"Waste Disintegrator Test Burn, Boundary Adjustments"

A delegation of band councillors, staff and elected Chief Bill Montour are heading to Nova Scotia today to witness a test burn of the much-anticipated Kearns Waste Disintegrator Unit tomorrow (Thursday).

Montour says council wants to put the pressure on company owner John Kearns to get the unit finished and shipped to Six Nations. Council has put $400,000 of its own money into helping Kearns finish the machine, which was supposed to arrive this past January but has been delayed numerous times.

Montour invited the media, at its own cost, to attend to witness the burn. "I think it's a good idea because the community is concerned it's taking an inordinate amount of time (to get here)." The Kearns unit aims to heat waste and disintegrate it into an ash-like material that can be added to asphalt.

Two staff members from Six Nations' Lands and Resources department will participate in upcoming boundary adjustment talks between Brantford and Brant Country.

Band Council voted at Monday's Committee of the Whole meeting to allow Lonny Bomberry, director of Lands and Resources, and Phil Monture, lands consultant, to participate in the talks and report to council if they have any questions or concerns.

There will be no political involvement from band council. Bomberry said he and Monture attended a meeting in May in Paris with Brant County officials and provincial facilitator Paula Dill.

"It was just a meeting where she told us about the process and her terms of reference," said Bomberry. "She's just a facilitator. She tries to get the parties to come to an agreement and if she can't she just reports back to the government."

The City of Brantford wants to expand its land base into Brant County so that it has more room for commercial development. Bomberry said Six Nations needs to be more involved in the talks.

"We have interests in all of those lands. All of Brantford and pretty much all of Brant County, we say, was never validly surrendered, which is pretty significant, so we should be involved in any discussion of those lands and how they will be used."

He couldn't come up with a specific example of how boundary changes might affect Six Nations' interests in those lands.

Bomberry said the city is looking to finish the talks and have the issue settled sometime this summer.

He said he wasn't sure when the next facilitated meeting is set to take place.

Band Council is revising its Consultation and Accomodation Policy (CAP) in order to provide a mandate for council's CAP team. The CAP team was not in place when the policy was last revised in 2009, council's committee of the whole heard on Monday. The CAP team consists of staff from Lands and Resources and Economic Development. The team is involved in negotiation and monitoring the development of Six Nations' lands under claim. Once approved, council said it will send a copy to the federal government.