Stoney Point residents may be eligible for water settlement

Residents of the Stoney Point lands at former Camp Ipperwash are eligible to apply for compensation as part of a First Nations drinking water class action settlement.

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Individuals who lived at Stoney Point on Lake Huron in Lambton Shores between Nov. 20, 1995 and June 20, 2021 have until Sept. 17 to file for compensation under the settlement, according to a notice posted online by the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation .

Claim forms are available at the First Nation administration office and also can be found online at firstnationsdrinkingwater.ca/index.php/claim-forms.

Courts in late 2021 approved an agreement to settle class-action litigation led by several First Nations that includes $1.5 billion in compensation for individuals deprived of clean drinking water.

“When we first saw it was announced, we noticed that our community of Stoney Point was not on the list, so we immediately started to take action,” said Kimberly Bressette, chief of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation.

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Those living at Stoney Point have been without potable water for years, she said.

The settlement administrator said in an email Kettle and Stony Point submitted a request to be added to the list of impacted First Nations and met the requirements.

“We are not able to comment on how many individuals may be eligible for compensation,” the administrator said.

Bressette said the First Nation also doesn’t have an estimate of how many residents may be eligible.

“People have lived there, they’ve left, they’ve moved back,” she said. “It has just been a number of people over the years.”

While compensation from the settlement will be good for residents who are eligible, “it would be better for them” to have access to clean drinking water, Bressette said.

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“That’s what we are working toward and hoping that this is just the beginning of more opportunities to rectify the situation we have there,” she said.

About 265 First Nations are involved in the settlement and more than 218,000 claims have been submitted by individuals, the administrator said.

“In general, First Nations individuals who lived on an impacted First Nation during a long-term drinking water advisory that lasted for one year or longer between November 20, 1995, and June 20, 2021, may be eligible for compensation,” the administrator said.

According to the settlement website, compensation will be based on the number of claims, type of water advisory experienced, remoteness of the community, number of years individuals lived there and when they submitted their claim.

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Compensation amounts will not be known until after the end of the claims period, it says.

Former residents of Stoney Point were displaced when the land was taken by the federal government in 1942 to be used as an army training site during the Second World War. Ottawa kept the land after the war ended and didn’t act to return it until after unarmed protester Dudley George was killed there in 1995 during a confrontation between demonstrators and the OPP.

First Nation members have been occupying the former military base since 1993. The lands were transferred to the First Nation in 2016 and land that made up a former provincial park was handed back prior to that date.

But development of the land at the former army camp is waiting for completion of efforts led by the Department of National Defense to clear remaining unexploded ordnance.

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Estimates of how many years that could take changes, Bressette said.

“We get told 20 years,” she said. “We got told it could be 10.”

The First Nation has been lobbying for more resources for the cleanup so it can be completed sooner, she said. “That’s our hope.”

Providing a source of clean water for Stoney Point is something the First Nation is working toward, Bressette said.

“Once we get the full cleanup completed, then we’ll be able to start focusing on our strategic plan for development and making our community there,” she said.

The class action settlement also includes a commitment by the federal government for funding to support reliable access to drinking water on First Nations.

“The elders, they all want to move home, and they don’t have much time left,” Bressette said. “That’s what we’d like to do for them.”

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@ObserverPaulM

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