Primrose Settlement May Be Closer To Completion

Primrose Settlement May Be Closer To Completion

Tuesday, June 06, 2006 at 16:31

A Metis negotiator in the North says a signature is all that separates former land-users of the Primrose Air-Weapons Range from their settlement money.

Last yea, both the Province and the Feds agreed to pay $19.5 million to Metis hunters and trappers who were forced off the land decades ago.

Alex Maurice of the Primrose Negotiating Committee says most of the details were hammered out with Ottawa before this spring’s Federal election was called. He hopes that means the settlement will be ratified soon.

However, Maurice says one potential stumbling block may lie in who pays out the money. He says the new Conservative Government may not want Minister Carol Skelton to pay out the money from the Western Economic Diversification Fund.

Maurice hopes to know more by month’s end.

He is hoping, however, that Skelton re-introduces the Primrose settlement to her cabinet colleagues before the summer break.