Pretty much the same old news but nice to see lots of press on the ring...also nice to see the feds and province repeating their dedication to the project very recently.  Also seems the FN are getting partnered up for future benefits for their communities.  What is the hold up????  Could it be Algoma which will be the crown jewel of stainless production for Canada? 

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http://www.timminspress.com/2017/04/30/budget-shows-decline-in-support-for-ring-of-fire-bisson

Budget shows decline in support for Ring of Fire; Bisson

By Ron Grech, The Daily Press (Timmins)

Sunday, April 30, 2017 12:46:56 EDT PM

Queen's Park

TIMMINS - Opposition members from the North are accusing the Ontario Liberals of reneging on a commitment to help pay for infrastructure within the Ring of Fire after last week’s provincial budget saw a massive reduction in funding for Northern Development and Mines.

“The government with great fanfare in two or three throne speeches, at least four or five budgets, and two election cycles during their campaign, promised they were going to have a billion dollars for infrastructure and resolve what needs to be resolved to get the Ring of Fire going,” MPP Gilles Bisson (NDP – Timmins-James Bay) told The Daily Press.

“This time, there was no mention of it and I think that’s kind of significant because it’s not even a placeholder anymore. It’s like they’ve given up on that and used the billion dollars that they would have earmarked for the Ring of Fire and put it in other places where they are trying to shore up their political support, mainly in the downtown Toronto area or the GTA.”

MPP Vic Fedeli (PC – Nipissing), in a statement, said it was a “serious shock to see that this year’s budget removed all mention of the Ring of Fire. After three years of promises, the Wynne government has completely abandoned this critical mining project.

“The budget takes a massive cut of $70 million out of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. The ministry helps to establish mining operations all over Northern Ontario, creating good well-paying jobs that help to grow our Northern economy — obviously not a concern of this government.”

This sentiment was denied, however, by one of the Liberal’s Northern MPPs, Glenn Thibeault, who is also the Minister of Energy.

Thibeault (Liberal – Sudbury) told The Daily Press the opposition is “poking holes” merely on the fact “we didn’t put a line in our budget about our continued, ongoing support for the Ring of Fire.”

Thibeault said, “We are fully committed as a government to the Ring of Fire, and our commitment has not charged. It remains the exact same. And even though it is not mentioned in the budget, we are going to continue to work hard to ensure that we get the Ring of Fire operational.”

The Timmins Chamber of Commerce’s assessment of the budget was mixed.

While praising the government for increasing the Connecting Link funding program to $30 million, Christine Bender, president of the Timmins Chamber, in a release, stated the amount “remains insufficient” for communities’ needs.

“This fund assists the 77 municipalities to which the province has downloaded the responsibility of maintaining 350 kilometres of Connecting Links – portions of provincial highways traveling through municipalities,” she wrote. “The cost to repair Timmins’ 21.2 kilometres of Connecting Link is estimated at roughly $120 million” which is four times the total budget allocated by the province.

“There are some elements of the 2017 budget that stand to have some positive impact on Timmins businesses, but what's not included is a much greater issue,” Bender added. “Namely, energy rates continue to be among our members' largest concerns, and while previously announced measures to reduce those rates through the Fair Hydro Plan are certainly appreciated, much more needs to be done.”

Another omission that concerned Bender was the “budget’s lack of specific measures to clarify the use of cap and trade revenues is unfortunate, as these costs represent a major challenge to Timmins businesses’ competitiveness.”

Overall, Bisson suggested the Liberals’ budget on Thursday was an exercise in damage control.

“This is very much an election budget,” the MPP said. “The government is very unpopular. A lot of things they’ve done in health care by flat lining hospital budgets for 10 years have affected places like Timmins and District Hospital or Sensenbrenner here in Kap.

“Hospitals have been trying to manage with a never-increasing budget while faced with an always-increasing demand. It’s been hard. There have been people let go, there has been layoffs, it’s been more difficult for people to get services.

“The government knows there have been problems. They know there is going to be an election in a year, so they had to announce something. What they announced is not a bad thing a 3% increase to the base budget (for hospitals) but I think people need to realize what this is all about. This is really about the government who for the last 14 years have caused a problem and are now going into an election cycle trying to look like they can fix the problem.”