couchiching toll booth announced
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8/6/2019 Couchiching Toll Booth announced
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email: [email protected] ISSN 0834-6283 PAP No. 07429www.fortfrances.com
A N D R A I N Y L A K E H E R A L D
Fort Frances TimesFort Frances TimesWEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010$1.19 plus 6¢ GST, $1.25 U.S. Printed in Canada Volume 116 Number 52
INSIDE
The Fort Frances Chamberof Commerce is gearing upfor its 22nd-annual Homeand Leisure Show this Fridayand Saturday at the arena.
This year’s event, which issponsored by TBayTel andthe Chamber, follows thetheme “Embracing the GreenRevolution—Think Globally,Act Locally.”
Home, leisureshow set to go
There’s murder, drugs, anddrama in Finland, Ont.—andit’s coming from the pen of district resident Chris Gall-inger, who has just released her first novel, “Justified.”
“I think I wrote [the novel] because I want to leave a piece of me,” said Gallinger, a homemaker and mother of sixfrom Finland.
Author pensmurder mystery
The Muskie boys’ soccerwebsite posed a question to allof the returning players overthe winter.
The page asked playerswhat they were doing that day to help the team defendits NorWOSSA crown.
Talk about driven.
Boys focusedon title repeat
See story on C1
See story on A5
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Dr. Dimitrios Vergidis shared his insightsabout healthy eating and exercise with thecrowd Friday evening during “Dinner withDr. Vergidis & Friends,” an educational fund-
raiser for the Riverside Foundation for HealthCare at the Memorial Sports Centre. The din-ner netted about $8,500. See story, photo onA5. —Duane Hicks photo
Healthy eating
Couchiching vows to set up toll booth
By Peggy RevellStaff writer
Couchiching First Nation has an-nounced its intention to set up atoll booth near the west end of theNoden Causeway as of May 21.
The decision by the band councilto set up the toll booth is twofold,explained Chief Chuck McPher-son.
It stems from the failure of the
federal and provincial government to properly compensate the com-munity for the land on whichHighway 11 is built, as well as thegovernment’s response to the soilcontamination issue believed to becaused by the former J.A. Mathieusawmill.
In the days prior to the bandsetting up the toll booth, it will be holding traffic slowdowns alongthe highway to distribute informa-tion pamphlets, outlining their con-cerns and reasons for the action.
“It’s not going to affect the emer-gency services,” stressed bandcouncillor Eugene McPherson.
“We’d be dead wrong if we start-ed doing stuff like that,” he noted.
The band said it also will begincharging a fee for all who launch boats from the Five-Mile Dock.
The exact length of time whichthe toll booth will be in operationis unknown, noted Chief McPher-son, saying the ultimate goal is tocome to some kind of satisfactoryagreement with both levels of gov-ernment.
“Over the last 50 years since theconstruction of the Noden Cause-way, there’s been billions of dollarsgenerated in the district economy,”said Chief McPherson.
“And we haven’t been allowed to participate in that.”
Originally, the province and fed-eral Department of Indian Affairs
negotiated an exchange of the44.5 acres within what’s historical-ly known as the “two-chain shoreallowance” for the 33.9 acres of land used to build Highway 11,Chief McPherson explained.
But he said the original sur-vey of the “two-chain shore allow-ance” land was done “erroneously,”explaining the surveyor commis-sioned to survey the neighbouringAgency #1 reserve back in 1876included land that already was part of the Couchiching reserve.
As well, dam construction in theearly 1900s meant only nine acresof the original 44.5 acres exists.
“So, in effect, we got our ownland in exchange for the high-
way right-of-way,” argued Chief McPherson. “We were never com- pensated for it.”
About three years ago, the fed-eral and provincial governmentsoffered a combined amount of $500,000 in compensation—“aninsult,” said Chief McPherson, es- pecially as the province has settledmillion-dollar claims with miningcompanies, such as the $5-million buy-out of Platinex Inc.’s claimfollowing a dispute with Kitch-enuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation.
So the Couchiching band council has agreed to erect a toll booth toraise monies for economic and
‘FITS’ plansin jeopardy over money By Duane HicksStaff writer
Plans for this year’s “Fun in theSun” activities are at a crisis point as the committee is not gettingas much money it had hoped forfrom the town.
