The feds were a dud on the ROF perhaps waiting for Algoma to finish up?  Ontario legislature as on fire today at least and it seems some of them 'get it '

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http://www.ontla.on.ca/house-proceedings/transcripts/files_pdf/22-MAR-2017_L056.pdf

For example, if we look at what happened in the Ring
of Fire—or, I should say, what didn’t happen in the Ring
of Fire—
Mr. Michael Mantha: Or what didn’t happen.
Mr. Gilles Bisson:  —as my good colleague from
Algoma–Manitoulin would know—we had an opportunity to develop the primary chromite deposit in the world,
at a time when commodity prices were high and demand
was high. It was just the perfect alignment to be able to
raise the dollars necessary to build what would have been
a huge operation in the Ring of Fire and for Ontario to be
in the refining business, making not only steel but stainless steel, putting Ontario on a really good economic
footing when it comes to the steel, stainless steel and
mining industry

This government, because it didn’t take seriously its
responsibility when it comes to the accommodation for
the duty to consult and to do what needed to be done by
way of First Nations, said, “Private sector, you go out
and do it.” So Cliffs resources, Noront, KWG and a number of other people went out there trying to, in their own
way—I think of Frank Smeenk and the work that he has
done and the millions of dollars he has spent trying to
consult with First Nations in order to come to some sort
of an agreement and a scheme that would give them a
real, positive role in this Ring of Fire. He was never able
to get there because he could never get the provincial
partner to do what needed to be done, because the provincial government seemed unwilling, confused or paralyzed—I’m not quite sure which; probably a little bit of
all—when it came to really making some key decisions
in order to allow companies like KWG, Cliffs resources,
Noront and others to go forward with their projects.

So all of these players were spinning their wheels
trying to make something happen. They wanted to
develop mines. The First Nations wanted mining developed but wanted to be fairly compensated, and they
wanted to make sure there was economic impact for them
that would be positive. The environmental people wanted
to make sure, rightfully so, that we protect our environment. Instead, nothing happened. So Cliffs resources
walked away. They walked away from what is the richest
chromite deposit in the world and sold it to Noront for,
what, $26 million or something like that?
Mr. Michael Mantha: Yes.
Mr. Gilles Bisson: It was like selling your house for a
thousand bucks. They were so frustrated with the process, they walked away.
My point, as it relates to concurrence in supply, is that
it’s because the government didn’t really understand, was
confused or was unable to come to what decisions they
had to make when it came to what needed to be done to
make these developments go forward.

As a New Democrat, I will tell you what needs to happen; it’s not very complicated. Number one, deal with
revenue sharing. Say that for any new mining, forestry or
any resource economic activity that takes place on traditional territory, there will be a sharing of resources when
it comes to the taxation that we collect—income tax,
sales tax, whatever taxes that come from the activity of
that mine. It would be a percentage of money that would
go to First Nations. Then we would say to the federal
government, “You do the same.”

Imagine that we put 15% or 20%, as the amount of
money that we would share as a province, towards those
projects, and the federal government does the same. We
would then say, “First Nations, come to the table.” They
would come running to the table, because finally there
would be a government prepared to put something on the
table, willing to negotiate, so that they could determine,
number one, if that is a fair number, and they could then
determine how they want the money divvied up within
their own communities. That’s not a decision we, the
government, have to make; it’s a decision First Nations
has to make. Will it be regional? Will it be partly regional and community shares—all of that? That’s for them to
work out. But once you put the money on the table and
the concept that revenue sharing will be there, that makes
a lot of things happen.
The other one is that we need to deal with land use
planning. Government did—what the heck was that thing
called? The Far North Act. I laughed when they did it;
now I laugh again, because if not, I will cry.
Mr. Michael Mantha: It was a nice paper exercise.
Mr. Gilles Bisson:  Oh, it was a beautiful paper
exercise. Rick Bartolucci announced it with great fanfare,
the Far North exercise, where we were going to have a
great plan to develop the north. Fifteen years later, we’re
no further ahead than we were when they announced it.
Mr. Michael Mantha: We’re further north.
Mr. Gilles Bisson: We’re further north, exactly. The
paper has gone further north. You can’t find it.
0940
The point is that if you were serious about developing
these projects, you would put a land use planning process
in place that gives First Nations a place at the table and a
real say about how development is going to happen in
their traditional territories.
Mr. Speaker, you are on the municipal council of
Stoney Creek. Can you imagine if the province said,
“We’re going to determine all the planning in your community and you as a councillor and a community member
don’t have anything to say”? What would you do? You’d
say, “Get out of my community.” What do you expect
First Nations to say?
We never, never decided, the provincial government—
I would say, the Liberals—never decided, for whatever
reason—unable, incompetent; I don’t know what it is—
but couldn’t deal with revenue planning. A 15-year process with the Far North Act, and we’re no further ahead
today than we were 15 years ago.
It’s not complicated. Give them a seat at the table. We
need to figure out, when it comes to land use planning,

