Re: Who Supports The SynFuel Deal?
We the members of the F.W.F.N. Grassroots Ethics Coalition are very interested in the letters written by Mr. Robert Van Patten (SynFuel) and Mr. Patrick Farrell. The only people Mr. R. Van Patten had meetings with from this reserve, were the Chief and his 2 cohorts. Nobody else knew what was going on, or for that matter, still don't. Within the last two (2) weeks, we were given some information on which chemiclas would be coming out of the stack, but, no other information (enviromental or financial) were given. We're not for or against this deal, but, we do believe everybody should be told the truth, then have a referendum. We also believe the citizens of Thunder Bay should have a say on what's happening in their backyard. It does seem to us that this is being rushed through as quietly as possible. For environmental reasons, this needs a full impact study and discussions with the people, both on and off the reserve.
Sincerely,
F.W.F.N. Grassroots Ethics Coalition
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To date, we have approached the Fort William First Nation Arena Manager, Mr. Gordon Bannon, on November 26, 2003. He told us that he doesn't make the decision(s) on who can get a "bingo" night. He stated that the Chief and Council (of F.W.F.N.) makes those decisions. And that we should submit a letter to the Chief and Council to be brought up at the next Council meeting.
William and I submitted a letter to the Chief and Council earlier today, Nov. 28, 2003, requesting a bingo night. We will let you all know what happens as soon as we hear from the F.W.F.N. Chief and Council.
Among other business, we approached the F. W. F. N. Band office, to find other funding sources, We spoke to Ian Bannon, Gen. Manager of Anemki Corp. He gave us some information/criteria on the Casino Rama funding programs available. He sits on the funding Committee. He then suggested we approach Gail Bannon, which we did, she gave us the package containing all the pertinent information regarding the funding application for business start up.
We're slowly getting started with our new business venture.
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We had a meeting with F.W.F.N. Chief & Council to make a presentation for our Coalition organization on Feb. 10, 2004 and also requested a Bingo night, so we could do some fundraising for business start up of our organization. We also invited Chief & Council to submit name(s) from the Administration to be a representative on our Coalition board. We also invited a representative for on-reserve representation and one for off-reserve representation to sit on our Coalition board. The Chief & Council said they will not recognize/sanction our Coalition organization, nor would they help us in any way with funding.
We also attended the SynFuel/F.W.F.N. meeting held on Feb. 15, 2004. We learned at this meeting that a 30 year lease has been signed already. Over 300 people were in attendance, though only a handful of F.W.F.N. band members attended. This could have been due to the late distribution of the newsletter which a lot received the day before the meeting and some didn't get the newsletter til 2:00 PM on the day of the meeting. We've approached various Environmental organizations for input on the SynFuel Corporation. All of whom were against this corporation building their plant on our reserve.
We will keep you posted with the outcome of the SynFuel deal.
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