Rickford talks provincial Ring of Fire funding

Dave Canfield, Greg Rickford and Michael Gravelle at a meeting in Kenora

The province has announced it is willing to put $1 billion into all-season access to the mineral-rich Ring of Fire deposit in Northern Ontario. However, that is only if the Ottawa matches the funds. Kenora MP and Minister of Natural Resources Greg Rickford, said the federal government will help through the Building Canada Fund where they will consider applications on a case-by-case basis.

"We've stated that persistently, consistently. We're pleased that a month or two ago the province was finally in a position to recognize we have developed a fund for these sort of major economic infrastructure projects," he said. "In the wake of the last few announcements some of my provincial counterparts said different things about the Build Canada Fund. There was no complaints about it before when we were building infrastructure projects across the region. I'm sure there's no reason to be concerned about it moving forward."

Michael Gravelle, Ontario’s minister of northern development and mines, made the announcement on Monday. The money would go towards an all-season transportation corridor. The lack of a transportation has been a major barrier in developing the Ring of Fire which is roughly 500 km northeast of Thunder Bay. Last year Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. suspended its operations indefinitely saying it couldn't keep spending money if building an all-weather road was in doubt.

Rickford said he believes they are now finally in a position to begin looking at infrastructure projects.

"We are in a good position now to work with industry, First Nations and municipal and provincial governments on specific infrastructure projects. I'm confident the Ring of Fire is a part fo that," he said.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce has estimated that the project could generate $9.4-billion in Gross Domestic Product over the next decade and support 5,500 jobs a year.

It said it would also generate $6.2 billion for Ontario's mining industry and provide the federal, Ontario and municipal governments with almost $2-billion in revenue over that decade.

http://www.kenoraonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8843&Itemid=160

For more information:
Ontario Chamber of Commerce - Ring of Fire
Ring of Fire agreement for province, First Nations
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