the roles of the Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of
Northern Development and Mines, MNR and forestry,
and possibly agriculture. We need to carve out of those
ministries some sort of administration where we set up a
body that includes First Nations that are the ones that do
the permitting and make the decisions around policy and
recommendations to the government. Those are the two
biggest components.
If the government had been serious, there would be a
mine—not one; I would argue at least two mines—at
least two mines running up in the Ring of Fire today, and
literally thousands of jobs. It means that if we were smart
as a province, we would have said, “We will do this, O
Private Sector, including building infrastructure to the
Ring of Fire—road, rail and hydro—in  exchange for
making sure that we develop a stainless steel industry in
Ontario where communities like Hamilton or Sault Ste.
Marie, wherever there is steel manufacturing, could participate in making stainless steel.”
Why should you mine chromite in the Ring of Fire in
Ontario, pack it up as lumpy ore—because that’s what
they do with it; it’s lumpy ore—and then ship it to
China?
Mr. Michael Mantha: Only to buy it back.
Mr. Gilles Bisson: Only to buy it back; exactly—a
good point from the member from Algoma–Manitoulin.
It’s ridiculous. But if we would have done those things,
the people of Sault Ste. Marie or Hamilton would have a
manufacturer of stainless steel. People in northern
Ontario would have mining jobs. The financial district in
downtown Toronto would be doing the economic
activities that it takes in order to support that type of
infrastructure investment and mining investment in a
place in northern Ontario called the Ring of Fire. You’re
literally talking billions of dollars when you open a mine
like that. This is not a $100-million manufacture of
something being built somewhere in southwest, southeast
or central Ontario. You’re talking billions of dollars.
That’s what these projects are. They’re huge, and you can
do them in a sustainable way.
I’ll give you a good little example: Detour Lake
opened up a gold mine north of Cochrane in my riding.
It’s not in John’s riding, by the way; it’s in mine. They
opened the gold mine there some  years ago, I would
say—30-plus or 35 years ago. They operated that mine
for 10 or 15 years. It was, I believe, Dome Campbell
mine that operated it.
When the mine came to its end, the underground, the
mine was shut down. As a result of the shutdown, the
mine closure act that the NDP government passed while
in power said, “That place has to be rehabilitated to, as
close as possible, the condition that existed there before
the mine was built.” They took out the head frame. They
took out the mill. They took out all of the facilities that
were there to operate the mine. They took out the hydro
lines. They took everything out. They covered up the
tailings.
I always remember that there was a—I won’t say who
this environmentalist was, but a very well-known environmentalist to all of us down here some years ago
said, “Gilles, it’s terrible what they are doing in mining.
Look at these pictures.” He was showing me pictures of
tailings that used to take place in places like Timmins
and Kirkland Lake years ago, which were real disasters.
But governments over the years, and my government—in
1991, I believe it was—did the mine closure act so that
this kind of thing doesn’t happen. I said, “Tell you what.
As you know, I’m a pilot. I have an airplane.” This
person wanted to go to Moosonee for something. There
was a powwow going on. It was the summer Cree fest up
in Moose Factory. I said, “Jump in the plane with me. I’ll
bring you up.”
So we fly up, and on the way up I go flying over the
Detour Lake gold mine. I said, “Hey, what do you see
down there?” He said, “Oh, God, is it ever beautiful.
Look at that. Oh, boy, is it ever nice. Look at that lake.” I
said, “Do you know what you’re looking at?” He said,
“What?” I said, “That’s the Detour Lake gold mine. It’s
no longer there. It’s out. It’s gone.” The whole place had
been rehabilitated. What used to be the tailings was grass.
He thought it was swamp, but really it was grass.
Guess what’s there now, Mr. Speaker? A 60,000-tonne-a-day mine, open pit operation, employing about
800 direct jobs, and the rest contractors and everybody
else who is there. We’ve now gone back in and mined it
again.
But the point is, there are ways of doing it sustainably.
If this government was serious about economic development for this province, you would look at northern and
rural Ontario not as a drain and not as a place that, “Oh,
my God, there they go; they need something again.”
They should look at us as the economic drivers of Ontario. Hamilton, Sault Ste. Marie, Kitchener-Waterloo
and every place in between,  from eastern Ontario to
southwestern Ontario, thrive when the rural and northern
parts of this province are able to do the things that they
do best, and that’s agriculture, mining, forestry and those
activities that generate wealth. That’s what this government should do.
Let me move on to the energy component of this because, obviously, we want to talk about energy. Oh, my
God. All right. So let’s remember what happened here. I
listened to the government when it comes to their
speeches in the House about electricity: Oh, they inherited a system; oh, my God, nobody ever invested in electricity generation or transmission in the world before
Dalton McGuinty. What hogwash. Every government
since Adam Beck has been investing at what used to be
Ontario Hydro, to make sure that we had a generating
capacity necessary to produce the electricity needed for
the Ontario economy and the people of Ontario. We
determined in this Legislature that you needed about
25,000 megawatts of electricity to be able to meet the
needs of Ontario. First of all, we built the system. It was
a public system. You know what was interesting—as you
know, Mr. Speaker, as a New Democrat—we generated
electricity at cost and we were one of the cheapest places
to buy electricity in North America.