EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on Aug. 27, 2024.
Work that was set to begin Monday on an archeological dig to make way for the long-awaited Waterdown Bypass is on pause after the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI) says the city failed to meet with them.
HDI represents the interests of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council in construction projects on their treaty lands.
The city told FlamboroughToday work was meant to start in early spring at the site near Parkside Drive, but said shovels have not yet been put in the ground.
The city said on Monday that “archaeological consultants were set to return to the site for site clearing and field work,” but HDI spokesperson Katia Galati said HDI members and archeologists agreed to hold off.
HDI lawyer Aaron Detlor told FlamboroughToday the archeologists and HDI have agreed that they will not go forward with the dig until the city meets to discuss 26 “points of engagement” that relate to treaty obligations.
The Ontario government's web page on environmental assessments includes a section on public consultations, outlining a responsibility for municipalities to engage the public and to engage Indigenous communities.
Detlor said the municipal class environmental assessment for the Waterdown Bypass should have included HDI’s input. He said the city has left the group out of discussions for the bypass and for other projects across the city.
“We are more than happy to discuss how to resolve the issues, but it is hard to discuss if you are at the table by yourself,” Detlor said.
The city's public works general manager Carlyle Khan confirmed work has stopped at the site.
"In an effort to resolve any outstanding matters related to the project, the archeologist consultants and city believe it is prudent to meet with the HDI, as requested," he wrote in an email.
HDI says city has failed to engage
Detlor says HDI has been calling the city to the table since 2012, when the bypass began its first environmental assessment, to discuss treaty rights of the Haudenosaunee people and the planned developments.
Section 35 of the Constitution Act protects those treaty rights.
One of the points Detlor said HDI would like to discuss is the Nanfan Treaty, which was signed by the Crown in 1701.
“The Nanfan Treaty says that the Haudenosaunee has free and undisturbed use of the subject lands,” Detlor said, which includes a large swath of land that includes most of southern Ontario.
By treaty, Waterdown is part of the Nanfan Treaty and therefore, Detlor said, HDI should have a part in the environmental assessments made before developing that land.
In the case of the Waterdown Bypass, he said, its construction could disrupt the growth of Indigenous medicines and lead to over-intensification and damage to lands that are under treaty.
“The growth that they are contemplating now has never been tested against the long-term impacts,” Detlor said, adding that more suburbs in Waterdown will benefit developers, not the environment.
He said these are considerations HDI would like to discuss with the city, as part of the municipal class environmental assessment, which he says is part of the city’s policy.
In an email to city manager Marnie Cluckie, Detlor listed a handful of other city projects with environmental assessments in Flamborough where he says the city failed to do its diligence by engaging HDI.
These projects include assessments of the flooded out portion of Safari Road, the Greensville Drinking Water System assessment, the assessment for a potential roundabout at Highway 52 and Powerline Road, the Carlisle Water Storage Facility assessment and the Waterdown Trunk Watermain assessment for a new watermain.
“All that we are trying to do is get [the city] to do it properly, and they seem to be reluctant to follow the law," Detlor said.