?aqam reaches settlement with Ottawa

By Dave Lueneberg

A local First Nation has come to terms with the federal government over an issue that dates back over 80 years.

It was 1942 when the then-St. Mary’s Indian Band was involved with the surrender and sale of timber on the band’s Kootenay Reserve No. 1. The feeling from the Indigenous community both then and since – that Canada failed to properly manage the sale of the timber, selling it at a low rate and resulting in economic losses for the community.

Last Monday, Crown-Indigenous Relations minister Gary Anandasangaree said the arrangement is a step made by the federal government to be a good partner in the development of Indigenous communities. In a release, the ministry stated that socio-economic gaps between First Nations and non-Indigenous communities exist because of “decades of colonial policies that led to the denial and dispossession of land and resources.”

The settlement is for $7 million.

-with files from Canadian Press