Hello Goodheart,

Your post says: ".... The real possible hold ups may come from the enviromental process. That too, will be solved in time as no mines or taxes exchange hands untill the mines are working."

It's prudent to go through the environmental review, as long as the process is timely and the requirements are reasonable. If the conditions include keeping the land pristine (i.e. zero change to the land) then it's would be a no go from the start. There has to be a time limit on the review for development projects, large or small.

Since RoF is a humongous project that would affect (positively) to many people, including employment and improving the living conditions for the FN folks in the North, it would be a good initiative for the Fed to step up by declaring this is a major project that's of national interest...and perhaps throwing on the table some seed money (even the major part of the cost) to build the infrastructures such as the RR, which seems to be a key piece of this RoF puzzle.

The Fed, or some entity set up to administer this RR, could charge the toll for using the facilities. Bet that it would be a profitable operation and they can get back the investment (estimated at about $2B, approximately = the cost of the new bridge and associated facilities to Detroit) through toll revenue and spin-off revenue such as taxes in a few years.

$2B is not really a big sum of money for a country like Canada (the 10% cut in our Defence budget of $2B could be used for finance this investment in the RR infrastructures). In the big scheme, this RR could serve (extended) as a link to a new sea port in James Bay/Hudson Bay as a potential export route to the Far East (and Europe).

Just build it and they will come.

goldhunter