Sudbury MP to run again; says there's work to do

Paul Lefebvre has more goals he wants to accomplish, including progress on the Ring of Fire.

The Sudbury MP, elected for the first time in 2015, was recently acclaimed to run again for the Liberals in 2019.

Since September, Lefebvre has also been acting as parliamentary secretary to Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi, who has now tapped him to handle a file of major significance for both Sudbury and the region.

“The minister last week asked me to take the lead role from the Department of Natural Resources on the Ring of Fire,” the MP said Wednesday. “I’m very excited about that challenge because the Ring of Fire stands to help the economy in Northern Ontario and benefit so many individuals.”

While Ottawa has yet to match the $1 billion committed by the former Liberal government in Ontario for Ring of Fire infrastructure, Lefebvre said there is still an opportunity for a federal contribution.

“The federal government has always said we’re willing to entertain and certainly discuss with the province, and the Indigenous communities, how to move forward with the Ring of Fire,” he said. “At the bureaucratic level there is a lot of work being done already, but certainly I think our next step is how to move forward in the right way.”