At the April 12 council meet-ing, Scott Turvey, on behalf of the“Fun in the Sun” committee, askedcouncil to provide $10,000 forfireworks this upcoming CanadaDay—$5,000 more than the townusually gives each year.
But on Monday evening, coun-cil agreed to a recommendationfrom the Administration and Fi-nance executive committee that the town’s grant this year remainat $5,000—the amount it already had earmarked in the 2010 bud-get.
Turvey said yesterday he’s dis-appointed with council’s decision,adding council’s contribution tothe July 1 celebrations has not changed in many years.
He noted $5,000 doesn’t even begin to pay for a fireworks dis- play, which nowadays cost a mini-mum of $10,000 each year.
“I am disappointed in our towncouncil in that they have not fore-seen the need of an increase afterso many years,” Turvey remarked.
Coun. Paul Ryan, who sits onthe Administration and Financeexecutive committee, said the town
can’t afford to give any more than$5,000.
“We have to tighten our belts,” hestressed, explaining the 2010 bud-get is not finalized yet as councilstill is waiting to find out whetheror not there will be a change in thefunding apportionment formula forthe local District Social ServicesAdministration Board.
If that formula does change, thetown will have to find another$100,000 to cover its operating budget deficit.
Coun. Ryan also noted the FITScommittee’s request was forward-ed to the Economic Development Advisory Committee to see if it could find any possible grants that could be applied for to help payfor Canada Day celebrations here(in addition to the Department of Canadian Heritage’s “CelebrateCanada!” grant program, for whichFITS already has applied).
Turvey said the FITS committeeis going to have to look to corpo-rate sources for funding, but admit-ted that will be difficult.
And at this late date, they havevery little time to plan for an “ef-fective” Canada Day.
Besides the grant money fromthe town, the FITS committee es-sentially has no money to put intoCanada Day events.
Turvey said the FITS committee has done fundraising raffles in the
By Dan FalloonStaff writer
Steve Arpin had to be a gam- blin’ man at Talladega over theweekend.
The Fort Frances native chan-nelled thoughts from a fellowdriver as he took to the super-speedway in Alabama for a pairof races this past weekend, in-cluding his debut in NASCAR’sNationwide Series.
“Kevin Harvick explained Tal-ladega best,” Arpin recalled in a phone interview yesterday. “It’s just like walking into a casinoand betting on red or black inroulette.
“If you bet on black, half thetime it’s going to land on redand you’re walking away disap- pointed, and half the time it’llland on black and you’re walkingaway with a pocket full of cash.”
Arpin said at that racetrack,which tends to force racers intotight packs, there can be situa-tions that are out of a driver’s hands.
“The one thing about Talladegais that there’s only so much youcan control,” he explained.
“All you can do as a driver, andas a team, is to put yourself in position to have a shot at makinga run for the win at the end,” hereasoned.
In Sunday’s Nationwide race,the Aaron’s 312, which was de-layed a day due to rain, Arpinran well for much of the way— hovering in second place at one point.
But he was dinged for speedingin the pit area and tumbled to a26th-place finish.
“I learned a whole bunch,”Arpin enthused. “We held in
By Dan FalloonStaff writer
The rookie came through.The local Ducks Unlimited
chapter, spearheaded by first-yearchairperson Kevin Begin, hosted yet another successful banquet at La Place Rendez-Vous on Fridaynight.
The 27th-annual edition of the dinner raised approximately
$21,000 for the national DU or-ganization—up from $20,140 last year.
“Some of the live auction itemswent for some pretty big bucks, sowe were pretty happy to see that everyone came out and spent alittle money and had a great eve-ning,” enthused Begin.
In total, the local chapter hascontributed roughly $650,000to the national organization since1984.
Begin was pleased with the out-come of this year’s fundraiser giventhere was a significant changingof the guard over the last year, in
both his position and Chris Wiel-inga taking the lead as treasurer.
“I’m very happy,” he remarked.“It’s my first year as chairman.Things went very well.”
With Begin and Wielinga as-cending to a pair of the top jobs,newer contributors pitched in toorganize some of the raffles.
Begin was impressed with their performances.
“We had some newer people,we gave them some big responsi- bilities,” he noted. “The younger bucks took the reins and we wereimpressed.
