A rail line is needed by Cliffs and the most viable route for it ( probably the only one ) is the north-south.
If there is a road along the north-south route then what would be needed is a service road for the rail line. Only a road for them is a non-event because it is impractical from economic and logistic view. Simply too many trucks and too much damage to a road.

A road is needed, the question remains by what route.
An east-west road is needed by the communities because this path services most of them and therefore is of most benefit to them.
If this road can be of benefit also to most future mines of the Ring then it has to go in, sooner or later.

That is how I see this and if I can see this from southern Ontario I wonder what are all the governmental departments and natives doing and debating about?

Environment, little impact to it from road or rail. What impact there is is from the mines themselves. So they should be debating the mines themselves and go ahead with the transportation infrastructure.

By the time they cross all the Ts and dot the Is, we as investors and tax paying citizens will be paying some heavy bills.