OHSWEKEN — Members of the Men’s Fire, Bill Monture and Wilf Davie brought a long list of laundry to the Committee as a Whole meeting at the Band Council Administrative office Monday morning, for the Elected Councillors and Chief Ava Hill to answer.
First on their agenda were questions about the multi-million dollar Brantford Casino deal which SNEC says will create additional millions of dollars in income for the community for infrastructure and other projects that will benefit the entire community.
But according to Monture and Davie, they are not happy with the deal they say the entire community should have been part of the negotiations, or at least, the deal being brought to the community before signing.
Hill explained that there were a number of community meetings, and social media posts that sought input and gave explanation of the deal, which were poorly attended.
“What else can we do,” said Hill. “We can’t drag people out to information meetings.”
Monture suggested a door-to-door campaign to get the input if people don’t want to come out for a meeting on important issues.
Cost, was one of the pushbacks from council, which Monture suggested a solution in hiring some people in need of employment to go to every door.
Band Council’s investment into Ontario Hydro was also questioned by Monture and Davie. Once again, councillors were faced with the same dilemma of how to seek input or offer explanations when most of the community do not bother to attend.
“Hard drug dealers are not being bothered by Six Nations police who are are shutting down cannabis dispensaries on reserve,” points out Monture. “Why is that?”
Other rumours and concerns on the street were also brought up, accusing Council of not directing money in a safe and transparent way.
One specific point Monture made with council is that he still has no water service where he lived on south Chiefswood Road. Hill responded by explaining that the water piping was one of the top priorities the Casino money will be used for to service more of the community and especially the schools.
Monture was not happy with the visit saying, “they can say or promise all they want, we’ll see if it actually happens. We brought all this up years ago and it’s still not done.”
Chief Hill defended Band Council’s stance that the money generated by the Casino deal will be of great benefit to the entire community in being able to address these chronic issues at Six Nations.
Monture also felt that SNEC could have negotiated a better deal on several announced deals made with energy companies, feeling what was negotiated for was far too little.
Elected Council said they are working on suggestions of how the windfall will be spent and intends to hold meetings for the community in the near future where suggested destinations for some of the Casino money should go can be recorded and considered.
