The federal government will spend millions of dollars to settle a land claim with Shoal Lake No. 40 First Nation. On Thursday, Shoal Lake No. 40 First Nation Chief Herb Greene and Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty announced a $17.45 million settlement has been reached. Shoal Lake No. 40 First Nation straddles the border of Manitoba and Ontario in the northwest corner of Lake of the Woods. The community is surrounded by several bodies of water including Shoal Lake, where the City of Winnipeg gets its water from. The money announced Thursday is to settle treaty land entitlement claims connected to seven islands known collectively as the Garden Islands. They were promised to Shoal Lake 40 First Nation under Treaty 3 but were never set aside as reserve land. The first nation initially made the claim in 1991, but it was only partially accepted by the federal government in 2005. “This claim has been outstanding for many years, and we are very pleased to have reached settlement on this important matter,” Chief Greene said in a statement. “We continue to uphold our shared connections to these islands, and the settlement of this claim is an important part of Shoal Lake #40 history and legacy.”
