I think it's a great article. It's biased of course, but if the information about FN is just remotely true, it's evidence that dealing with the FN is the real reason for holding up progress in the RoF.

IMO he is absolutely right, that the key to a better process is transparancy! Otherwise benefit agreements to me seems more like bribes than sharing benefits.

Living far away from Ontario, I may not see all the fine points to how the system works, but it seems like the problems of the exploration companies eventually end up becomming the problem of the people of Ontario in general (loss of revenue) - and for that reason the provincial government IMO aught to work hard to come up with a long term sollution to dealing with the FN, both regarding the duty to consult, and standardising the benefit agreements in some way.

He wants greater government leadership and more transparency on the industry-First Nation practice of keeping exploration and benefits agreements confidential.

“I live in Ontario and care about what happens with these First Nation communities. I’ve spent time and a lot of my own money reaching out and honestly trying to provide help, and I think the best way I can do that is provide opportunity through our exploration programs.

“But not talking about it is helping nobody.”

Some bands are taxing small miners with “access fees” to reach their claims, with scholarship endowments, and a personal pet peeve of Morris, the granting of shares; juniors are acquiescing to those demands.

A series of disputes with a remote northwestern Ontario band, Sachigo Lake, forced the company to abandon exploration on its gold properties. The company claims the band imposed a 24 per cent “administration fee” to be extracted from its $10-million exploration budget.

Northern Superior’s plight in Ontario was revealed in late 2013 when it launched a $110-million lawsuit against the provincial government for failing to carry out its legal duty to consult with First Nations.

“When I go from one community to the next (in Quebec) I know the engagement process is going to be the same,” said Morris in an interview. “It would be good to see the same thing in Ontario.”

Here, engagement is an “inconsistent,” “costly” and “time-consuming” process that can involve multiple communities, each with its own consultation protocol. Navigating that path to work out an exploration or benefits agreement is usually left up to the junior miner’s owner, a geologist.

As I recall, it was Peter Marshall who recently posted that three of the provincial ministers were held back by Wynne from trying to move forward in the dealings with the FN. Sadly, I think this actually might be true. When Gravelle was forced to establish the development company to keep a key election promise (as an empty shell, thus no harm done to the FN) the FN Chiefs were so outraged in the media for acting without consulting with them, that I think Wynne is simply spooked about all the bad press that it got. That's why nothing happens.

Regards DRA