Crooked Lake cottage owners cry foul after reserve reneges on lease rates

Floodwaters surround cottages and homes on Crooked Lake, Sask. on Wednesday, July 2, 2014. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Don Healy)

Cottage owners who lease lots in the Crooked Lake area are crying foul after the Sakimay First Nation withdrew its settlement offer on proposed rate increases.

CTV News has learned that the band has withdrawn its settlement offer, which a majority of cottage owners voted in favour of earlier this year.

More than 300 cottage owners launched a class-action lawsuit after they received notice in 2009 that their annual lease rates would be increased by up to 800 per cent.

Dave Blackwell of the Grenfell Beach Association, which represents cottage owners on the southern shore of Crooked Lake, said his annual rates increased from $600 to $4,000.

“That’s fairly substantial,” Blackwell said in a phone interview Wednesday. “We were overcome with sorrow…It was quite surprising.”

Blackwell said there was “considerable disappointment” among cottage owners after the federal Justice Department notified them last week that the band had withdrawn its settlement offer.

One cottage owner who spoke on condition of anonymity said the increase that the band initially proposed was unfairly steep. He noted that many people who lease lots on Crooked Lake were hit hard by flooding earlier this summer.

Sakimay First Nation Chief Lynn Acoose told CTV News that the band plans to meet with the groups representing cottage owners next week.

“At that time, we will be informing them of the status of the settlement offer,” said Acoose, who declined to comment further.

Kevin Bell, a Melville-based lawyer representing cottage owners, said they are moving forward with their class-action lawsuit against the band.

“The intent of the initial offer was to resolve the lawsuit,” Bell said. “Of course, without a resolution, the lawsuit is not resolved.”

A trial date for the lawsuit has been set for the fall of 2015.