verbena-19

Developers fuming over moratorium

As can be seen from this article in the Hamilton Spectator, the Province of Ontario has not been fair and up-front with the developers who had purchased the property on which to build Douglas Creek Estates either. First, the Province illegally sold land to the Henning brothers that they had no right to sell. It did not belong to them. Then, to add insult to injury, the Province failed to inform the Hennings about the moratorium they had recently negotiated banning development of this Six Nations property. So the Province of Ontario not only acted deplorably toward the Six Nations People by selling their land in the first place -- not to mention the OPP raid on the peaceful demonstrators who were merely protecting land that is rightfully theirs -- but then compounded this fiasco by showing such disgraceful conduct toward the developers as well.

Indeed, the Province has treated everyone involved in this matter atrociously. It is high time for open, honest, even-handed dealings with satisfactory outcome for both the Six Nations people and the developers. No more broken promises. Resolutions must be negotiated fairly and expeditiously. The residents of Caledonia need to get on with their lives, and work toward mending their relationship with their Six Nations neighbours. The longer this situation remains unresolved, the longer this mending process will take.

But negotiations are on track
By Marissa Nelson
The Hamilton Spectator
(May 20, 2006)

The developers who had hoped to build a subdivision at Douglas Creek Estates now say they want out and demand the province buy them out at fair market value.

The change comes on the heels of John and Don Henning finding out on a Six Nations website that the province had signed a moratorium banning development on the site for an unspecified length of time.

A fuming Michael Bruder, lawyer for the brothers, said yesterday the moratorium is unprecedented.

"Behind your back, they negotiate this and they don't even have the decency to tell you what we have done," Bruder said. "This is ludicrous.

"It's an absolute atrocity the way they've treated us."

Read rest of this article here.

posted by Annamarie at 12:02 AM