Lac Seul First Nation [Flooding claim]

Lac Seul First Nation is located approximately 40 kilometres northwest of Sioux Lookout, in northwestern Ontario. The reserve is composed of three communities – Kejick Bay, Whitefish Bay and Frenchman’s Head – and is bounded to the north and east by the lake called Lac Seul. It has a total membership of approximately 2,500, of whom about 800 live on reserve.

In 1922, Canada, along with the provinces of Manitoba and Ontario, agreed to construct a dam at Ear Falls, the outlet of Lac Seul, to store the waters of the lake for hydroelectric generation. By the mid-1930s, the average level of Lac Seul was raised approximately three metres, resulting in widespread flooding of the surrounding lands. In 1943, following extensive negotiations between Canada, Manitoba and Ontario to try to determine the acreage of the flooded land and the damages owing to the various landholders in the areas, Canada collected some financial compensation for the Lac Seul First Nation from the provinces for the loss of flooded land and the loss of the use of those lands.

Subsequent calculations demonstrated that the amount of reserve land that was flooded had been underestimated at that time by about 3,000 acres. The First Nation submitted its claim to Canada in 1985, and it was accepted for negotiation in 1995.

Negotiations between Canada and the First Nation, which had started in 1995, were put on hold in the fall of 2001 so that Canada could complete a thorough re-evaluation of its legal position with respect to the claim. The ICC was asked by the parties to act as facilitator in the spring of 2005. Negotiations to date are progressing slowly and are focussed on determining the number of acres affected by the flooding.