https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
More than 16 years have passed since a small mining company discovered a rich nickel deposit in a remote part of northern Ontario and christened the region with a name that has stuck: the Ring of Fire.
Successive governments and companies have touted the potential of the region, entranced by optimistic estimates of tens of billions of dollars of minerals – including those critical to electric vehicle battery production – buried in the wetlands.
In the early 2010s, Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government promoted the Ring of Fire as a means to jump-start Ontario’s economy. Today, Premier Doug Ford has identified the region’s critical minerals as a vital component of his government’s plan to build an EV manufacturing industry. The Premier has been saying since 2018 he’s ready to hop on a bulldozer to get development moving. But all this talk has yielded no decisions.
The promise of prosperity for Ontario, and much-needed economic benefits to the First Nations who live in the Ring of Fire area, remains on the distant horizon.
For the rest of this editorial: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-end-the-runaround-on-the-ring-of-fire/