I watched the announcement and below is my commentary:

1) great news that the province has committed $1 billion. This is obviously a lot more that an EW road so you got to assume that we are also taking about a NS route. Though he did not mention if he prefers a road or rail, and said the development group will decide that, a committment of $1 bil plus they expect $1 bil from the feds, leads one to believe that they are expecting that the group will choose a railroad, since a NS road would not cost anywhere near that amount.

2) I am a big Harper fan. Half of the time spent during the announcement was the provincial liberals putting pressure on Harper to match their funding. Politicians hate to be cornered, but frankly in this case I do think that the Federal Conservatives need to step up. I think a large dolalr committment from the Feds makes economic sense and frankly it makes political sense. I think if the Feds don't step up, the Ontario Liberals will make a big stink and I do expect that the Fed Conservatives will lose votes in Ontario. It is true that the Feds have spent big dollars in other provinces and frankly as a citizen of Ontario I do expect that they step up to this long term economic opportunity.

3) When questioned, I am pretty sure I heard that even if the Feds don't step up immeditately the Liberals will fund. We will have to keep their feet to the fire on this one, because otherwise I could see them delaying and simply pointing fingers at the Fed.

4) Not sure why KWG was not mentioned. Hopefully it was just an oversight. KWG holds three of the biggest pieces of the puzzle aside from our chromite: (1) road/rail access, (2) aggregrate, (3) patent on producing cheap chrome. Gravelle-it was a mistake for you not to include KWG in your opening comments-smarten up!