The Burning Question In Canada’s Infrastructure

Don’t let the name fool you. Unlike the fiery ring in the Johnny Cash song, from which it is named, Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire isn’t something you can just fall into. A vast, expansive swath of land with incredible mining potential, the Ring of Fire sits North of Thunder Bay, Hearst and Timmins.

Vast deposits of chromite, nickel, copper, zinc, platinum, palladium, and gold lay hidden beneath the land’s surface. These minerals, worth billions of dollars, could support jobs for Canadians and the nearby First Nations communities for generations to come.

A 2014 study by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce estimates that within the first 10 years alone, the Ring of Fire could contribute $9.2 billion to Ontario’s GDP. And that’s only in Ontario. From lumber and gas, to power and gold, region after region in Canada is sitting on a wealth of resources, and no big plan to harness it to develop our future.

The vision is missing, and that vision could turn Canada’s financial troubles around. Arguably the biggest obstacle facing companies trying to access and develop our resources are the regions’ lack of infrastructure. This should not be a problem that the private sector faces alone. Our country is facing an economic downturn, and we have the recipe to bolster our economy and solve that problem.

“Power and transportation infrastructure are the oxygen for the Ring of Fire in Ontario, and for all resource development,” says Ellis Kirkland of Kirkland Capital Corporation. An internationally recognized, award winning Harvard infrastructure expert, Kirkland has extensive experience working with global governments and First Nations communities. “Could we ever even imagine a Canada without the Trans-Canada Highway or the national railroads that connect us east to west?” Ellis asks. “The infrastructure, resource, environment trio is the key to delivering opportunities and jobs to Canadians, while showcasing our high private sector and infrastructure capabilities.”

Large-scale infrastructure demands large-scale vision – which is the responsibility of both the federal and provincial governments, Kirkland argues. That is the formula that German Chancellor Angela Merkel used to buffer Germany from the financial troubles of 2008. She initiated projects that led to new infrastructure and bolstered the economy. It worked.

Once there is provincial and federal commitment to the big vision, the private sector can then develop an ‘incremental approach,’ where it focuses on one area of the resource development and use that as the launching pad for the rest of a project.

You can find a great example of this approach in Ontario right now, through the largest Ring of Fire stakeholder, Canadian mining company Noront Resources. Earlier this year, Noront paid $20 million to buy chromite deposits from an American company called Cliffs Natural Resources. Cliffs’ mining attempts stalled in the face of delays and issues dealing with the province, federal government and First Nations. Now Noront owns more land in the Ring of Fire than any other mining company and it has announced a sustainable, incremental approach to the project.

According to Kirkland, if we back development like this with commitments for large-scale infrastructure, new jobs in Ontario would follow. More so, all of Canada would have more jobs at a time when we all really need it.

The Ring of Fire needs what all of the resources in Canada need. Infrastructure, new roads, transportation and cheap power supply are critical to the Ring’s success. These projects hire workers from the surrounding populations, in many cases, from the nearby First Nations. It’s a win-win situation. “We owe the people of this country jobs. I see a remarkable opportunity for Canada to bolster itself up against the recession,” Kirkland says. “We can do this by developing Canada’s wealth of resources, in an environmentally sustainable manner, through the building of infrastructure.”

The last century saw us develop the Trans-Canada highway, and the national railways, and the St. Lawrence seaways. Today we have state-of-theart technologies, world-class standards and great resource opportunities in so many regions across our country. We just need a vision to go along with those opportunities to allow them to succeed and flourish.