Peggy Revell
Couchiching First Nation has announced its intention to set up a toll booth near the west end of the Noden Causeway as of May 21.
The decision by the band council to set up the toll booth is twofold, explained Chief Chuck McPherson.
It stems from the failure of the federal and provincial government to properly compensate the community for the land on which Highway 11 is built, as well as the government’s response to the soil contamination issue believed to be caused by the former J.A. Mathieu sawmill.
In the days prior to the band setting up the toll booth, it will be holding traffic slowdowns along the highway to distribute information pamphlets, outlining their concerns and reasons for the action.
“It’s not going to affect the emergency services,” stressed band councillor Eugene McPherson.
“We’d be dead wrong if we started doing stuff like that,” he noted.
The band said it also will begin charging a fee for all who launch boats from the Five-Mile Dock.
The exact length of time which the toll booth will be in operation is unknown, noted Chief McPherson, saying the ultimate goal is to come to some kind of satisfactory agreement with both levels of government.
“Over the last 50 years since the construction of the Noden Causeway, there’s been billions of dollars generated in the district economy,” said Chief McPherson.
“And we haven’t been allowed to participate in that.”
Originally, the province and federal Department of Indian Affairs negotiated an exchange of the 44.5 acres within what’s historically known as the “two-chain shore allowance” for the 33.9 acres of land used to build Highway 11, Chief McPherson explained.
But he said the original survey of the “two-chain shore allowance” land was done “erroneously,” explaining the surveyor commissioned to survey the neighbouring Agency #1 reserve back in 1876 included land that already was part of the Couchiching reserve.
As well, dam construction in the early 1900s meant only nine acres of the original 44.5 acres exists.
“So, in effect, we got our own land in exchange for the highway right-of-way,” argued Chief McPherson. “We were never compensated for it.”
About three years ago, the federal and provincial governments offered a combined amount of $500,000 in compensation—“an insult,” said Chief McPherson, especially as the province has settled million-dollar claims with mining companies, such as the $5-million buy-out of Platinex Inc.’s claim following a dispute with Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation.
So the Couchiching band council has agreed to erect a toll booth to raise monies for economic and
social development ventures in their community, he stated.
People “think nothing” of crossing the international bridge and paying a toll there, noted Chief McPherson, adding Couchiching residents pay non-resident fees to utilize services such as the library, arena, and pool in Fort Frances.
“And that’s all we’re asking in return—that if people are utilizing our property and our facilities, we want to be compensated for it,” said Chief McPherson.
“I don’t think that’s unfair, I think that’s reasonable.”
Besides the issue of the Highway 11 corridor, the decision to set up the toll booth comes following the federal government’s handling of the contaminated grounds at the former site of the dipping ponds of the J.A. Mathieu sawmill—where six residences are now situated.
“A large portion of Couchiching property has been found to be contaminated with dioxins, furans, and a whole multitude of other chemicals,” noted Chief McPherson.
“The Department of Indian Affairs consented to a lease 100 years ago and in that particular area, there were a series of sawmills and wood treatment plants and so forth, and the Department of Indian Affairs has an obligation and a right to ensure that the property is restored to its original pristine state.
“They didn’t do that,” he charged.
This contamination was known as early as 2003, when soil testing was done for a new police building.
To date, Ottawa has spent almost $2 million “in doing studies, to find out, to confirm that which they already know—it’s contaminated,” Chief McPherson said.
“The land is contaminated—and all they want to do is study it. They don’t want to do anything else,” he remarked.
“At some point in time, common sense has to come into play. People are being endangered up there.
“It’s a health issue,” he stressed.
“We have residents living there that have indicated that they are willing to relocate. A number of them have taken out mortgages and built their own homes, and they just want to be compensated for that.
“And Indian Affairs is not prepared to do that,” Chief McPherson said.
A preliminary estimate to fully relocate these six residences to a new site that would be the “same level of accommodations that they have right now” amounts to about $1.5 million.
“We don’t have the financial resources to compensate them or relocate them,” noted the chief. “So Canada has a responsibility.”
Yet Indian and Northern Affairs so far has refused to move the families, he said, with band officials being told that “if we do it for Couchiching, then we have to do it for everybody. We don’t want to set a precedent.”
“Well, certainly, if people are in contaminated lands, I think the government of Canada has an obligation to ensure that safety and health are ensured,” Chief McPherson added, noting this lack of action also “blatantly” ignores the priority of the Canadian government relative to First Nations’ safety and health.
Couchiching Coun. Ed Yerxa called both the Highway 11 corridor and contaminated site “historical long-standing issues.”
“Those are issues that have impacted our community in not such a nice way,” he said. “I think the community has been patient, we’ve been nice.
“Some of the comments I’ve heard from our community members is we’ve been nice too long.
“And we don’t owe anybody anything out there,” Coun. Yerxa stressed. “When you look at the benefits that the highway has had for the district, the province, Canada, I think we need to be compensated, as well.”
As for the soil contamination, the site is a huge tract of land—and it’s land the band no longer can use, he said.
“And the only thing that we do have, hopefully, is the land. And we have to take care of that.
“We have to keep it, and I don’t think we’re ever going to compromise what we do have when it comes to the land.”
As for the putting up the toll booth, Coun. Yerxa said he’s “prepared to be here for the long haul.”
“We’re not satisfied with the services provided by the federal and the provincial government,” Chief McPherson said.
While health and education are to be provided to First Nations as a part of the treaties, Chief McPherson cited a recent case where Health Canada refused to cover the costs of a root canal for a young Couchiching resident, deeming it “not essential.”
“So we have to take some kind of action to compensate for trying to help our people,” he reasoned. “And if we can [apply] a toll fee to the million-plus cars that come through here on an annual basis, we’ll have to do that.
“Unfortunately, it’s an action that’s necessitated by the level of service provided by the federal and provincial governments.
“Taxpayers always say that, ‘We pay taxes and it goes to the First Nation communities’—and the taxpayer does have a right to be upset,” added Chief McPherson, noting that allocations for every status Indian amounts to $20,000-$22,000 per capita every year.
On Couchiching, that would amount to $42 million a year, he explained.
But the last financial agreement with Indian Affairs saw the band receiving a little over $6 million each year—of which 90 percent goes towards education.
At this point, the band council has yet to determine what the exact toll at the booth will be. But Chief McPherson said it will be comparable to what the private company charges for crossing the international bridge, and with boat launching fees comparable to what the Town of Fort Frances charges at the Sorting Gap Marina.
“We’re not being radical, we’re not being dissidents, we’re not being violent,” Chief McPherson stressed.
“We’re just asking for the same consideration that private operators have and municipalities have.”
As for the contaminated soil, only after the residents are relocated will chief and council be willing to participate in further studies of the location, said Chief McPherson.
And while only one site currently is being studied for contamination, the full extent of the contamination is still unknown, he warned.
“We haven’t done further studies along the lakeshore to the east, towards the Five-Mile area. There were mills in operation in that area,” the chief said, pointing to the land where more Couchiching residences and programs are located.
The contamination might not be exclusive to Couchiching, he remarked, noting that with the way the water flows, the issue could be impacting the whole district.
