Public urged to write letters about Point

With the lease for Pither’s Point Park due to expire at the end the month, at least some local residents are concerned about what will happen to the land, who will be able to use it and for what purpose, whether community leaders are working to come to a resolution, and why they can’t be more open about it.
Now the public is being called on to write leaders to their municipal, band, provincial, and federal leaders for answers.

About 50 people from Fort Frances and surrounding First Nations attended a public forum last night at the East End Hall organized by concerned citizen Andrew George.
He isn’t sure what will come out of the forum, but is hopeful people will be motivated to speak up about what they want to see happen with the land.
“The whole idea was definitely good for discussion and was good to document,” George noted this morning. “[But] it doesn’t really matter if we sat in a room and talked about it unless we do something as people, and the only thing we really can do is contact various levels of government with letters.
“Write a letter to the editor—that’s really powerful. More powerful than people think,” he added.
“Start writing. Get a friend to write a letter,” George urged. “If they get that many letters and no response, that’s not a good thing when election time comes.
“Definitely, we’ll get a response if we start writing letters,” he stressed. “I don’t know if we’ll find out what’s going to happen May 1 before May 1, but perhaps some of the concerns can be addressed.
“What’s been negotiated, how often do you negotiate, what’s the core process like? These are things none of us know.”
At last night’s forum, George read a letter dating back to September in which legal counsel for the province and federal government warns Fort Frances and the four bands—Couchiching, Naicatchewenin, Nicickousemenecaning, and Stanjikoming—that they must come to a deal between themselves prior to May 1.
“We would like clarify our position to the status of the park once the lease expires in the event other arrangements are not in place,” the letter read. “It is the view of both Ontario and Canada the lands are unsold surrendered lands which would be unencumbered by any lease.
“The lands will not automatically revert to First Nations, nor would the town have any continued legal right to occupy or to use the lands.
“The limited time available until expiry of the lease emphasizes the need for all parties to make a concerted effort to arrive at a satisfactory, mutually-beneficial agreement as soon as possible,” it continued.
Several residents felt the Fort Frances mayor and councillors, as well as the four chiefs, should have been at last night’s forum to hear their concerns and to sit down and work out a solution to the issue.
“We elected those people, we put them in office. Why aren’t they here?” asked Couchiching band member Ida Linklater.
Naicatchewenin resident Gilbert Smith said he felt the native people never had any intention to give up their land when the lease was signed, reasoning that there’s no question who it belongs to.
After all, a lease is a lease, he argued. When you lease a car from a dealer, after so many years you return it to the dealer.
“There’s a simple solution to this. The leaders should come together to talk about this,” Smith noted, adding he personally would like to see a new lease struck between parties and that the town would continue to look after it.
Overall, George said he was pleased with the turnout.
“Just to see people from the all the communities, to see First Nations people talking to white people, talking together, and at the end, sharing ideas,” he remarked. “These people didn’t know each other at all, but they were sitting there, talking about the issue with a common goal.
“It was really nice to see in that aspect. I think it went really, really well.
“I don’t want to speak for everyone there, but I think the general sense I got was that everyone wants it [the Point] to be publicly-accessible the same way it always has.
“I got the sense some of the people from the First Nations would like to see it continue to be called a reserve, but the people from town that wasn’t their main concern.
“Their concern was, ‘Can I bring my grandkids there in the summer? Can I still walk there? Can I take my dog there?’”
George noted his only regret was he wasn’t able to get more youths out for the forum.
“I think this is going to affect young people like me, who are going to want to live here for a long time,” he reasoned.