Canada has a problem, nowadays, in getting Big Things Done
The “Ring of Fire” mining project is in the news again. And it’s looking eerily familiar to the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline project, which went through interminable on-again-off-again cycles of regulatory approvals and delays before the company that proposed the project withdrew and the federal government purchased the project. The pipeline is now being (slowly) completed at a wildly inflated cost.
The Ring of Fire is an area in northern Ontario some 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, covering 5,000 square kilometres. The Ontario government’s website lists five metals (including chromite and nickel), which are plentiful in the area and of potential use in making good on the federal government’s plans to “transition” Canadians into battery-electric vehicles.
According to the Ontario government, the metals and minerals in the area could be worth a trillion dollars, though Wyloo Metals, the company currently holding the majority of mining claims in the area, puts the estimated value at one-tenth as much.
Still, that’s not chump change, and as mentioned, Canada will need all the minerals it can get for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s electric car dreams to come close to fruition. Remember, Ottawa wants 35% of all new medium- and heavy-duty vehicle sales to be “zero-emission” vehicles by 2030 (from a 2021 level of 5.3%. Yes, only seven years from now.
For the rest of this column: https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-red-tape-may-strangle-natural-resource-opportunity