Northern Development Minister Greg Rickford is hoping to begin consultations in the New Year, so the province can offer resource revenue sharing to municipalities, as well as First Nations.

"We hope to be in a position through a more formal consultation within the next year that will have a resource revenue sharing program for all of the municipalities and Indigenous communities currently not under a resource revenue sharing agreement," said the minister.

"Resource revenue should stay home, here. Trucks going up and down our highways with logs are hard on them (roads). Infrastructure should prioritize to support some of those local operations, and I hope to have that program up and running in about a year," he added.

The province is expected to distribute $20 million to $30 million a year through resource revenue sharing for mining, forestry, aggregates and possibly other sources.

Queen's Park started resource revenue sharing with Treaty 3 in the fall, and Grand Chief Francis Kavanaugh sees it as an important and practical aspect of reconciliation.

For more information:

Ontario - Resource revenue sharing

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