Ring of Fire Remarks by the Honourable Peter Bethlenfalvy – Ontario Minister of Finance – 2022 Ontario Budget Address (April 28, 2022)

Check Against Delivery

And while we’re at it, Mr. Speaker… It is time to do more to tap into the enormous resource potential spread across this province. Starting with the Ring of Fire.

Canada is the only country in the Western Hemisphere with all of the raw materials required for a lithium-ion battery… With Northern Ontario producing graphite, cobalt, lithium, nickel and other required minerals.

The Ring of Fire has the potential to bring multigenerational prosperity to Northern and First Nation communities… While supporting a home-grown supply chain for battery technology, electronics, and electric and hybrid vehicles.

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Kirkland Lake Gold invests in Melkior Resources – by Carl A. Williams (Northern Miner – May 21, 2020) https://www.northernminer.com/

Global mining news

Kirkland Lake Gold (TSX: KL; NYSE: KL) has struck a strategic partnership with Melkior Resources (TSXV: MKR), which is advancing its flagship Carscallen gold project in the Timmins gold camp of Ontario.

The Toronto-based gold miner, whose high-grade mines in Canada and Australia produced 974,615 oz. of the precious metal last year, is investing $1 million in a non-brokered private placement for up to 1.25 million units of Melkior at 80¢ per unit, giving it a 9.9% stake in the junior on a fully-dilutive basis.

“We are extremely proud to announce this landmark equity investment and potential joint-venture agreement with one of the world’s most respected gold mining companies,” Jonathon Deluce, CEO of Melkior Resources, said in a May 20 press release.

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Thunder Bay: Ring of Fire development to be ‘slow, contested’ if Far North Act replacement stands as-is, legal expert says – by Matt Prokopchuk (CBC News Thunder Bay – April 17,, 2019)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

Province reviewing Far North Act to reduce ‘red tape’ over development

Ontario’s proposed revamping of legislation that dictates how development proceeds in the province’s far north doesn’t do enough to protect the rights of First Nations and will likely lead to “renewed conflict” with Indigenous communities, according to an environmental law expert.

That’s among the conclusions submitted by Dayna Scott, an associate professor at Osgoode Hall and a co-director of the law school’s environmental justice and sustainability clinic to the ongoing review of the Far North Act.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is reviewing the 2010 legislation with an eye on repealing it, “with a view to reducing red tape and restrictions on important economic development projects in the far north.”

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NEWS RELEASE: MATAWA CHIEFS COUNCIL REJECT ONTARIO GOVERNMENT PROPOSAL TO REPEAL THE FAR NORTH ACT

THUNDER BAY, ON: Responding to a February 25, 2019 Government of Ontario announcement proposing to repeal the Far North Act, 2010—the Matawa Chiefs Council offered the following statement:

“The Matawa Chiefs Council is opposed to any unilateral legislative change that will have an impact on the Inherent Aboriginal and Treaty Rights of Matawa First Nations protected and affirmed under Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982; that includes repealing the Far North Act, 2010 and proposed amendments process for the Public Lands Act, 1990 as the basis of Land Use Planning and implementation of our Inherent Aboriginal and Treaty Rights. The Matawa Chiefs Council reject the Ontario government’s proposal to repeal the Far North Act, 2010.

The proposal will have a high-level of impact on the Inherent Aboriginal and Treaty Rights of Matawa First Nations and our members, and a permanent impact on our future generations.

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‘Repeal your laws but respect our laws’ Ontario First Nation chief tells Premier Doug Ford – by Matt Prokopchuk (CBC News Thunder Bay – March 15, 2019)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

Letter from Donny Morris comes as Ontario takes input on proposed repeal of Far North Act

The chief of a northern Ontario First Nation says if the province goes ahead with a planned repeal of the Far North Act, whatever rules and regulations replace it will have to work with his community’s own laws.

Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (K.I.) Chief Donny Morris wrote to Premier Doug Ford early in March, as the provincial government takes input on its proposal to do away with the 2010 legislation, enacted to set guidelines for land-use planning in the far north. The act itself, however, has drawn criticism from First Nations, saying they were never consulted when the previous Liberal government enacted it.

“The Far North Act may be on its way out, but our laws, our Indigenous legal orders will remain,” Morris’s letter said, adding that those legal orders include regulations surrounding how the community is to be consulted, rules around allowable activities on K.I.’s traditional territory, as well as a declaration that sets out laws to protect the local watershed.

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Ford government proposes to scrap controversial law placing ‘restrictions’ on development in northern Ontario – by Fatima Syed (National Observer – February 26, 2019)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

The grand chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) is cautiously welcoming a proposal by Premier Doug Ford’s government to repeal a 2010 law that his nation viewed as a form of colonialism.

Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler made the comments after Premier Doug Ford’s government announced a public consultation to repeal the Far North Act, legislation adopted by the former provincial Liberal government that gave First Nations some control over development in their traditional territories.

The government said on Monday that it was proposing to repeal the law with the aim of “reducing red tape and restrictions on important economic development projects” in the northern part of the province, including the Ring of Fire, all-season roads and electrical transmission projects.

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NAN lauds move to repeal Far North Act (Timmins Daily Press – February 27, 2019)

https://www.timminspress.com/

Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler is applauding the Government of Ontario’s plan to repeal the Far North Act.

“We strongly oppose the Far North Act and are encouraged that Ontario is taking a second look at this controversial legislation,” Fiddler said in a statement. “The Act was enacted without meaningful consultation to legislate our territory under the control of the province and threatens the inherent, treaty and Aboriginal rights of our people.”

“Ontario does not have free reign to do as it pleases in the Far North, and we will defend our right to control development so that the wealth from our lands benefits our people and the growth of our Nation. We welcome the opportunity to engage with the province, but any process must begin with government-to-government dialogue in our traditional territories. We are prepared to facilitate a consultative process for the development of the lands and resources in NAN territory.

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Confusion and concern over land-use planning across northern Ontario – by Dayna Nadine Scott (The Conversation – March 11, 2018)

https://theconversation.com/

Dayna Nadine Scott is an Associate Professor of Law and Environmental Studies, specializing in environmental law and justice., York University, Canada.

Peawanuck is a Cree community in northern Ontario near the shores of Hudson Bay and the home community of the Weenusk First Nation. When I visited in February, caribou hides and animal furs hung in the yards, teepee smokehouses smouldered outside homes and snowmobiles pulled boxed sleighs to carry food harvested from the land.

Like many Indigenous communities across northern Ontario, Peawanuck is confronting the realities of a changing climate, increasing pressure from mining companies that want to extract minerals from their lands and new land-use planning regimes flowing from the province.

At the same time, Indigenous communities across the country are increasingly claiming their rights to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) grounded in international law, in respect of decisions affecting their homelands. And both Canada and Ontario say they are ready to establish a “new relationship” with Indigenous peoples.

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NEWS RELEASE: GRAND CHIEF OUTLINES STRATEGIC APPROACH FOR INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

http://www.nan.on.ca/

THUNDER BAY – June 17, 2015) – Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Harvey Yesno outlined plans for a strategic approach for infrastructure and community development in NAN territory at the opening of the 5th Annual Ontario Mining Forum in Thunder Bay today.

“NAN is currently developing a strategic and innovative strategy that will position our 49 First Nations as active partners in delivering and financing comprehensive regional transportation infrastructure across our territory in Ontario’s remote north,” said Grand Chief Harvey Yesno during his keynote address. “The development of transportation infrastructure will help our communities diversify their direct reliance on the mining economy while maximizing socio-economic benefits and providing new business opportunities that will help develop local economies and strengthen our Nation.”

Mining accounts for 20 per cent of Canada’s exports to global markets, according to a 2013 Conference Board of Canada report, with Northern Ontario home to the largest mineral mining industry in Canada. Instead of waiting for infrastructure plans developed by industry and government, NAN is moving forward with the identification of corridor options based on First Nation knowledge of local topography, sacred sites, cultural heritage, and environment and resource development activities. This new approach will provide certainty for First Nations and the business community.

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It’s taken a long time to get this far nowhere – by Mark Gentili (Sudbury Northern Life – March 16, 2015)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Ontario created the Ring of Fire Secretariat in 2011 to develop, according to an Ontario Business Report document, “the chromite and other deposits in the Ring of Fire as quickly as possible and with due regard to environmental impacts and the needs of the Aboriginal communities within the region.”

That sounds great. Except if you ask anyone with a stake in the Ring of Fire, they’ll tell you they can’t figure out what the Secretariat has done the past four years….Then, less than a year ago, Ontario unveiled the Ring of Fire Development Corporation, ostensibly to do the same thing as the Secretariat. How many cooks does one meal need?

[Dalton] McGuinty sees mining the way his environmentally conscious (but terribly misinformed) southern urban supporters see it — dirty….Which begs the question, why would the Ontario Chamber tap his son to write the report card? Even if their intentions were pure, the optics of it are awful. I mean, there’s any number of educated policy wonks with information-gathering skills and no ties to the Liberals who could’ve written it.

Instead, the chamber is playing politics by defending the Ontario Liberals and trying to shame the feds into action, when they should be coming down on the side of development — that’s why they’re there. (Mark Gentili)

Mark Gentili is the managing editor of Northern Life and NorthernLife.ca.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s “Where Are We Now?” report card on the Ring of Fire development in the Far North is a nice document. It’s full colour, has some good pictures and sports an attractive layout.

