appeal that decision<\/a>.<\/p>\nWhile the $232 million in returned legal fees are ready to be disbursed to the First Nations \u2014 plus $16.2 million in interest, minus holdbacks for collective funds, such as a five per-cent collective set-aside and a one per-cent living annuitant fund \u2014 both Garden River and Batchewana are hesitant to sign documents provided by Robinson Huron Treaty Litigation Fund.<\/p>\n
Bell said Garden River will receive $16.21 million, but leadership there is wary of the language being used in a limited release form that RHTLF has issued to all 21 First Nations.<\/p>\n
The provided release form states that First Nations will release RHTLF from all claims, Bell said, including the right to seek a passing of the accounts, which is a formal court process where financial records are submitted for approval by the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the release it says Garden River agrees and acknowledges that the RHTLF has been properly administered between the date of its inception and the date of the legal fee payment,\u201d Bell added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn’t like that wording.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell said the documentation also states that Garden River acknowledges\u00a0it has had an opportunity to seek and obtain independent legal advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a pretty short turnaround that they wanted this BCR (band council resolution) signed by chief and council,\u201d Bell contended.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn’t like the fact that they were requiring Garden River to sign a release absolving the RHTLF of liability as a precondition to receiving the return funds, when to the best of my understanding was that we were to receive that those funds free and clear \u2014 not with a caveat of some sort of absolving the RHTLF of liability and holding it back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell told SooToday\u00a0she had a discussion with Batchewana First Nation Chief Mark McCoy, who also indicated that his First Nation wasn\u2019t comfortable with signing the documentation required by the RHTLF to release the returned legal fees to First Nations.<\/p>\n
Batchewana is set to receive more than $15.97 million. According to a document provided by the First Nation, chief and council passed a motion on Feb. 4 to approve a 100 per-cent payout of that amount to membership.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just two weeks later, leadership passed a band council resolution, directing the CEO to vet and select a legal firm to provide independent legal advice on both the release form and the compensation disbursement agreement from the RHTLF, which is an agreement among the First Nations governing how the funds are disbursed.<\/p>\n
Back in Garden River, chief and council are preparing to make a decision on whether or not they will sign the documentation issued by the RHTLF.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey changed a little bit of the wording, and now it keeps Garden River\u2019s right to challenge whether the legal fees are fair and reasonable, and now only applies to how the amount of your payment is calculated, and how the RHTLF administered the [compensation disbursement agreement],\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n
The next council meeting is scheduled for March 9.<\/p>\n
According to Bell, a decision has yet to be made by council with respect to how the money will be used.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had some superficial discussion \u2014 only internally at the council table \u2014 but we have not made any decisions,\u201d the chief said.<\/p>\n
Bell added that one of the reasons Garden River\u00a0hasn\u2019t made a decision on what it\u2019s going to do with the funds is that its membership has ballooned from 3,300 members to 3,700 since the $10-billion settlement was announced.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese people, based on our interim trust agreement, may have the right to be entitled to this money,\u201d said Bell. \u201cSo we have to factor in 400 more people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The remaining $255 million that was set aside by the RHTLF legal team for collective purposes of the Anishinabek is currently locked into GICs, which are expected to mature by this spring. It\u2019s expected those funds will then be made available to be distributed to all 21 First Nations as proceeds from the settlement.<\/p>\n
But Bell doesn\u2019t want to go through the same process with RHTLF with respect to the $232 million in returned legal fees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can’t see them not doing it a second time,\u201d Bell quipped.<\/p>\n
Garden River\u2019s legal counsel is hopeful that the lawyers\u2019 appeal of the Superior Court decision over the $510 million lawyers\u2019 bill will be heard later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Both communities are among 21 First Nations set to receive millions of dollars because of a court ruling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-519313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}