Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

 The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

“We’ve been blessed with some rich mineral deposits (in Ontario). There will be
some stops and starts (in the development), as is human nature,” he said. “If
you bring some good will to the table, it’s amazing what you can get done.”
(Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty – June 22, 2012 – Sudbury)

Premier Dalton McGuinty is determined to work through any complications that threaten Ring of Fire development, he said while at a Vale event in Sudbury. “We need to find a way to work through any differences,” he said. “It’s not an option not to find a way.”

McGuinty’s comments come after six northwestern Ontario First Nations communities threatened to prepare eviction notices for mining companies working in the Ring of Fire, a mineral-rich area located about 500 km northeast of Thunder Bay. These communities are demanding to be more involved in any decisions made in the area.

When asked if he is concerned about growing First Nations opposition to Ring of Fire development, McGuinty remained optimistic.

“We’ve been blessed with some rich mineral deposits (in Ontario). There will be some stops and starts (in the development), as is human nature,” he said. “If you bring some good will to the table, it’s amazing what you can get done.”

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Northwestern Ontario communities aim to stop development in the Ring of Fire until First Nations’ concerns are met. Six northwestern Ontario First Nations are preparing eviction notices for mining companies working in the Ring of Fire.
 
Aroland, Constance Lake, Ginoogaming , Long Lake 58, Neskantaga and Nibinamik plan to give the companies 30 days to cease all activity.
 
Neskantaga chief Peter Moonias said unless there are government-to-government negotiations over First Nations’ participation in the mining projects, the communities will evict what he calls the intruders on their lands. The chiefs have been calling for those negotiations for more than two years.
 
“Cliffs, Noront and all the other mining companies active in the Ring of Fire will have 30 days from the time the eviction notice is served to pack up their bags and leave our lands,” Chief Sonny Gagnon of Aroland First Nation said. His comments were echoed by Chief Johnny Yellowhead of Nibinamik First Nation.

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THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO, CANADA – JUNE 22, 2012: Six Northern Ontario First Nations who will be impacted by the proposed mines and infrastructure development in the Ring of Fire are in the final stages of issuing a 30-day eviction notice to all mining companies with exploration and development camps in the region. The forthcoming eviction notice for a moratorium on all Ring of Fire mining activity will come from the First Nation communities of Aroland, Constance Lake, Ginoogaming, Longlake #58, Neskantaga, and Nibinamik. Other First Nations in the area will also have the opportunity to sign on before it is distributed.

Chief Sonny Gagnon of Aroland First Nation said, “Cliffs, Noront and all the other mining companies active in the Ring of Fire will have thirty days from the time the eviction notice is served to pack up their bags and leave our lands.”

Chief Peter Moonias of Neskantaga First Nation said, “We are sending a strong message to Ontario and Canada that we need to negotiate a process for First Nation participation in the mining projects that will be changing our lives forever. Unless and until we have a table for government to government negotiations we will evict the intruders from our lands.”

Chief Johnny Yellowhead of Nibinamik First Nation said, “All the Memorandums of Cooperation in the world cannot hide the fact that there are no negotiations or agreements in place with Ontario and Canada to deliver First Nation decision making, a full and thorough regional environmental assessment with hearings in our communities and resource revenue sharing.

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Development of the Ring of Fire is moving far too fast for First Nations to adequately prepare, say the chiefs of two northern First Nations whose traditional lands overlap the proposed mining area.
 
Both Chief Eli Moonias of Marten Falls First Nation and Chief Cornelius Wabasse of Webequie First Nation say they are not against development, and they both want to ensure that First Nations benefit from any mining projects that do go ahead in their area.

But both agree that current pace of planning for the Ring of Fire, and the proposed schedule laid out by Cliffs Natural Resources for the first project in the region, does not give their communities time to prepare for the major changes facing them.
 
“I’d like to have time before everything starts so that we’re satisfied that we’re taking the right direction, so we’re not jumping to conclusions here,” Moonias said.

Marten Falls wants to further explore negotiations with the provincial government over resource revenue sharing, Moonias said. He also wants to see what happens with the judicial review of the environmental assessment, currently before the courts, before making any decisions on whether to support or oppose the proposed Ring of Fire projects.

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The chief of Neskantaga First Nation wants a government-to-government agreement for decision-making on matters concerning the Ring of Fire. Chief Peter Moonias wants to see the Ontario government and First Nations leaders sitting at the same table, talking to each other and creating an agreement on how to make decisions for resource development in the north.

“That’s what I want to see. That’s what’s needed up there or else we’re going to forever be doing this fighting all the time,” said Moonias.

The province has an obligation to consult with each First Nation and Moonias said he hasn’t been talked to by anyone from the government or any of the mining companies. He said speaking to just a few of the First Nations won’t work because one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to the Ring of Fire. Moonias also said they want an environmental assessment done before development begins.

“It has to happen whether people like it or not. The impacts on that thing is so great. I don’t think very many people know how serious that mine is going to be, how big that mine is going to be,” he said.

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 http://www.wawataynews.ca/

Neskantanga First Nation is stepping up efforts to block Cliffs’ proposed transportation corridor to the Ring of Fire. Last week the Mattawa First Nation launched a two-pronged attack on the 340-kilometer, all weather access road that Cliffs wants to run south from the Ring of Fire to Nakina.
 
With its first move, Neskantaga applied to an obscure Ontario mining court to decide whether the First Nation has rights to the land over which the corridor would be built.
 
Then on June 13 lawyers for Neskantaga issued a letter to Ontario’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Michael Chan, demanding that Ontario refrain from authorizing Cliffs to do archeological work on land the transportation corridor would be built on.
 
“The current road proposal encompasses areas used traditionally by Neskantaga members and ancestors, and in particular sites at which Neskantaga members are buried,” wrote Gregory McDade of Ratcliff and Company LLP in the letter to Chan.

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