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‘The Ring of Fire is a national project’ says Kathleen Wynne (Business Network News – July 15, 2014)

  http://www.bnn.ca/ The federal government needs to see the Ring of Fire as a national project that will benefit Canadians, says Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne in an exclusive interview with BNN’s Greg Bonnell. The so-called Ring of Fire is the region located in Northern Ontario believed to be rich with minerals. The provincial government is …

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Horwath doesn’t tip hand during Sudbury visit [Ring of Fire] – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – January 23, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Andrea Horwath won’t outright say she expects a spring election. But her New Democratic Party is about to start consultations with Ontarians from which the party will take its cues about whether to support another Liberal budget.

Before the last two Liberal minority government budgets, the NDP held town hall meetings and telephone town halls, conducted online surveys, while MPPs held meetings with constituents to get feedback on what they wanted from government in a budget.

“The people of Ontario chose a minority government,” Horwath said Wednesday in Sudbury. “We’ve done everything we could to make that government deliver for them.” Her party will seek that feedback again to inform its decision-making around the next budget process, expected shortly after the Legislature resumes Feb. 18.

Horwath was in Sudbury to meet with Sudbury riding candidate Joe Cimino and attend a fundraiser. While here, she toured Stack Brewery on Kelly Lake Road, where she said it was heartening to see entrepreneurs like owner Shawn Mailloux helping to diversify Sudbury’s economy.

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Advocates want Canada to protect even more of its boreal forest – by Bob Weber (Canadian Press/Waterloo Record – January 6, 2014)

http://www.therecord.com/waterlooregion/

Canada has made significant strides in protecting the vast boreal forest that stretches across most of its provinces and territories, but the world’s largest intact forest ecosystem still faces threats, says an environmental group.

The amount of boreal forest under some form of government protection has doubled since 2007 to about 12 per cent of the total area, biologist Jeff Wells of the Canadian Boreal Initiative said recently. “That’s a big rate of increase in a short time and we’re hoping that’s going to continue,” he said.

The boreal forest is the huge swath of green that stretches from Newfoundland to the Yukon. It’s home to millions of migratory birds, harbours endangered wildlife such as caribou and shelters hundreds of wetlands that clean water and store carbon.

A total of 708,000 square kilometres is now protected by government. Another 460,000 square kilometres are being harvested through sustainable practices such as those outlined by the Forest Stewardship Council, an organization that promotes responsible management of the world’s forests by setting standards, and certifying and labelling wood products.

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Tony Clement’s Ring of Bad Policy – by Peter Foster (National Post – March 1, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Ontario’s ­development restrictions are the real problem

Last week, Tony Clement announced that he would become the Federal government’s point man on the “Ring of Fire,” the area of the James Bay lowlands in Northern Ontario estimated to contain between $30 billion and $50 billion worth of mineral potential.

No dancing in the streets was recorded in any Northern Community.

Mr. Clement, President of the Treasury Board, was claimed to be a good choice because he already heads FedNor, the Northern Ontario regional development agency. You remember FedNor … No, actually, you probably don’t. Like all regional development agencies, it is worse than useless, unless you believe that bailing out obscure cheese factories — or indeed any business — is a good use of taxpayers’ money.

Perhaps Mr. Clement’s most significant association in the public mind is as the minister who used funds attached to the appallingly expensive 2010 G8/G20 meetings to install gazebos in his riding of Muskoka/Parry Sound. Muskoka may look like the North from the intersection of Yonge and Bloor, but from Cochrane or Thunder Bay it’s just a Toronto suburb.

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NAN First Nations want negotiations on resources – by NNL Staff (NetNewsLedger.com – February 11, 2013)

http://www.netnewsledger.com/

THUNDER BAY – News – ”The position of Nishnawbe Aski Nation remains firm,” said Nishnawbe-Aski Nation Grand Chief Yesno. “Whether it’s the Wynne government or the next, it is time for the government of Ontario to begin negotiations with our First Nations on treaty-wide resource revenue sharing so development can proceed in the north. The Premier must be committed to Ontario and First Nations to address treaty and aboriginal rights, and bring forward resource revenue sharing, equity and benefits for all of us.”

NAN – Future of any Premier in Ontario may hinge on decisions

“The Premier of Ontario needs to kick-start the Ontario economy and improve the future prospects for all Ontarians. It’s not a mystery to anyone in government – the lands and resources required to generate wealth for the future of Ontario are going to come out of the remote north – our treaty territories,” said NAN Grand Chief Harvey Yesno.

“The future of any Premier in Ontario may hinge on how they choose to proceed with resource and economic development in the remote north; and NAN First Nations are anticipating those discussions.”

Grand Chief Harvey Yesno expects results from the new Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne as she was officially sworn into her office today at Queen’s Park in Toronto. “Now that the Ontario Liberal Party has completed their leadership selection process, it is time to get down to business in the north.

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