Compensation worth $35 million

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A twenty-year fight to receive compensation for the destruction of their environment may end this month for the people of Pictou Landing.

The small community will vote in referendum on accepting a $35 million package from the federal government on July 5. Ottawa offered the deal in exchange for the band dropping a lawsuit over industrial pollution which changed a tidal lagoon on the reserve into a reeking mass of water, unable to support aquatic life.

"The Department of Indian Affairs went in breach of trust - they had a responsibility to represent our best interests that they did not adhere to," said band administrator Dan MacDonald. "Canada had an obligation to make sure we were informed. Canada just stood by and watched this happen, they didn't provide enough information."

Specifics of the deal have to been made available to the press with the intention of allowing band members time to study it without media pressure, said MacDonald.

In 1965 the band was approached by the Nova Scotia government to allow the establishment of a waste-water treatment plant on land nearby the reserve. The band was told the effluent would not affect Boat Harbour, and representatives were taken to what they were told was a similar treatment plant in New Brunswick.

"They were taken to a new domestic waste treatment plant that processed 200,000 gallons a day, so of course the water was clear," said MacDonald. The plant by Pictou Landing reserve processed 23 million gallons a day of industrial effluent. "It's damn near criminal in terms of misrepresentation," he said.

Within two years of the treatment plant opening, all fish in the harbour died and the stench became a permanent feature on the reserve. The band tried to sue the pulp mill plant but were informed the effluent problem was the province's responsibility. The Nova Scotia government said the band, as wards of the Crown, had to take action through Indian Affairs.

And on reading correspondence between the department and the provincial government, MacDonald became convinced Indian Affairs were ultimately responsible for the band's plight by breach of trust.

While the federal government will not admit liability, it has offered a settlement package, on condition that no further action be taken by the band. The agreement includes an offer to buy approximately 1,400 hectares for residents who want to move, money for economic development, and environmental and health monitoring to determine the effects of the pollution on band members.

The agreement provides individual compensation based on length of residency. Band members received legal advice from an independent group of lawyers regarding the settlement, said MacDonald. He is confident the 410 voting members, 300 of whom live on the reserve, will cast their ballots in favor of the deal.

The council's three main goals are to obtain cash compensation, increase their land base, and clean up Boat Harbour.

"We have a tremendous responsibility to carry through the clean-up so as to make sure people realize we have not been bought off," said MacDonald.