Mississauga Indians, who once owned the land Toronto now sits on, say they should have been paid more than the 10 shillings they got in 1805 — and Ottawa has its cheque book open.
Local media have suggested compensation for the ”Toronto Purchase” could turn out to be the largest settlement of its kind.
But key negotiators did not speculate about possible awards for the land now beneath Canada’s largest city.
Talks between the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation and the federal government began last month, some 11 months after Ottawa said it was willing to accept the band’s 1998 compensation claim after seeing a breach in the agreement.
”We’re not disputing the fact that the land was surrendered.
What we are disputing is that we didn’t get a fair compensation,” explained Mississauga of New Credit First Nation Chief Bryan Laforme in an interview.
Ten shillings was roughly the daily salary of a low-ranking British soldier 200 years ago.
The original land claim dates back to 1787 when a British official recorded the Crown’s purchase of 40 000 to 49 000 hectares) of land north of Lake Ontario, said David Walker, the federal government’s chief negotiator.
”What happened, as unbelievable as it may seem, was nobody filled in the [1787] deed,” Walker said in an interview.
When the Crown saw this, they dispatched a group to settle the matter with the Mississaugas, then at the Bay of Quinte.
The second deed was completed in 1805, but it deviated from the first and awarded only 10 shillings to the Mississaugas.
”What seems to have happened … is that the first transaction was of one size but the second transaction was on a completely different map and much greater in size and they didn’t tell the First Nations properly that the second transaction almost doubled what was originally discussed,” Walker said.
The first deed, for example, did not include the neighbouring Toronto Islands, but the second, which covers some 250 000 acres, does.
LaForme said the ownership of the extra land involved is not in dispute, stressing that the 1 500-member band is seeking compensation, not land, to try to improve their community infrastructure.
Negotiators for both sides, who met on Tuesday at the band’s territory south of Hamilton, Ontario, are now trying determine the value of the land.
”That’s the big question,” LaForme said.
”The question of valuation is what we’re beginning to research,” Walker said.
”We are going to do research about what the transactions in the area of southern Ontario were [at that time],” he said, adding that about 17 property transactions dating from 1780-1820 were going to be reviewed.
LaForme, however, said the band, whose first compensation claim in 1986 was rejected by the federal government before it submitted another in 1998, wants also to look at present day valuations.
”There’s certain criteria that we’re going to look at and part of that will be: Are we going to go by the price of land then or the price of land now?
”Those things have to be decided by the negotiating team,” LaForme said.
Negotiations will continue in August and are expected to last for months. – Sapa-AFP