“They did a great job.“The committee had a little bit
of a younger flavour to it. They brought some younger, fresh ideas,” he added.
Begin thinks the newer blood at
the top will help lead to a bit of adifferent feel for the event in thecoming years.
“Change is good,” he reasoned.“It keeps it fresh.”
Begin said his biggest challengewas being unsure as to whether hewas on the right path, but the sup- port of the committee helped himmake it through.
“It was not knowing if I was do-ing anything wrong,” he noted.
“Everybody kept asking me, ‘So, how do you think it’s going?’ andI said, ‘Well, if it was going badly,I don’t know if I’d know,’” he re-called.
“Everybody gave me a lot of encouragement.”
But Begin stressed even thoughthe younger members led the
Arpin pumped afterNationwide debut
Please see “Arpin,” A10
DU banquet big success yet again
Please see “DU,” A10
Aims to redress unresolved grievances
Please see “Couchiching,” A11
Please see “‘FITS,’” A11
“I’m very happy. It’s my first yearas chairman. Things went very well.”
—Kevin Begin
8/6/2019 Couchiching Toll Booth announced
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Wednesday, April 28, 2010 FORT FRANCES TIMES A11
More from A1
past, and had hoped to do an-other fundraiser this year.
But those plans have not moved ahead because the town hasn’t given them approval yet.
“We’re tied both ways,” heremarked. “They’re not giving usfunding nor are they expeditinga fundraising procedure.”
As noted above, the FITScommittee has applied to theDepartment of Canadian Heri-tage’s “Celebrate Canada!” grant program, just as it has in the past.
Unfortunately, the committeedoes not find out how muchmoney they’ll be getting, if anyat all, until literally a day or two before July 1.
“That doesn’t help us signifi-cantly at all,” said Turvey, add-ing that fireworks have to be or-dered several weeks in advance.
As well, any commitment tostaging fireworks has to be maderight away because, since the
passing of Charlie Turgeon, they have to bring in a person fromManitoba who’s licensed to set them off.
Turvey said the FITS commit-tee will be meeting next week,and within about two weeksshould have made a definitedecision as to what it will do forCanada Day this year.
But he conceded that “realisti-cally, at this late date, it is going
to be very difficult to put on aquality production.”
Turvey said he personallyfinds “the possible loss of [July1] celebrations in a border com-munity to be devastating.”
At this time, Turvey said theFITS committee needs all the help it can get to try and keepthe “Fun in the Sun” traditiongoing here.
“We are at a crisis point,” hestressed, adding if there’s corpo-rate sponsors or individual spon-
sors out there, they are encour-aged to contact one of the FITScommittee members as soon as possible.
“Realistically, we need to knowin the next week to 10 days,”Turvey said.
Those wanting to help out the“Fun in the Sun” committee cancontact FITS chair Paul Bock(274-5353) or Turvey (276-0800), or e-mail [email protected]
Couchiching eyeing toll boothMore from A1
social development ventures intheir community, he stated.
People “think nothing” of cross-ing the international bridge and paying a toll there, noted Chief McPherson, adding Couchichingresidents pay non-resident fees toutilize services such as the library,arena, and pool in Fort Frances.
“And that’s all we’re asking inreturn—that if people are utilizingour property and our facilities, wewant to be compensated for it,”said Chief McPherson.
“I don’t think that’s unfair, Ithink that’s reasonable.”
Besides the issue of the Highway11 corridor, the decision to set upthe toll booth comes following thefederal government’s handling of the contaminated grounds at theformer site of the dipping pondsof the J.A. Mathieu sawmill—wheresix residences are now situated.
“A large portion of Couchiching property has been found to be con-taminated with dioxins, furans, anda whole multitude of other chemi-cals,” noted Chief McPherson.
“The Department of Indian Af-fairs consented to a lease 100 years ago and in that particulararea, there were a series of saw-mills and wood treatment plantsand so forth, and the Department of Indian Affairs has an obliga-tion and a right to ensure that the property is restored to its original pristine state.
“They didn’t do that,” hecharged.
This contamination was knownas early as 2003, when soil testingwas done for a new police build-ing.
To date, Ottawa has spent almost $2 million “in doing studies, to findout, to confirm that which theyalready know—it’s contaminated,”Chief McPherson said.
