Ontario Budget: Northern Expectations

Posted today at 6:53

The Ring of Fire

Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives made a strong commitment during the election campaign to advance the important mining development project in Ontario's Far North . Eleven months later, the new Ontario government has not yet announced concrete steps to get there.

Despite his optimism about the potential economic benefits of the mine site, the president of the French Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AFMO) believes that the government must be careful. Roger Sigouin believes that it would be premature for the province to include in its budget investments for road infrastructure to the site, for example.

Mr. Sigouin believes that the environmental impacts of a potential mine site and a road leading to it are not yet sufficiently known.

I think the government did not do all the research that was needed or done by interest groups and not the right people.

 Roger Sigouin, Mayor of Hearst and President of the French Association of Municipalities of Ontario

The Mayor of Sioux Lookout believes it is time for the province to begin construction of a road link to the Ring of Fire. Doug Lawrance is one of the leaders of the East-West Ring of Fire Road Coalition that is working in this direction.

It's never too early to invest in good planning. When you have a provincial project as important as the Ring of Fire, you have to find room in the budget.

 Doug Lawrance, Mayor of Sioux Lookout

Revenue sharing

Roger Sigouin, from the AFMO French Association of Municipalities of Ontario, argues that municipalities and First Nations in the region do not yet know how they will actually benefit from a potential exploitation of the mineral deposit. It is important for him to linger before embarking on the construction of anything.

The first priority is to see what the first nations are going to have, what the communities are going to have through the economic spinoffs of that.

 Roger Sigouin, Mayor of Hearst and President of the French Association of Municipalities of Ontario

The New Democratic Party lamented earlier this fall that the negotiations between the Ontario government and nine First Nations for the development of the Ring of Fire were on the back burner .

New patterns of revenue sharing from natural resource exploitation are, however, developing. That was stated in February by the Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines and Aboriginal Affairs.

Greg Rickford indicated that the province is working to ensure that municipalities and Aboriginal communities not included in the current agreements can benefit from the resources .

The promised return of the Northlander

For the moment, the Conservatives have given little sign of a possible return of a passenger train connecting the city to northern Ontario communities along Highway 11.