Ontario needs a plan for its Far North beyond just the Ring of Fire and the Matawa First Nations nearby, says Bob Rae.
Rae, the former NDP premier and Liberal MP, currently works as an advisor to the Matawa tribal council in negotiations with the provincial government regarding mining development in the Ring of Fire, about 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay. Rae talked about those negotiations Oct. 16 as the keynote dinner speaker at the Mining Ready Summit in Timmins, hosted by the Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund. But he also shared a broader perspective on development in the North and “the underlying issues that we have to deal with.”
Partway into his speech, Rae looked behind at a backdrop bearing the name of the event: Mining Ready Summit. “We’ve got to ask ourselves the question, ‘Are communities really ready?’ ” he said. “Or when we look at ourselves honestly, don’t we have to recognize that we have significant challenges.”
Rae listed some of those challenges in the region’s remote First Nations: “significant problems with respect to health care;” “significant issues with making sure people are ready to get trained to take advantage of the opportunites;” isolation and the resulting high cost of living; poor quality of housing and other factors that have created “public health issues that you see on every reserve that we shouldn’t be seeing in our communities in Canada.”
These issues can be dealt with and solved, Rae said.
For example, for the five Matawa First Nations and dozens of other First Nations in northern Ontario that don’t have year-round road access, “It seems to me the province needs to make a decision to say ‘We’re going to do something about that over a period of time,’ ” advised Rae.
“Some communities can be hooked up fairly quickly to existing forestry road structures, and we’re not talking about the Trans-Canada Highway here, folks. We’re talking about making progress, human footsteps, because with the breakdown of isolation suddenly comes food that is more affordable … (and) people are hooked up to a grid that is going to provide for reliable electrical supply.”
Matawa is working on a plan for “partnership discussion” with the Ontario government to make sure quality of life in Matawa communities significantly improves, Rae said.
“And then of course … the first reaction of any neighbouring community will be ‘What about us?’ My answer to that is, ‘Well, the province needs a plan for that.’ The province needs a plan for the North that understands this is where the frontier of development has now moved, and it’s going to keep moving further and further north. And it’s going to require a vision of the province that includes everyone.”
Improvements to quality of life in First Nations should proceed no matter what the timing of various mining activities – timing that is hard to control or predict, said Rae.
While encouraging everyone in the North to continue to show confidence in the potential of development in the Ring of Fire, Rae said there also has to be recognition that mining companies make decisions largely based on market conditions. It’s a topic that came up at his dinner table in conversation with Mayor Tom Laughren of Timmins – “how there were mines that were closed in the ’80s because they were not economic that re-opened 20 years later because suddenly they became economic.”
When development doesn’t move ahead, “A lot of times people will say it’s the government’s fault or it’s this person’s fault or that person’s fault,” he added. “Usually it’s the market’s fault because conditions changed that we can’t control.
“We can’t necessarily affect what the international market for chromium is going to be. We can’t tell you what the price of nickel is going to be in two or three or five years.”
So, focus on the things we can control, suggested Rae. “We need people to be better trained,” for example, “whether there’s a mine opening tomorrow or in five years or in 10 years. What we do know is that people need education.”
Development of the North, the new frontier, can’t be based on the old model for development, he said. “We need to create a new dialogue (for) a real partnership – a partnership about jobs …, a partnership about health, protecting the land … and yes, a partnership about self-government.”
Rae said he thinks governments and companies are ready for this conversation.
That leads to a challenge for First Nations, he said: “When somebody says ‘OK I have to consult you and I have to accommodate you,’ what are you going to say? What do you want?”
Rae envisions some of the hype surrounding the Ring of Fire becoming reality, over time – lots of jobs, wealth generation, resource and tax revenues, and sharing of the wealth. But for that to happen, “We have to start with the fundamentals of human development – real education, real opportunities for families, real improvements in the physical conditions of life …” he said.
“I’m a great optimist about the possibilities for the future. Not an optimist who says there will be a huge mine developed in the next three years and the money will pour out. I’m talking about an optimism of dignity, an optimism of hope, an optimism of a commitment to real partnership.
“We’ve still got a long way to go but I’m convinced we’re making the right steps.”