The Star.com Toronto Edition.

Published On Wed Jul 14 2010

Two years ago today, Premier Dalton McGuinty made Canada’s largest conservation commitment, a vow to give permanent protection to half of Ontario’s far north region. The other half – 225,000 square kilometres—was to be open for development, so long as it adhered to strong environmental standards and was supported by local First Nations.

The announcement was called historic and visionary. The plan still is. Unfortunately, the province has yet to put in place the necessary regulatory regime to support it. Worse still, mining companies are not waiting for the government.

A new, improved Mining Act was passed last year. But still years away from coming into force are such key elements as permit rules, map staking, and dispute resolution—all the things that will determine whether economic development, environmental and native concerns will be balanced.

The government ignored the sound advice of its own advisory council, which called for a planning board jointly appointed by First Nations and the government to manage the region. Comprehensive land use plans are the only way to ensure environmentally sensitive development, and yet they are still nowhere in sight.

As staking continues, more land becomes grandfathered for mining purposes, limiting the government’s options to direct what happens in the future. Nowhere is this more of a concern than in the “Ring of Fire,” an area 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay that is full of mine-worthy ore deposits. In the throne speech earlier this year, the government called the Ring of Fire “the most promising mining opportunity in Canada in a century.”

So aggressive is exploration in this region that entire airstrips have been built without government permission. This is no way to ensure that the Ring of Fire is developed in a sustainable way. Instead, it is likely to ignite more confrontations between the miners and First Nations, which could shut down development.

McGuinty deserves credit for seeing that environmental protection, First Nations’ empowerment, and economic development – each a challenge on its own – must be tackled together in the far north. But two years later, “We have the veneer of an announcement with none of the legislative underpinnings, yet,” says Janet Sumner, executive director of the Wildlands League.

Ontario’s economy, environment and First Nations communities need better than that.