https://www.pentictonherald.ca/
Despite years of public outcry and widespread criticism from experts and advocates over weakened conservation laws, the Ford government doubled down on its first day back in power — vowing to slash environmental oversight to fast-track mineral and infrastructure projects.
Critics warn the plan will gut crucial environmental reviews, provoke legal battles, spark First Nations resistance and further weaken protections already under strain.
In the Speech from the Throne, the Ford government promised ‘significantly streamlined permitting and approvals’ for critical mineral extraction
QUEEN’S PARK — The Ontario government plans to introduce legislation allowing it to designate areas containing critical mineral deposits, including the Ring of Fire, as regions of strategic importance.The commitment was made in the Speech from the Throne opening the new session of the legislature on Tuesday.
The government said the legislation will give it the authority to support the province’s economy and security interests by offering “significantly streamlined permitting and approvals” to developers that meet high operating, safety and environmental standards. It also promised the constitutional duty to consult with First Nations will be met.
For the entire Ontario Speech From the Throne: https://surl.lu/gehpki
Ring of Fire Excerpts:
This includes Ontario’s vast supply of critical minerals.
The frontline in Canada’s battle against President Trump’s economic threats rests in the Ring of Fire. Covering approximately 5,000 square kilometers, the Ring of Fire contains the most promising mineral development opportunities in the world, representing billions in economic potential. The region includes reserves of chromite, copper, cobalt, nickel, platinum and every other mineral necessary for the growth of advanced economies.
As Ontario and Canada confront the challenge of President Trump’s economic disruption, there’s no better point of leverage on the world stage. Simply put, Ontario has the minerals the world needs.
To effectively seize this opportunity, however, we need to get our critical minerals out of the ground, processed and shipped to the factory floors, building for the future.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The Ontario government is pledging to shore up the province in the face of the threat of U.S. tariffs by taking down barriers to interprovincial trade, speeding up approvals for new mines in the Northern Ring of Fire region – and doubling down on a promise to build a lengthy and costly tunnel under the Toronto-area stretch of Highway 401.
In its Throne Speech, the Progressive Conservative government of Premier Doug Ford laid out its priorities after winning its third straight majority in the Feb. 27 election, saying its first two new pieces of legislation would lower Ontario’s interprovincial trade barriers and allow the designation of the Ring of Fire as a region of “strategic importance to the province’s economy and security interests.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The federal Conservatives and Liberals are in a bidding war to cut red tape for major resource projects that will help Canada weather the economic storms brought by the U.S. tariff war.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre have both promised to fast-track approval processes: Mr. Carney says regulatory reviews for projects should take no more than two years, while Mr. Poilievre says he would set a maximum of one year.
https://www.northernminer.com/
Mining investments make up nearly all the resource projects Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre would approve within a year if elected Canadian Prime Minister this month. Campaigning in British Columbia on Monday for the April 28 election, Poilievre said he would start a “one-and-done” approvals process to accelerate 10 projects. These would need one application and one environmental review, he said.
His list includes NexGen Energy’s Rook 1 uranium project in Saskatchewan, and several in Ontario: First Mining Gold’s Springpole project, Agnico Eagle Mines’ Upper Beaver underground gold and copper mine and roads to access Wyloo Metal’s Ring of Fire project.
An aggressive, dig-baby-dig attitude to extraction will benefit the minerals sector
In 2021, the federal government established an official list of 34 critical minerals and metals—including nickel, cobalt, copper and lithium—that are essential to Canada’s economic security and our role in global supply chains.
They’re found in almost every province and territory and used in products like smartphones, photovoltaic cells, semiconductors and electric vehicles. Their extraction is the missing link in Canada’s multi-billion-dollar investment in EV battery plants: the whole idea is for Canada itself to supply those critical minerals, not import them.
Wyloo announced its vice-president of Indigenous enterprises, Glenn Nolan, will retire this year
Glenn Nolan, a respected leader with more than five decades of experience in Northern Ontario’s mining sector, is set to retire this year.
