Seigneurial Lands
Written by Paul Graif on 16 October 2020
Land discussions were on the menu on the Partyline Talk-show today on K1037. Host Paul Graif was joined by MCK Chief Mike Delisle talking about the Seigneurial lands:
“It’s almost 25 Thousand Acres, the Seigneurie, covering seven municipalities that surround us some very small, some in their entirety. Major developments whether you go East of us, West of us, from Ile St-Bernard all the way to Como Pizza and beyond, past Highway 730, things that people know in the community it’s that large, so when you say fairly complex, it’s extremely complex, it’s over 300 years old so it’s pre-Confederation.”
The file is therefore very complex in terms of what should be returned. Quebec and local governments are a different beast when it comes to dealing with land issues:
“Quebec is a different animal and I’m being polite in terms of how they want to respond to land issues, sovereignty, this goes way beyond that. We had an opportunity years ago to look at – and we consulted with community about replacement lands – and it’s a hot and cold issue, we understand that, like I said it’s severely complex in some of that. But do we want land that’s already been not only developed, because it’s easy to say we want Wal-Mart, wherever we’re going, we want Walmart in Chateauguay, we want the Wal-Mart down there, all those types of things. Making it even more complex and difficult and membership has a role to play….it’s extremely complex.”
Chief Delisle says that perhaps other land discussions could be had:
“If we got pristine land somewhere like Tioweró:ton for our community, for the future, maybe that’s something we would accept. It was on the table before. But until we get back to the negotiation table internally and externally, I have nothing to report back to community, the team has nothing to report back yet until we’re actually at the negotiation table once the protocol is agreed to by cabinet.”
