TORONTO - Six Nations and government negotiators are taking a break from talks aimed at ending a two-year aboriginal occupation as a fall deadline looms to settle one of many contentious southern Ontario land claims, federal and provincial officials said Friday.
No firm date has been set for talks to resume, but the parties could start meeting again at the end of July or early August, said federal negotiator Ron Doering.
"All we're doing is skipping a couple of negotiating sessions at their request," he said.
Six Nations negotiators wanted more time to consider Ottawa's $26-million offer to settle a claim concerning the construction of the Welland Canal, said Doering, who expressed hope that a draft agreement could still be reached in September as planned.
"If we don't make it, it's not the end of the world," he said.
"These are issues that go back a couple of hundred years almost ... I'd be disappointed and frustrated if we weren't nailing this down in the late fall, so we need to set September as the target date and I hope we can meet it."
But aboriginal negotiators have said they're also dismayed over the situation in Brantford, where the city has sought an injunction and created bylaws to keep aboriginal protesters away from construction sites on land claimed by Six Nations.
A judge has barred aboriginal protesters from demonstrating at construction sites in the city until his decision on the injunction is released.
"They indicated that because of the court cases and various injunctions and other things, they needed a little more time to go to their community before we got back to formal discussions," Doering said.
A spokesman for Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant rejected suggestions that negotiations had broken off.
"The talks are not suspended. The talks are recessed," Greg Crone said in an e-mail.
"It is positive and appropriate that they are taking the time they need to further consider this serious offer. In the interim, various side table negotiations are continuing their work."
The negotiations - involving both levels of government and sparked by the occupation of a former housing development site in Caledonia, Ont. over two years ago - touches on dozens of claims in Haldimand County.
But Doering said the talks aren't focusing on the contentious piece of land in the town of Caledonia which started the whole dispute.
"We're not talking about Douglas Creek Estates right now," Doering said.
"Ontario bought it, they agreed to have the people who were there occupying it to occupy it. Canada's position is very clear: there is no valid aboriginal claim to those lands."
Discussions have instead been focused on the Welland Canal claim, which dates back to 1829 when native lands were flooded to help build the first canal. Six Nations negotiators rejected the federal offer of $26 million in March contending they are owed at least $1 billion.
Six Nations negotiators said they calculated the amount using the federal government's own interest rates and historical promises made to them.
