NEWS RELEASE: Vic Fedeli, Ontario MPP, Nipissing – FAR NORTH REPEAL ACT DEFEATED

March 22, 2012

QUEEN’S PARK – Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli is extremely disappointed at defeat of Bill 44, the Far North Repeal Act, in the Ontario Legislature today.

The Private Members’ Bill put forward by PC Northern Development and Mines Critic Norm Miller (Parry Sound-Muskoka) would have removed the severe restrictions previously placed on development and exploration by the McGuinty government. However, Liberal and NDP members joined to defeat the Bill by a vote of 50-36 on Second Reading.

“I’m most upset that the NDP members across the North, many of whom have previously spoken out against the Far North Act in the past, decided to toe the party line instead of standing up for their constituents and voted against this,” Fedeli said.

“You really have to wonder how much influence these Northern members actually have in driving their party’s agenda.”

Fedeli has been outspoken in his opposition to the Far North Act, noting that it puts 225,000 square kilometres of Northern wilderness off limits to future development.

“Bureaucrats in Toronto basically determined which areas would become protected and no longer available for exploration with little or no consultation of Northern or First Nations residents,” Fedeli said. 

“If this law had been in place a few years earlier, the massive Ring of Fire mining deposit would never have been discovered,” added Fedeli.

“The question has to be asked and answered – what are we NOT discovering this week, this month, or this year — all because of the Far North Act?”

For more information, or to arrange an interview, contact

Clint Thomas
Executive Assistant
(416) 325-3434 or (416) 710-1752