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Can Justin Trudeau help kick start Ring of Fire development?

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to the media at the Liberal cabinet retreat in Sudbury, Ont., on Monday, August 22, 2016.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

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When a local reporter went digging for answers from Justin Trudeau about stalled development in the so-called Ring of Fire in northern Ontario, the prime minister went panning for political points.

Far away from where he stood in Sudbury lies one of the world’s largest undeveloped deposits of chromite – a key ingredient in stainless steel – as well as deposits of nickel, copper and platinum. But development hasn’t budged in the last 10 years.

READ MORE: Where is the Ring of Fire, anyway?

Trudeau pointed the finger at the previous Conservative government.

“The Ring of Fire is a provincial initiative that the previous federal government was extremely detached from and uninterested in,” Trudeau said after a cabinet retreat in Sudbury, one of the cities that could benefit from Ring of Fire development.

READ MORE: Trudeau admits challenges ahead as Liberal ministers wrap up retreat

A nugget of truth, or political fool’s gold?

Spoiler alert: The Canadian Press Baloney Meter is a dispassionate examination of political statements culminating in a ranking of accuracy on a scale of “no baloney” to “full of baloney” (complete methodology below). This statement gets a ranking of “some baloney” – the previous government wasn’t as involved as people in the region would have liked, but for key procedural – as opposed to political – reasons.

Time to go down into the burning ring of fire. Mind the flames.

The Facts

It is estimated that there could be between $31 billion and $54 billion worth of minerals in the area that shares a name with Johnny Cash’s hit 1963 single.

Federal spending in the area has been largely focused on skills development for local First Nations.

WATCH: PM Justin Trudeau talks rebuilding relationship between First Nations, government

The previous Conservative government tasked Tony Clement in 2013 to co-ordinate federal efforts on the file that were – and remain – spread across multiple departments. (There remains a federal inter-departmental working group tapped with designing a co-ordinated approach to the Ring of Fire.)

The Ontario Liberals promised to spend $1 billion on infrastructure in the area, and asked for the same pledge from the federal Conservatives in 2014, only to be turned down. The money would help pay for a costly road to finally connect mining sites deep in the boreal forest to highways farther to the south.

Briefing material for Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, says the province has been told repeatedly that “transportation infrastructure for the Ring of Fire region should be supported by the private sector interests involved in the project.”

READ MORE: Wynne says Harper made no funding commitments during ‘positive’ meeting

In March 2015, the federal government gave $393,814 to a road study, but that report has yet to be submitted to Infrastructure Canada. The CBC reported the study concluded that there needs to be more study. In the meantime, one of the mining companies in the region, KWG Resources Inc., announced this week it is partnering with a Chinese company to study the possibility of building railroad access to the Ring of Fire.

The Experts

Mining is an area of provincial jurisdiction, leaving the federal government with little room to help on that front, said David Robinson, an associate professor of economics at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont. What the previous government could have done was help build relationships between companies and the First Nations in the region, but the Conservatives themselves had a “crummy” relationship with aboriginals, further constricting their capacity to help.

The previous federal government was not really involved in the region, said Chief Bruce Achneepineskum from Marten Falls First Nation, whose traditional lands include the Ring of Fire.

Achneepineskum said the province has not been overly helpful either, citing ongoing concerns from the band council that it doesn’t have enough funding to help it pay for things like business planning and company background checks required before signing agreements with mining companies.