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However, unjustified opposition from environmentalists, complicated First Nations politics and incompetent provincial bureaucrats stand in the way
The isolated, nickel-rich Ring of Fire, located 550 km northeast of Thunder Bay, is the centerpiece of Ontario’s Critical Mineral Strategy. Discovered in 2007, this developing mining camp is going to save southern Ontario’s auto sector.
Automobiles and associated parts are Ontario’s largest exports and second largest nationally, after the oil sector. Over the past century, hundreds of thousands of middle-class jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars in manufacturing activity have established the province as Canada’s economic powerhouse.
The move from gas-powered engines to electric vehicles – one of the largest industrial transitions in North American history – must occur in record time if we are going to arrest climate change. However, this conversion cannot happen without an enormous increase in nickel, copper, lithium and other critical minerals that are used in the manufacturing of electric vehicles.
Auto sector analysts have estimated that half a trillion dollars will be invested in new EV and battery plants around the world by 2030 and Ontario needs to ensure that the province attracts its fair share if our continued prosperity is going to last.
Make no mistake, federal and provincial politicians are meeting with corporate executives around the world to ensure that many of those new investments will be in southern Ontario’s auto-dependent communities and the proverbial “ace up their sleeve is guaranteed access to the geopolitically secure critical minerals in the Ring of Fire and other potential deposits across the province’s geologically rich north. Even the American military is now interested in funding mining projects in Ontario and across the country.
For the rest of this article: https://www.thesudburystar.com/opinion/columnists/accent-northern-ontarios-ring-of-fire-can-save-provinces-auto-sector