At the end of January 2015, Federal Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford, suggested "that the private sector is not willing to move forward on the development at this time" which was highly inaccurate.

Both KWG Resources and Noront "can justify moving ahead very quickly with an extractive exercise" but the federal and provincial government need to take the lead on regional infrastructure, participate in 3P loan guarantees and have more transparent dealings with First Nations. (Private corporations don't do regional infrastructure, they develop mines.)

And Ontario should have taken the advise of it's own Northern Policy Institute plan for Ring of Fire's infrastructure to be developed under a Federal port authority model and transfered the ONR as a going concern to a James Bay & Lowlands Ports Authority.

Conservatives funding half of a Four Aboriginal $785,000 Regional Community Service Corridor study is not going to cut the mustard.

Ottawa and Queens Park's inconsistent backing from First Nations is a result of not having both levels of government, industry and First Nations sitting at one table with unified goals.

Minister Rickford, it's time to bring everyone together on this legacy regional chromite nickel project or will we look to the NDP to step up to the plate. - Laura Brown




The EKOS poll: Liberals slipping as NDP surges

ipolitics.ca
By: Frank Graves
Mar 27, 2015

The Liberals’ decline continues in our newest poll: Justin Trudeau’s party is now below 29 points in voter intentions for the first time in a long time — and the long-term trend for the LPC is not positive. The Conservatives, while down from a high of 35 points, now enjoy a small but statistically significant lead based on the Liberal decline.

The real story here, however, may be a gradual but significant rebound in NDP fortunes. The New Democrats have climbed from below 18 points to just over 23 and they now trail the Liberals by just five points. The NDP has a strengthened lead in Quebec and is showing renewed strength elsewhere in the country. Indeed, voters’ political calculations may change under these circumstances, as the promiscuous progressive segment — which is more interested in defeating Stephen Harper than in electing a specific progressive option — may start looking more carefully at the NDP.