Energy costs biggest hurdle for former minister Smitherman's Ring of Fire bid

TORONTO - Critics say the biggest hurdle former energy minister George Smitherman will face trying to secure a Ring of Fire ore processor for a northern Ontario town will be his own energy policies.

The Municipality of Greenstone has hired Smitherman to try to convince Cliffs Natural Resources to build a chromite processor on the outskirts of Nakina and Aroland First Nation.

But New Democrat Howard Hampton says one of the biggest issues for manufacturers in northern Ontario are high energy costs — and it was during Smitherman's tenure that electricity rates went through the roof.

It would cost Cliffs Resources a billion more dollars over their projected 30-year period to set up shop in Ontario instead of in neighbouring Manitoba, he says.

Other foreign miners such as Xstrata have already shut down Ontario smelters and moved their operations to Quebec — another lower-cost province.

Smitherman says both Greenstone and area First Nations insist that the resource be refined where it is extracted, adding that any move to ship the ore out would meet intense opposition.

Chromite is used to make stainless steel