The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.
First Nations willing to work with resource firms
Resource companies and the province seeking to develop land in Treaty 9 territory must do more than consult First Nations. Mushkegowuk Grand Council Chief Stan Louttit maintains firms must obtain consent before work can proceed.
Louttit made his case at the Mining Ready Summit Wednesday morning based on recently discovered diaries of one of the original treaty commissioners.
Found in the Queen’s University library in 1995, the diaries have been subject to legal analysis for the past three years and the Mushkegowuk council argue they reveal something their Elders have said all along. Their ancestors never surrendered authority over their lands.
Louttit told the First Nations and mining sector representatives gathered at the summit the story of how the treaty was originally signed in 1905.