OntORA has been asked by our members what our views were on this matter and have prepared this as a result;
Ontario Outdoors Recreational Alliance, Inc.
P.O. Box 24055, Market Mall, Sault Ste. Marie, ON. P6C 6G7
Statement on the Algonquin Land Claim
OntORA’s position on the current eastern Ontario Algonquin Land Claim, which encompasses 117,500 acres of pristine Crown Land sustaining vast numbers of moose, elk and other indigenous wildlife, 250 naturally sustaining Brook Trout lakes, 150 Lake Trout lakes, 400 cold water lakes, and numerous privately-owned cottages and camps, and giving the Algonquins of Ontario exclusive rights to 14 townships and 800,000 acres in eastern Ontario, is as follows:
OntORA is opposed, in the strongest possible terms, to any privatization or denial of public access (other than for bona fide ecological or conservation reasons) of Crown Land, be it for the Algonquins of Ontario or for the remote tourism industry of northern Ontario.
A much larger area than the 800,000 acres to be allocated for the exclusive use of the Algonquins of Ontario, in addition to 2,000 of Ontario’s best lakes, are now already effectively allocated to another exclusive user, the remote tourism industry of northern Ontario. OntORA can see no difference in the two privatizations of our natural heritage, the Algonquins of Ontario or the Ontario remote tourism industry. Neither is in the interest of the average Ontarian, and OntORA calls upon the Ontario government to correct these two equal abuses of our natural resources and Crown Land.
Signed, this 15 th day of May 2013,
The Executive Officers of OntORA
Comments on this entry are closed.
I am in support of a modern day treaty with the Algonquins. However, the way the AIP was negotiated, the way the crown land was selected in complete secrecy is what I am opposed to. The information sessions suggested that the claims are ‘a done deal’ regardless of what opposition there might be.
Good Job Ontora of throwing in the support that the Algonquin Land Claims issue needs from all of Ontario’s sportsmen advocacy groups. Although it is hypocritical that one federation (OFAH) cries foul as it pertains to the Algonquin Land Claims issue yet has stated that it promotes a 1km buffer around areas where remote tourism are established . I realize the 3 km MNR buffer supersedes the OFAH”S recommendations of a 1 km buffer OFAH file349/794 yet the OFAH’s lack of overall interest on access issues here in Northern Ontario in contrary to the Algonquin issue will forever define their federation to the pinacle of hypocracy.