Ring of Fire road plan hits a bump

Posted on November 27, 2012

Could Ontario be heading back to the drawing board on those plans to access the far northern Ring of Fire mineral zone via a private north-south road?

Last spring, Ontario and chromite hopeful Cliffs Natural Resources unveiled a framework agreement-in-principle that included an all-season road from the Ring of Fire deposits to the main CN rail line.

Details have since emerged that the road would involve government participation, that it would be an industry-only toll road with fees based on usage, and that there would be no access for remote First Nation communities along the corridor.

Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents 49 First Nations across Ontario’s north, is threatening to put the kibosh on that plan.

In a Monday article in Wawatay News, NAN deputy grand chief Les Louttit called an industry-only private road “totally wrong” and said the First Nations will not allow it.

“That cannot be allowed to happen and we will make sure as a political organization that we pressure the government and industry that any transportation corridor that is going to go into the Ring of Fire development will have to have open access to the communities,” he told Wawatay.

The proposed 350-kilometre transportation corridor would cut through the heart of Ontario’s under-serviced far north without connecting isolated local communities — communities that still rely on costly air services and unpredictable winter roads.

“It will be going close by Aroland, Eabametoong, Neskantaga, Marten Falls and Webequie,” Louttit said. “It doesn’t make economic sense, it doesn’t make moral sense and it’s just not going to happen that way.”

While the Ontario government may have thrown its support behind the Cliffs plan, there are a few other ideas on the table.

• Noront Resources, in alliance with four northern First Nations, had originally planned to link its own proposed Ring of Fire mine with an east-west road that would run to Pickle Lake. Noront redrafted its plan to align with the Ontario-Cliffs agreement.
• KWG’s Canada Chrome Corporation continues to work toward a north-south rail line that would connect the Ring of Fire deposits with CN’s trans-Canada line near Nakina. It promises a sweet equity deal for the region’s First Nations.
• A proposal spearheaded by unions at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission – which Ontario is currently trying to sell — would see that agency’s assets transferred to a new ports authority, which would design and build a Ring of Fire rail line “to ship thousands of tons per day of chromite, nickel and other minerals and finished products to markets around the world.” The ports authority group says it has been talking with Canada Chrome, and it appears to have the support of the Mushkegowuk Tribal Council.

With Cliffs back-pedalling on timelines; new players entering the infrastructure fray; volatile global markets wreaking havoc on project economics; and First Nations digging in against official development plans, the Ring of Fire’s future seems to have reverted to its cloudy and confusing self.

Ring of Fire. Such a drama queen.

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