County councillors had little to say about a letter they received from the Haudenosaunee Development Institute at their meeting on May 29.
Hazel E. Hill, with the title of Interim Director, wrote a letter to Wellington County. In it, she stated, “We are in receipt of correspondence from the Mapleton Township, Wellington County and Dufferin County, regarding areas of development within the Haldimand Tract Lands.
“The Haudenosaunee Con-federacy Chief Council (HCCC) has legislated a regulator process for dealing with development of lands over which the HCCC has jurisdiction.
“The regulatory framework is administered by the Haudenosaunee Development institute (HDI) which identifies, registers, and regulates development in compliance with a number of regulatory obligations including the Haudenosaunee Green Plan (HGP) and the Haudenosuanee Development Protocol.”
Councillors, though preferred to ignore the implications.
The group is claiming development control over the Haldimand Tract. That is stated as land six miles on either side of the Grand River.
In an interview after the council meeting, County Warden and Mapleton Mayor John Green said Mapleton would not likely be affected in any case. The six mile boundary, identified on the map on the Haudenosaunee Develop-ment Institute’s own website, shows that the boundary line ends at County road 17, thus leaving most of Mapleton outside the land claim.
In January, the CBC reported that Premier Dalton McGuinty told municipalities and developers along the Grand River they should not pay development fees to the Six Nations’ Haudenosaunee Development Institute because the organization has no legal right to charge the fees.
Opposition critics still want the premier to promise to take the Six Nations to court if it continues to argue for the payments.
The Haudenosaunee Development Institute is claiming fees from all land running from the headwaters of the Grand River to Lake Erie, for a total of six miles on either side of the river.
The letter reminds municipalities of a massive land grant of 1784 that gave the Six Nations Confederacy rights to 10 kilometres of land on either side of the river.
