March 30, 2010

Ontario’s Ring of Fire to spur skills training, economic opportunities

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

TORONTO

Ontario plans to blaze new inroads in skills training and economic opportunities in northern Ontario through its new Ring of Fire economic development initiative. The Ring of Fire is an area with potentially large deposits of minerals such as chromite, nickel, copper and platinum.

The province will provide $45 million over the next three years for a new project-based skills training program to help Aboriginal Peoples and northern Ontarians participate in and benefit from emerging economic development opportunities.

The program will help build capacity in the region to undertake base mapping, develop resource inventories and gather other information. This will support community land-use planning and environmentally sustainable development that benefit Aboriginal Peoples and northern Ontarians.

“There is going to be a lot of investment and byproducts from investing in the Ring of Fire,” said Karen Renkema, director, government relations, Ontario Road Builders’ Association. “There will need to be quite a bit of civil construction to get a lot of that work done.”

The government will also appoint a Ring of Fire Coordinator to work and consult with Aboriginal Peoples, northern Ontarians and the mining community to encourage responsible and sustainable economic development related to the Ring of Fire