Ministers talk Ring of Fire

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All-weather road access to the Ring of Fire mining camp was one of the major infrastructure priorities discussed at a meeting Tuesday by federal Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford and Ontario’s Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle.
The high-profile federal and provincial cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats met for an hour in Ottawa to discuss infrastructure funding needs in the rich base-metal and chromite area of Northern Ontario.
“I think Rickford would agree that it was a very positive meeting. We had an hour together with senior officials, and spoke about our mutual goals and mutual projects that we can work on together in the Ring of Fire,” Gravelle said Wednesday.
“We will be moving forward on our application to the Building Canada Fund” for infrastructure projects that are a priority in the area, he said.
While Gravelle was elusive on what might be in the final funding application, he did say that his ministry is working closely with Noront Resources on its east-west road link to access the company’s Eagles’ Nest base-metal property.
“We’re committed to working closely with the company, with the understanding that, indeed, this is a project that will open up the Ring of Fire,” he said.
Gravelle said he and Rickford talked about other priorities in the area including expansion of broadband services and infrastructure related to expanding hydro power to First Nations in the area.

(For the full story, please see the Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015 print edition of The Chronicle-Journal, or our digital eSubscription. You may subscribe to the electronic version by clicking on the link at the top of this page.)