MPP hasn’t given up on Ring of Fire

Nipissing MPP, Vic Fedeli sees the Ontario Northland Railway as having a huge role to play in the Ring of Fire, the massive planned chromite mining and smelting development project in the mineral-rich James Bay Lowlands.

He says he hasn't given up on the Ring of Fire and still believes it is an untaped wealth and the key to Ontario's future success.

“They’ve been moving ore for 100 years and this could give them work for the next 100 years,” he said.

Not only does he see the proposed development as a boon to the Northern Ontario railway but he says building a stainless steel smelter in the area would be an "amazing business" for Northern Ontario. As the mine goes into production there would be a need for mine designers which are located in North Bay. As well, he said, the area has a large group of companies who manufacture the consumables such as rods and bits.

“The bigger play for all of Northern Ontario would be to use the chromite from the Ring of Fire to make stainless steel and I can’t think of a better place for all that surplus power that Ontario generates to be used than in a brand new stainless steel smelter in the North,” he said. "That's the value added we need in the North."

However, Fedeli said the number one issue people people talk to him about is the cost of hydro.

"One business man told me that his hydro costs are more than his raw materials, staff and transportation," he said. "He also told me his customers are now in the U.S. because people who normally would have been his customers are not buying his product . But, people in the U.S. are and I find that disturbing."

He said that the auditor general, Bonnie Lysyk, reported that Ontario has paid $37 billion for its green energy program and because they signed 20-year contracts the province has a further $133 billion yet to pay.

She also said if the province had kept its old funding formula for green energy it would have saved $9.2 billion.

"I know people in Ontario want to do the right thing," Fedeli said. "They want renewable power but they also want it handled responsibly and at a price we can afford. The auditor general said we have paid Quebec and the U.S. $3.6 billion to take our excess energy. Now we are at a point where it is almost $1 billion a year we pay them."

For 100 years we had some of the cheapest hydro in the world, but today we have the most expensive energy in North America, he said.

Nipissing's MPP said representatives from Fabrene came in the legislature and talked about the companies global adjustment and he explained this is to pay for the money the government has paid out which is primarily for renewable energy and is over and above the revenue it received for the power.

"Fabrene's global adjustment bill had gone from $5,000 a month to more than $75,000 a month," he said. "Their energy cost was over and above that."

Fedeli said renewable power is not new to Ontario and for more than 100 years the province used power which came from its lakes and streams.

"Water power was the greenest, cleanest, most affordable and most renewable power, but it never made for pretty pictures," he said. "The government wanted us to be in wind and solar power."

He referred to the former Nipissing Generating Station Dam and said it put out energy for 100 years and now it's closed.

There are still 2,200 untaped water power sites, 700 of which are extremely viable, Fedeli said.

"It is not as if that renewable resource is not available and it's not as if we needed the power," he said. "We make far more energy than we use."

Fedeli said he believes to see Ontario succeed in the future it needs four things. The first is to make energy affordable, the second is to provide infrastructure that will attract business and move people around. The third is it needs an education system that trains people to be ready for the jobs that are out there and fourth thing it needs to do is reduce the amount of red tape which is stifling business.