Federal government right to question province for plan, Ring of Fire stakeholder says

THUNDER BAY -- A major Ring of Fire player says the federal government is right in asking the province to show their plans for the massive mining project.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford (Con., Kenora) said recently that the province hasn't spent any money despite making a $1 billion commitment to the project.

KWG exploration and development vice-president Moe Lavigne said the commitment is putting the cart before the horse and mining companies don't have a social license in the area without an actual plan to bring infrastructure to the North.

"It's great to make that commitment for a billion dollars but you need a place to spend it," he said. "You need a plan and that doesn't exist."

The plan is supposed to be developed through the province's development corporation but so far no one from the province has contacted KWG or any First Nations to be a part of the organization.

"There's absolutely no update there. We haven't had any contact with anybody in the development corporation," he added.

Meanwhile, a former Ring of Fire stakeholder continues to declare its skepticism that the region will ever become a profitable venture for private interests.

In the Globe and Mail recently Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves called his company's foray into Canada, including the Ring of Fire, a disaster.

He said the project is past the point of no return and has no hope of being developed.

Lavigne said Cliffs, which suspended its operations in the region last year, had several failures in the country that had nothing to do with the Ring of Fire.

"His statements, I think, are a bit emotional. They're really not the sort of thing you expect to hear from a CEO in a public space," he said.

MP John Rafferty (NDP, Thunder Bay-Rainy River) took Goncalves' comments as an opportunity in the House of Commons to chastise the federal Conservatives and provincial Liberals on the project.

People are tired of hearing endless excuses from both governments as to why the project is stalled.

"In the end Conservatives and Liberals fiddle while the Ring of Fire burns," Rafferty said.