MPP says Ontario dragging its feet on Ring of Fire – by Jeff Labine (Timmins Daily Press – November 19, 2014)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The MPP for Timmins-James Bay is blaming the Liberal government for squandering the proposed Ring of Fire project and causing friction with mining companies.

Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa delivered his fall economic statement, saying the government is working to meet fiscal targets despite modest economic growth and later than expected revenues. He said the revenue projection for 2014-15 is $118.4 billion – $509 million lower than first forecast.

In that same report, Sousa once again called on the federal government to match the Liberal’s $1-billion investment into the Ring of Fire.

New Democrat MPP Gilles Bisson said because the Liberals have dragged their feet, major companies like Cliffs Natural Resources have left the project. He said Cliffs and many other mining companies continue to voice their frustration with the government.

“They have been talking about the Ring of Fire for eight or nine years,” he said. “They have mentioned it now in two or three budgets and a couple of Throne Speeches. Now they got this fallacy going on that they are going to do something when it comes to infrastructure in the Ring of Fire but we have to wait for the feds.

“If the province wanted to act six, seven years ago when they should have, we would have been building a mine in the Ring of Fire right now. They are trying to make it look like they are trying to do something when they have actually done nothing.”

He added that his party already knew what had to be done which included supporting the mining industry, produce the materials in Ontario and establish revenue sharing with First Nation communities.

Sousa said they were overachieving when it came to fiscal targets claiming it was because of good management of program spending. He said they will be able to balance the budget through a number of steps including reviewing and transforming programs, ensuring everyone pays taxes and unlocking provincial assets.

For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.timminspress.com/2014/11/18/mpp-says-ontario-dragging-its-feet-on-ring-of-fire