Ring of Fire needs to benefit all: Gravelle

First Nations and environmental organizations are questioning the rapid pace of development in the Ring of Fire.
Marten Falls Chief Eli Moonias brought up concerns that the Ring of Fire railway corridor study will jeopardize his community’s plans to build an access road.
“We didn’t want the (railroad) study they are doing to jeopardize our own corridor work because in the end the government is going to approve only one corridor,” Moonias said. “If (Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Minister Michael) Gravelle is going to build this railroad tomorrow, there is no way they are going to build our access road because Gravelle’s railroad will have precedence.”
While Marten Falls had been planning to build an access road directly to their community, Moonias said the currently planned railroad corridor will pass his community by about 80 kilometres to the west.
Environmental groups have also raised concerns about the rapid pace of development in the Ring of Fire in a July 14 press release.
“Right now activities are pre-empting planning and pre-determining a path of development without First Nations and without full consideration of ecological values,” said Anne Bell, Ontario Nature’s senior director of conservation and education.
Bell and four other environmental group representatives questioned why the Ontario government is not implementing Premier Dalton McGuinty’s promise to put proper land use planning before development in the Far North, as mining claims have more than doubled in the Far North over the past three years.
“This is what the Klondike gold rush looked like,” said Dr. Rick Smith, Environmental Defence’s executive director.
Gravelle said the provincial government is currently in the process of hiring a Ring of Fire co-ordinator to bring together all the parties involved to move the project forward.
“Our government very much supports the fact that for this project to move forward, for us be able to take advantage of the many opportunities that will be there if the Ring of Fire development goes ahead, this needs to benefit everyone and it certainly needs to benefit the First Nation communities that will be most specifically impacted by the development,” Gravelle said.
Gravelle indicated under the best-case scenario, the Ring of Fire mining development may begin in five years, but it may take much longer than five years.
“We want to be able to work in a very co-operative positive fashion,” Gravelle said. “This is going to take some time, there is no question about it. There have been no decisions made in terms of a number of the important elements.”
Gravelle said the development process is extremely complicated and requires a great deal of work.
“We certainly treat it as a very real priority in terms of the government of Ontario Open Ontario plan,” Gravelle said. “We are recognizing this as perhaps one of the greatest opportunities we have seen in terms of economic development in the province in maybe the last 100 years, so there is no doubt it must be done correctly, it must be done right.”
Gravelle said the provincial government is very committed to the Ring of Fire project because it would provide “enormous opportunities for jobs and a real economically developed future” for many of northern Ontario’s communities.
“This is being compared to being as big a discovery as the discovery of nickel in the Sudbury basin,” Gravelle said.
“I’m not sure if that is exactly accurate, but that is certainly what the people who understand the size of this deposit are certainly saying it is on that scale.”