The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
Premier Kathleen Wynne isn’t wasting time worrying about Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources looking to possibly sell key assets in the Ring of Fire. Cliffs will make its own business decisions and the Government of Ontario doesn’t have any control over that, said Wynne.
“There are many companies that are interested in the development of the Ring of Fire and we are going to be working with all of those companies that are interested,” Wynne told reporters after a cabinet meeting Thursday at the Willet Green Miller Centre at Laurentian University.
At one time, Cliff had plans to open a chromite mine in the Ring of Fire, and ship the ore to a plant in Capreol for processing. That would have created as many as 600 jobs in the Sudbury area.
The premier and most members of her inner circle met at the session, at which ministers received mandate letters outlining the priorities for their ministries.
High on the priority list for Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle was developing the Ring of Fire, rich chromite deposits located 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.
Gravelle was instructed to continue to collaborate directly with other ministers, First Nations and key stakeholders to develop the mineral-rich area. That includes establishing the Ring of Fire development corporation that was promised to be set up within 60 days of the Liberal government’s throne speech delivered in July.
The “devco” was established just under that 60-day deadline, comprised of an initial board of civil servants.
Wynne said that board will work with partners to build Ring of Fire infrastructure because her government has committed a billion dollars, “regardless of whether the federal government steps up or not.”
The board will “flesh out” the role of the development corporation and bring in representatives from First Nations and the business community.
Some Matawa Council chiefs expressed displeasure after the announcement about the development corporation was made earlier this month that they weren’t included on the initial board.
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