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Tim's camp gets Sagkeeng's OK

First Nation threatened to block children's foundation project

By: Bruce Owen

Posted: 08/8/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Chief Donovan Fontaine (THE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES) Photo Store

Sagkeeng First Nation has backed off its threat to oppose the building of a Tim Horton children's camp near Pinawa, Tim Hortons and the province say.

Dave Newnham, executive director of the Tim Horton Children's Foundation, said the foundation and the province recently signed a lease for the 17-hectare site on Sylvia Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park and a road right-of-way has been cleared to the site. Road construction is expected to start shortly.

Sagkeeng's change of heart comes as the First Nation near Pine Falls prepares to hold a sod-turning before the end of the month for a new Tim Hortons franchise to be located adjacent to the community's main grocery store.

"We are close to something," Chief Donovan Fontaine said in an email. "Will let you know."

Newnham said the new franchise and Sagkeeng's approval of the kids' camp are unrelated, as the foundation and Tim Hortons operate separately.

Newnham said Fontaine agreed to the camp after learning in a meeting it would be a place children from his community could attend and it would respect aboriginal tradition and culture.

"It was an opportunity for us to sit down with the chief and discuss how the camp would be a benefit to the kids of his community," Newnham said. "Their interest in a franchise, that's just a separate piece."

A year ago, the community 140 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg said it was prepared to go to court to block the camp unless it was involved in the project.

"I'm not anti-development," Fontaine said then. "The camp is a wonderful thing and there are certainly not enough opportunities as such for underprivileged children, or kids, as Tim's calls them. In my reserve, we have many children who fit the bill.

"I only want to get something in return for my community."

Fontaine also said band members would block access to the work site, which they claim is on their traditional land.

"Our territory is our territory," he said a year ago.

The Selinger government is contributing $1.8 million toward the year-round camp, which includes construction of a road to the site and installation of MTS and hydro services.

The total cost of the camp is estimated to be $12 million. It's hoped it will be ready to open next year.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 8, 2012 A3

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