FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION – The chief and council of Fort William First Nation are asking business owners and Thunder Bay residents alike to respect an order requiring all on-reserve businesses to stay closed through May 1. But the band may be headed for a showdown with one business owner who says he has a right to open his auto shop and gas station.
In a release Saturday, the band council said it would invoke a by-law passed earlier this month to enforce the closure if necessary, but hoped to avoid the step. The by-law asserts that violators could be issued trespass notices and face financial penalties and jail time.
“While charges under our by-laws and other provincial statutes are an option, we prefer and support measured responses with education and warnings,” it said. “In more extreme cases of non-compliance with current orders, then formal charges may result.”
Chief Peter Collins invited media to the First Nation on Saturday to emphasize the council’s message. He said the closure, initially instituted for a two-week period from April 10 to 24 and extended to May 1 by council earlier this week, was necessary to protect his community given the continued growth in COVID-19 cases in neighbouring Thunder Bay.
“Our clear message to everybody – the vendors, the patrons that come into our community daily to shop for our gas and smokes – is that we do not want any legal aspect to become involved with this,” he said. “The last thing we want to do is have a battle with anybody.”
Roy Pelletier, co-owner of First Class Gas and Pelletier’s Auto Body on Chippewa Road, said he shares the desire to avoid a conflict, despite plans to reopen on Monday. With his businesses deemed essential by the province and located more than one kilometre from roadblocks guarding access to the community, he doesn’t see reopening as a risk. He added there are no members of the First Nation employed at the business, lessening any chance of spreading the virus to the community.
Pelletier said he had also sought a legal opinion which indicated any trespass orders to his customers would not be enforceable.
“They can’t enforce the trespassing law when you’ve been invited,” he said. “The very wording of the trespass law depends on the person who owns the property not wanting you there.”
Collins would not say if his message Saturday was directed toward Pelletier’s businesses.
“I’m not going to direct it at any vendor,” he said. “It’s a tough time for them – I get that, our council gets that, our community gets that.”
Pelletier said the band had not provided any support to on-reserve businesses. He plans to set aside $1,000 for each day his businesses are open going forward, and put the money into a fund to help others that remain closed.
“It’s probably more money than we make [in a day],” he said, “but we’re trying to help out.”
For Pelletier, reopening is a matter of providing an essential service to a loyal customer base.
“Our businesses are essential, they’ve been deemed that way by Ontario," he said. "We’re not inside the blockade. We’re just trying to continue to serve the community that takes care of us. There’s nothing worse than telling your customers that have supported you to stay away – we’ve been in business for 45 years, I’m the third generation of this business.”
Collins said the band would soon be issuing support to on-reserve businesses, but that it was too early to say how much funding was available. The community will receive some portion of an over-$300 million fund established by the federal government to assist First Nations in dealing with COVID-19.
“Nobody knows what that number is yet,” Collins said. “$306 million with 630-odd [First Nations] in Canada, that’s not a big number to spread about.”
Should the First Nation seek to enforce a closure, Pelletier said he’d sooner close down than see a confrontation.
“I won’t let it escalate,” he said. “I’m going to try to open, we’re within our rights to open… If they go to some extraordinary measures to make us close or they make it uncomfortable for our customers, I’m not going to put anybody through that. We’ll just close and I’ll take it from there.”
Collins hopes Thunder Bay residents will stay away for now, maintaining the request is for the benefit of both communities to prevent spread of the virus.
“If one of the gas stations decide they’re going to open, please respect the community’s by-law and our curfew, and do not come shop in our community until we’re ready to invite you back,” he said.
