Residents along Severn Township’s Big Chief Road are upset about a name change coming to their street.
At the request of Rama First Nation Chief Ted Williams, Severn council has agreed to change the road’s name, and on June 22 the township’s corporate services committee endorsed the suggested Chief Island Road as the new name.
The road overlooks the First Nation’s Chief Island, which has been mistakenly referred to as Big Chief Island over the years.
“It’s something that we battle as a as a community: It’s not Big Chief Island; it’s Chief Island, and so we had suggested a name change of Big Chief Road because it’s on a hill (that) overlooks the island,” Williams said.
“That’s a reference that has been picked up on well by the media, and social media sites, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. It’s created this misnomer that is a little bit of a challenge for our community," he added.
Residents expressed frustration with several aspects of the name change.
For one, they cited the inconvenience of changing their licences and billing addresses, which they had to do in the not-too-distant past when their street became part of the Township of Severn.
“We were Orillia Township, and they changed it to Severn Township, and then we also had to change our postal code, so we had to go through all that changing with everybody,” said Jack Reid, who lives on Big Chief Road.
“We have to do all our billing, our automatic withdrawals, hydro, gas, people that we do business with. It’s going to be a major pain to change that,” added resident Phil Calverley.
Though the road has yet to be officially renamed, residents are also unhappy they have not had a chance to give their input on a potential new name.
Reid noted the road’s Ward 3 representative was absent at the June 22 corporate services committee due to a vacancy on council. Their new councillor, Philip Brennan, was appointed June 23.
Reid said he plans to put together a petition with potential new names for the road based on residents’ desires.
“Our main objective is don’t change the name at all, but if we’re going to change it, I think — and the people that I’ve talked to think — we should be allowed to have some say in what the name is,” he said.
Reid also expressed concern about the road being on the Rama’s territory.
“Does that create an ownership-looking appearance?" he asked. “Obviously, we’re not part of the Indigenous territory.”
In his March letter to the township requesting the name change, Williams also pointed out the terms ‘Chief’ and ‘Big Chief’ have been used as derogatory terms toward Indigenous men, but the issue largely has to do with the misnomer that has become commonplace over the years.
Williams stressed there was no intention to upset residents.
“It’s the township’s responsibility as opposed to our responsibility, but we made a suggestion,” he said.
“We’ve got a great relationship with the township. We’re approaching this in the vein of a healthy discussion and relationship with the township and its residents. It certainly never, ever has been the intention to upset anyone, but to handle this in a civil, respectful manner.”
Severn Mayor Mike Burkett said the township agreed to changing the road’s name in the spirit of reconciliation.
“(With reconciliation), we felt that we would respect their wishes,” he said.
However, Burkett said council would like to work with Severn residents, too.
“We have to respect our residents as well, right? It’s their road and it’s their name, and... if they can all agree upon a name, council’s happy to approve it,” he said.