“The land is contaminated—and
all they want to do is study it. Theydon’t want to do anything else,” heremarked.
“At some point in time, commonsense has to come into play. Peopleare being endangered up there.
“It’s a health issue,” he stressed.“We have residents living there
that have indicated that they arewilling to relocate. A number of them have taken out mortgagesand built their own homes, andthey just want to be compensatedfor that.
“And Indian Affairs is not pre- pared to do that,” Chief McPhersonsaid.
A preliminary estimate to fullyrelocate these six residences to anew site that would be the “samelevel of accommodations that they have right now” amounts to about $1.5 million.
“We don’t have the financialresources to compensate them orrelocate them,” noted the chief. “SoCanada has a responsibility.”
Yet Indian and Northern Affairsso far has refused to move thefamilies, he said, with band offi-cials being told that “if we do it forCouchiching, then we have to doit for everybody. We don’t want toset a precedent.”
“Well, certainly, if people arein contaminated lands, I think thegovernment of Canada has an ob-ligation to ensure that safety and health are ensured,” Chief McPher-son added, noting this lack of ac-
tion also “blatantly” ignores the pri-ority of the Canadian government relative to First Nations’ safety and health.
Couchiching Coun. Ed Yerxacalled both the Highway 11 corri-dor and contaminated site “histori-cal long-standing issues.”
“Those are issues that have im- pacted our community in not sucha nice way,” he said. “I think thecommunity has been patient, we’ve
been nice.“Some of the comments I’ve
heard from our community mem- bers is we’ve been nice too long.
“And we don’t owe anybodyanything out there,” Coun. Ye-rxa stressed. “When you look at the benefits that the highway has had for the district, the province,Canada, I think we need to becompensated, as well.”
As for the soil contamination,the site is a huge tract of land—andit’s land the band no longer canuse, he said.
“And the only thing that we do have, hopefully, is the land. Andwe have to take care of that.
“We have to keep it, and I don’t think we’re ever going to compro-mise what we do have when it comes to the land.”
As for the putting up the toll booth, Coun. Yerxa said he’s “pre- pared to be here for the long haul.”
“We’re not satisfied with the ser-vices provided by the federal andthe provincial government,” Chief McPherson said.
While health and education areto be provided to First Nationsas a part of the treaties, Chief McPherson cited a recent casewhere Health Canada refused tocover the costs of a root canal for a young Couchiching resident, deem-ing it “not essential.”
“So we have to take some kindof action to compensate for trying
to help our people,” he reasoned.“And if we can [apply] a toll feeto the million-plus cars that comethrough here on an annual basis,we’ll have to do that.
“Unfortunately, it’s an actionthat’s necessitated by the level of service provided by the federaland provincial governments.
“Taxpayers always say that, ‘We pay taxes and it goes to the First Nation communities’—and the tax-
payer does have a right to beupset,” added Chief McPherson,noting that allocations for everystatus Indian amounts to $20,000-$22,000 per capita every year.
On Couchiching, that wouldamount to $42 million a year, heexplained.
But the last financial agreement with Indian Affairs saw the bandreceiving a little over $6 millioneach year—of which 90 percent goes towards education.
At this point, the band council has yet to determine what theexact toll at the booth will be. But Chief McPherson said it will becomparable to what the privatecompany charges for crossing theinternational bridge, and with boat launching fees comparable to what the Town of Fort Frances chargesat the Sorting Gap Marina.
“We’re not being radical, we’renot being dissidents, we’re not being violent,” Chief McPhersonstressed.
“We’re just asking for the sameconsideration that private operators have and municipalities have.”
As for the contaminated soil, on-ly after the residents are relocatedwill chief and council be willing to participate in further studies of thelocation, said Chief McPherson.
And while only one site currentlyis being studied for contamination,the full extent of the contaminationis still unknown, he warned.
“We haven’t done further stud-
ies along the lakeshore to the east,towards the Five-Mile area. Therewere mills in operation in that area,” the chief said, pointing to theland where more Couchiching resi-dences and programs are located.
The contamination might not be exclusive to Couchiching, heremarked, noting that with the waythe water flows, the issue could beimpacting the whole district.
‘FITS’ plansin jeopardy over money
“Realistically,
at this late date,it is going to bevery difficult toput on a qualityproduction.”
—Scott Turvey
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