Grenfell - The deadline to reach a final agreement between the federal and provincial governments and the First Nations regarding Crooked Lake has passed.
August 31st, 2008 was the final day to reach a settlement.
"Canada's deadline (federally) is definitely August 31st. With Saskatchewan, (First Nations) have a couple more days but our offers are tied together, so essentially it's the 31st," said Doug Johnson of the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority.
"It's in the First Nations hands right now," he said adding "we haven't had a response back from all of them at this point in time so it's premature to talk about it," Johnson told the Grenfell Sun in a phone interview last Wednesday.
"It is to do with (a financial settlement) but it's also do with the land issues that have to be surveyed and agreed upon. So we have to be able to register those in the federal and the provincial land system," explained Johnson. "So that's to be accepted as well, not negotiated but to be accepted."
Johnson pointed out that before an agreement could be reached between the federal and provincial governments and all First Nations involved, there was a process to be followed before finalizing an agreement.
"The process would be that they would be accepting Canada's offer and Saskatchewan's offer and then taking it to the band for ratification," he said adding "and then the entire band gets to vote on whether to accept or not accept the offers. The deadline (August 31st, 2008) was for the band council's to accept the offers and then be committed to taking it to their membership."
Because the deadline fell on a Sunday and Monday was a statutory holiday, the Grenfell Sun could not confirm or report on details of an agreement last week, which was prior to the deadline date.
However, Johnson remains positive and expects that by the end of this week, there will be some good news for all people involved.
"We remain very hopeful that what's on the table will be accepted by the band councils."
August 31st: final deadline for Crooked Lake agreement.
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Published on
September 2, 2008
- Published on February 1, 2010
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Kristine MacDougall
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