Pic Mobert signs land agreement for ec-dev opportunities
By Rick Garrick
MOBERT—Pic Mobert plans to build a Tim Hortons restaurant on the Trans-Canada Highway after signing a Land and Larger Land Base agreement with Canada and Ontario on June 21, 2016.
“We have done a feasibility plan to do a grocery store, Tim Hortons, gas bar all on the highway complex,” says Pic Mobert Chief Wayne Desmoulin, noting the Land and Larger Land Base property runs along Highway 17.
“We definitely have that ready to roll. Once the land is signed over to us, we’ll have the shovels in the ground and start that process,” he added.
Sabourin says the Tim Hortons would be in a prime location for customers.
“We’re halfway between Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay on the Trans-Canada Highway,” Sabourin says. “There’s no Tim Hortons (between those two cities).”
Sabourin says that the Tim Hortons would provide employment opportunities for community members, noting that the business would be open 24 hours a day.
“We have to start bringing these kind of ventures to our area,” Sabourin says. “Every time we’ve got to run to the city to get something — now we’ll bring that kind of stuff into our area, not only for the First Nations but for everybody in the territory. I can see it being a success, I can’t see it being a failure because the highway’s always got traffic.”
Pic Mobert celebrated the Land and Larger Land Base agreement signing with a variety of activities, including a mini Pow Wow, a feast and a Moccasin Joe comedy show. The community overwhelmingly ratified the agreement in 2014, with 214 voting for and three voting against the agreement. The community gains about 16 square kilometres of provincial crown land under the agreement. The community currently has a land base of about 2.86 square kilometres located between White River and Marathon.
“This is significant signing the Land and Larger Land Base,” Sabourin says. “We’ve been waiting a long time and once we get the land base, we can do some real development and start looking after ourselves the way we should be.”
Pic Mobert Councillor John Kwissiwa says the new land base will provide the community with the space to build new homes for community members.
“On our reserve, our houses are close to each other,” Kwissiwa says. “With the Land and Larger Land Base, we don’t have to do that. We could have bigger yards and more freedom and more privacy. When you’re living in the wilderness, in the bush, you want to enjoy your life.”
Kwissiwa says the community needs to develop economic opportunities to provide funds to build the new homes, noting the Land and Larger Land Base does not come with any funds.
“We’ve been doing feasibility studies on the economics, because we need have economics to start building homes and to start putting new subdivisions in,” Kwissiwa says.
Pic Mobert Deputy Chief Johanna Desmoulin says the Land and Larger Land Base process took many years, noting her son was a baby when the process began and he now has his own family.
“We are just taking back really what is rightfully ours,” says former Chief Johanna Desmoulin. “We shared the land and the land got taken off us and we fought for it.”
Pic Mobert also celebrated the opening of a water treatment plant and a cultural centre on June 21.