Article from Brantford Expositor

A $30-million advance payment is being made to the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation against the future resolution of one of the nation’s outstanding land claims.

The agreement, announced by Chief Claire Sault of the MCFN and Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Gary Anandasangaree on Sunday, deals with Treaty 22 and Treaty 23, which go back more than 200 years.

“Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation see this advance payment as a good-faith gesture by Canada and as evidence of its seriousness to finally settle this 205-year-old land claim,” said Sault in a news release.

“Negotiations are making good progress and it is our hope that a final agreement can be reached that can be voted on by our membership late this year, or in early 2026.”

Canada and MCFN have been in negotiations to resolve this specific claim since 2022, recognizing Canada failed to protect the interests of MCFN in the surrender and sale of 10,940 acres of the First Nation’s reserve land.

Under an agreement signed Feb. 28, 1820, the MCFN ceded lands at 12 and 16 Mile Creeks and along the Credit River Reserve around what’s now known as Mississauga.

Canada is following some innovative approaches in the land claim negotiations, including something called Specific Claims Advance Payment Framework that gets funds to First Nations earlier in the process, demonstrating the government’s commitment to reconciliation and advancing First Nation rights to self-determination.

Despite many outstanding land claims made by First Nations, Canada is moving faster these days to close the file on claims and has resolved 213 of them in the last five years for close to $13.2 billion. A high percentage of those claims have been resolved in the last year.

Mississaugas of the Credit, near Hagersville, has 2,848 members as of the beginning of the year.

It still occupies, controls or exercises stewardship over almost four million acres of lands, waters and resources through territory that runs from the Rouge River Valley to the headwaters of the Thomas River, to Long Point, along the shoreline of Lake Erie, the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, and back to the Rouge River Valley.

“As we celebrate this advance payment agreement” said Anandasangaree, “we reaffirm Canada’s commitment to addressing past wrongs.

“This agreement enables the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation to access settlement funds earlier on in the specific claims process. It is our hope that this will create new opportunities to move forward together in the spirit of respect and partnership.”

SGamble@postmedia.com

@EXPSGamble