Northern Ontario’s First Nations Voice: http://wawataynews.ca/
The environmental organization CPAWS Wildlands League is hoping pressure from people across Canada will convince the Ontario government to refocus its involvement in the Ring of Fire.
CPAWS kicked off its latest campaign in Toronto in September with a series of media advertisements geared at the Ring of Fire.
The goal is to convince Ontario to create a regional plan for development in northern Ontario’s mining sector, said CPAWS spokesperson Anna Baggio.
“For many years now we’ve been hoping (the government) would do some sort of regional planning in regards to the Ring of Fire,” Baggio said. “We’re very worried – I don’t think they have a plan for the region. Instead, the development is happening in a piecemeal way, where everyone’s got their own little part of it.”
Baggio said CPAWS is concerned that ecosystems are being put at risk, endangered species like woodland caribou are being ignored and First Nations communities are being left on the sidelines as the government pushes forward with the massive mining development.
She said that the advertising campaign will spread from Toronto to other Ontario cities and eventually across Canada.
“We want concerned Canadians to send letters to Ontario, to get the government’s attention,” Baggio said.
“There are some big issues around the Ring of Fire that need to be talked about, some big things at stake,” she added. “We’re frustrated because we know public money is going to go into this, yet the decisions being made are all shrouded in secrecy. It seems like only Cliffs and Ontario are making decisions.”