors ask me about this, but until the veil of secrecy is lifted, the only information I have is printed in the newspapers,” Barrett complained in the House.

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For more information, please contact MPP Toby Barrett at: (519) 428-0446 or 1-800-903-8629

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO
Wednesday 12 December 2007
NATIVE LAND DISPUTE

Mr. Toby Barrett: On at least 10 separate occasions, I’ve tried to get answers from the aboriginal affairs minister about newspaper reports of a development freeze on local Ontario Realty Corp. properties because of the Six Nations/Caledonia land dispute. They include the Sprucedale correctional centre, a former OPP office and a horticultural research farm—all near Simcoe—the Jarvis and Canfield MTO yards, the Cayuga courthouse, Rock Point Provincial Park, Selkirk Provincial Park, 4,700 acres in South Cayuga, 1,400 acres in Townsend, as well as over 500 acres at both the Burtch Correctional Centre and Douglas Creek Estates.

If, indeed, these properties are being used as a bargaining chip, the question is, why? Will they be handed over to Six Nations? Which side of the negotiating table asked for this in the first place? Why is Norfolk county being targeted?

As MPP, I have visited all of these properties, and at least seven of the 12 are not in the former Haldimand tract. Does the Haldimand tract no longer apply to land claims negotiations? Why aren’t there similar conditions on government land elsewhere in the Haldimand tract, in Kitchener or in Cambridge, or are we in my area seen as low-hanging fruit?

Local mayors ask me about this, but until the veil of secrecy is lifted, the only information I have is printed in the newspapers.