The following article was published previously in CambridgeToday.
The goal to acknowledge, honour and respect Indigenous land treaties may be lip service for some, but for the company behind what is arguably the most contentious development in Cambridge history, it appears to be important.
Three years of consultation with Broccolini Real Estate Group, the Montreal-based developer behind the one-million square foot Amazon warehouse in Blair, has paid off for Six Nations of the Grand River.
The company reached a compensation agreement with Six Nations last month that will see them pay out $250,000 and abide by an agreement to replace trees removed from the Amazon property at a 10:1 ratio.
It also means the developer will strive to protect a wetland that feeds Blair Creek and the Grand River.
Corry Kelahear, chief of staff for Broccolini, said the company can't speak about specifics, but did provide a statement.
The statement said it was "a very collaborative process" that was highlighted with a tree-replacement plan at "more than five times what was originally required by the municipality."
There is no mention of financial compensation or what it could mean for the company's various other projects underway within treaty lands across the province.
"There's only one way you can really resolve it," said director of the land resources department at Six Nations, Lonny Bomberry. "I mean, they're not going to give us the land back."
And while Bomberry said the agreement is significant, it doesn't set a precedent in terms of compensation since no developer or municipality is obligated to follow Broccolini's lead.
Most of Cambridge and Waterloo region is within an area covered by the Haldimand Treaty. The municipalities are also part of the Fort Albany Nanfan Treaty of 1701, which covers almost all of southern Ontario.
Those treaties have been used to promote discussion between Indigenous groups, municipalities and developers for decades.
And although there is no legal obligation for the discussions to happen, many municipalities participate as a show of respect for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Known as UNDRIP, the document "provides a framework for reconciliation, healing and peace, as well as harmonious and cooperative relations based on the principles of justice, democracy, respect for human rights, non-discrimination and good faith."
Six Nations of the Grand River is the largest First Nation by population in Canada.
Its current territory south of Brantford, spans 46,500 acres but represents only 4.8 per cent of the 950,000 acres of Haldimand Tract lands granted to Six Nations by the Haldimand Proclamation in 1784.
Those lands stretch north along the Grand River from Lake Erie through Waterloo region and Wellington County.
Head of the Six Nations Consultation and Accommodation Process (CAP) team Peter Graham said discussions with municipalities and developers have been increasingly more successful since the Grand River Notification Agreement was created in 1996.
That document is supposed to compel stakeholders along the Grand River to notify Six Nations of any development taking place along the tract.
But only Brant County, Haldimand County and the City of Brantford have officially signed on to adopt the GRNA.
Graham says many other municipalities follow it as a guideline and there are several discussions ongoing now.
Through those discussions, Six Nations aims to rectify impacts to treaty rights and the environment.
Compensation in terms of land granted back to the territory, or financial agreements are two areas also discussed, Graham said.
Any money provided as compensation goes into a general fund at Six Nations and the band council decides how it wants to spend it. Graham said it can go towards anything from road maintenance to healthcare.
The province also encourages discussions with First Nations around land use decisions.
"Unfortunately the province has more capacity, but they basically download this on municipalities," Graham said.
Six Nations is currently at the table with the Region of Waterloo over its plans to expand the airport in Breslau.
As for the City of Cambridge, it remains silent on any talks it has had with Six Nations.
During early discussions on the Amazon project, Six Nations said the city "dragged its heels" and failed to provide key documents.
"We definitely weren't pleased," Graham said, noting conversations with the city since then have moved in a more positive direction.
It took a threat from then housing minister Steve Clark, who said he would revoke a municipal zoning order for the warehouse unless the city could prove discussions with the Indigenous community had taken place.
That's when Broccolini stepped in to work with the CAP team.
Graham said now that it has such a high profile negotiation under its belt, Six Nations is hopeful more consistent information about land development applications will be provided by the city and region in the future.
The city's relationship with Six Nations has been less than easy over the last decade.
During council discussions about the Amazon project, then Ward 4 councillor Jan Liggett was critical of the fact the city wasn't working more closely with Six Nations.
Liggett said she was concerned about Indigenous heritage "already lost" on the Amazon property, adding there are "52 known sites in this area of Indigenous heritage."
On the Riverside Dam project, the city sought the input of Six Nations, but didn't heed its environmental concerns when the dam project was resurrected in 2022 after an inspection revealed the old dam was failing.
“Our position is that the dam doesn’t need to be there,” wildlife and stewardship manager for Six Nations Bethany Kuntz-Wakefield told CambridgeToday. “There is no reason for the dam, except for heritage reasons. The river has been there for thousands of years. But this is the settler cultural heritage, not the Indigenous cultural heritage.”
Before the vote to approve a plan to replace the dam, Mayor Liggett said dams are a good reminder of where we started from as a country.
"If we start to lose that, we lose our history. The Indigenous history is important but also the history of our ancestors," she said.
CambridgeToday's request to talk to the mayor about the Broccolini agreement and the city's policy for Six Nations consultation was ignored.
Attempts to talk to planning staff about the issue went unanswered.
It's still unclear whether the city has spoken to Six Nations about its new recreation complex. The city is scheduled to break ground on that project in the fall.
CambridgeToday did get a response from the Region of Waterloo after asking to speak with someone in the planning department, but we did not hear back before deadline.