Australian Ring of Fire developer Wyloo made the announcement in a social media post on March 31, paying tribute to Nolan with a lengthy profile on its website outlining his many achievements and contributions to the sector.
The man tapped to lead an overhaul of Ontario’s potentially lucrative mining sector says critical minerals buried across the north represent vital “soft power leverage” against the United States. During a recent cabinet reshuffle, Ontario Premier Doug Ford added responsibility for mines to the portfolio of his existing energy minister.
Stephen Lecce, who was trusted by the premier to lead on the complicated education file for years before moving to energy, has now been told to overhaul Ontario’s mining system at speed. His mandate sits at the heart of Ford’s economic plan.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/
Seen from above, the road could be mistaken for a river or stream. Curving through boreal forest, its palette exists on a spectrum: some parts are white with snow; others dim with muted yellow or glistening blue. When the sun hits, it ceases to hold colour at all and is instead reflective, sending light from above right back to where it came.
The road is an overlapping Venn diagram of synthetic and natural: built from water, manipulated by machine, and at the mercy of weather patterns and temperatures — made increasingly erratic by climate change — even though some humans are utterly dependent upon it.
“The Americans are waking up to the reality that they are dependent on China for critical minerals, and they need an alternative,” Lecce said. “Ontario is the answer.”
A day before President Trump is poised to announce tariffs that experts say will harm the economy in both countries, Ontario’s Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce went to D.C. trying to position the province as Washington’s most reliable partner.
“The Americans are waking up to the reality that they are dependent on China for critical minerals, and they need an alternative,” Lecce said. “Ontario is the answer.” Minister Lecce attended the SAFE Summit in Washington, a meeting with the global leaders in energy, transportation and supply chain.
Sensing a potential change in tone from the next federal government as U.S. President Donald Trump slaps tariffs on Canada, the Ford government is ramping up its efforts to build a road to the Ring of Fire. Creating a way to mine the mineral-rich area in northern Ontario has been on Premier Doug Ford’s to-do list since he was elected for the first time in 2018, but little progress has been made.
Now, with a federal election in full swing, Ontario sees a potential opportunity to move its long-held ambitions forward. Prime Minister and Liberal Leader Mark Carney has said he wants to create a process for the federal government to support nation-building projects if he’s elected, with the Ring of Fire being one option.
Canada’s federal government will permit major infrastructure and mining projects with provincial and territorial approvals alone, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday evening after meeting with the country’s 13 premiers.
“We will eliminate federal duplicative requirements by recognizing provincial assessments for major projects, the so-called mutual recognition,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa. “So, one project, one review, and we will work with the provinces and other stakeholders, Indigenous groups, to identify projects of national significance and accelerate the time frame to build them.”
The Grits have mired the development of vast wealth in a bureaucratic nightmare. The Tories pledge to change that
A video posted by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Wednesday highlights one of Canada’s enduring problems: our chronic inability to get anything done and, by extension, our propensity to handicap our own economic prosperity.
In the video, and at a pre-campaign stop in Sudbury, Ont., Poilievre highlighted a story that should have sparked a modern-day gold rush. In 2007, prospectors found vast deposits of critical minerals — including chromite, which is used to produce stainless steel, cobalt, nickel, copper and platinum — in a remote part of northern Ontario, about 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, that came to be known as the “Ring of Fire.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/
Conservative leader’s ‘proposed shortcuts ignore our rights and our connection to the land’: Alvin Fiddler
Pierre Poilievre’s pledge on Wednesday that a Conservative government would fast-track development of the Ring of Fire has been criticized by Nishnawbe Aski Nation’s (NAN) grand chief, who accused the federal party leader of ignoring First Nations’ rights.
Alvin Fiddler was among those responding to Poilievre’s comments on the mineral-rich area of northwestern Ontario during his visit to Sudbury. NAN is a political organization representing 51 First Nation communities across Treaty 9 and Treaty 5 areas of northern Ontario.
