FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATIONS, Ont. -- Chief Georjann Morriseau says negotiations over the James Street Swing Bridge are back where they started.
Fort William First Nation, backed by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, put $1 million on the table toward a $3 million plan to have vehicle traffic share the rail deck on the bridge.
Morriseau said the plan wouldn't need any money from the city of Thunder Bay. But CN insists that the city and company renegotiate a 1906 agreement that says CN must maintain the bridge in perpetuity before any repairs begin.
"That's not Fort William First Nations responsibility or business to negotiate the terms of that agreement or its interpretation. Therefore Fort William has done everything they could," she said.
Negotiations over the agreement shouldn't have anything to do with fixing the bridge, which has been closed to traffic for nearly a year, Morriseau added.
Repairs could begin and the bridge could be open by Christmas.
"We strongly feel that CN needs to start being a little more reasonable with both Fort William First Nation and they need to continue their discussion with the city," she said.
The company also wanted its $2 million underwritten.
Mayor Keith Hobbs said that means if the city did take CN to court, Fort William First Nation would be on the hook for that money. A CN media release Thursday referred to the leadership of the city and Fort William to get the deal done.
"We don't have stupid leadership here. Fort William First Nation and this mayor know when we're being duped and we're not going to be duped," Hobbs said.
Agreeing to the offer would effectively nullify the 1906 agreement. It would also leave a lot of issues, like liability, unresolved.
"Nothing has really changed," Hobbs said.
Any new agreement would need CN to accept all liability should an accident occur on the bridge. Otherwise the city could being paying a lot out of a deal it wasn't supposed to spend a cent on Hobbs said.
Morriseau said she didn't think that a year later negotiations would end up back where they began.
"We just keep going around in circles and quite frankly we're getting tired of it," she said.
CN officials say its proposal would be funded by the company and the federal government. The city nor Fort William First Nation would need to contribute.
