HIGH-GRADE NI-CU-PT-PD-ZN-CR-AU-V-TI DISCOVERIES IN THE "RING OF FIRE"

NI 43-101 Update (September 2012): 11.1 Mt @ 1.68% Ni, 0.87% Cu, 0.89 gpt Pt and 3.09 gpt Pd and 0.18 gpt Au (Proven & Probable Reserves) / 8.9 Mt @ 1.10% Ni, 1.14% Cu, 1.16 gpt Pt and 3.49 gpt Pd and 0.30 gpt Au (Inferred Resource)

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Message: Gravelle Defends Himself
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From yesterday's Ontario Legislature:

Mr. Norm Miller:

My question is to the Minister of Northern Development and Mines. The Auditor General revealed in her annual report that the Ring of Fire Sec-retariat established in 2010 really hasn’t accomplished much. It has created a bureaucracy of 19 staff and threeregional offices, and it has spent $13.2 million. However, there are no performance measures to gauge and report on the effectiveness of the activities it has undertaken, and it has continually missed milestones for the develop-ment of the Ring of Fire, including "that development would start in the Ring of Fire by 2015."

Speaker, can the minister explain why the Ring of Fire Secretariat has seen such a failure?


Hon. Michael Gravelle:

Thanks for the question. I’m actually grateful to have an opportunity to respond to the member across the way.

The fact is that the Ring of Fire Secretariat has been doing very remarkable work and working with First Nations, working with industry. There’s no question there have been challenges related to the timelines. I’m very pleased that I got an opportunity to speak with the Auditor General in advance of her releasing the report so that we could discuss the fact that, indeed, setting precise timelines—factors such as commodity pricing, and fac-tors such as the extraordinarily important work

we do with First Nations, which I know you would consider to be an absolute priority, as well as the reality of the infra-structure needs and us being able to work with a positive and co-operative federal government, are key to putting those timelines in place. So the Ring of Fire Secretariat continues to do extraordinarily important work, work that I know they want to carry on, and we’re very supportive of that.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?


Mr. Norm Miller: Again to the Minister of Northern Development and Mines: I’m glad you mentioned rela-tions with First Nations communities in the Ring of Fire because, in 2014, you formed the Ring of Fire Infrastruc-ture Development Corp. to accelerate infrastructure de-velopment in the region. You spent $550,000 setting it up, and its operating budget is $4 million a year. Part of its mandate is to bring relevant stakeholders to advance the entire project. The auditor reports, "at the time of our audit, there was no representation on its board of direc-tors from any stakeholder group, such as First Nations, industry, or the federal government." She goes on, "In addition, there were no set timelines for when stake-holders would be engaged." No wonder you missed your target for development of the Ring of Fire by 2015.

Through the Speaker: Minister, how do you explain your failure to meet your own target?

Hon. Michael Gravelle:

Again, Mr. Speaker, I really am grateful that I had an opportunity to have the kind of conversation I had with the Auditor General. We’re very grateful for her report and really strong recommen-dations, and we’re working closely on it.

In terms of the Ring of Fire Infrastructure Development Corp., their key task is to bring the partners together. That includes—very much, we hope—First Nations, in-cludes industry and, may I say, also includes the federal government. They have also been crucial to putting in place some key technical infrastructure studies which again are crucial in terms of us making decisions through the partnerships on the transportation infrastructure cor-

ridor that’s going up to the Ring of Fire. We recognize how crucial it is in terms of a resource development pro-ject. It’s in a remote part of the province that has never seen development before. Those are big decisions.

But we are also very keen to make clear that it’s not simply about building a corridor to a mine site. This is about having the opportunity to open up the north, to have community access to First Nations, and that’s the work that will be done with the Ring of Fire Infrastruc-ture Development Corp.—

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