Column: Northerners want action on Ring of Fire

Northerners want action and real progress on the promising mega Ring of Fire project. We are fed up with government reannouncements of plans, hopes and meetings.

I am worried that is still the game now that I have reviewed the launch of the Ontario Ring of Fire Development Corporation with its clear slight to regional First Nations communities.

Not having First Nations communities on the development corporation from the get go is a big mistake. Business representatives and the federal government should be at the table too.

We need the corporation to reflect all the interests for the mining project if we are ever to break through this longstanding inertia gripping the Ring of Fire.

On the federal side, NDP opposition leader Tom Mulcair has voiced his support for Ring of Fire done in a way that supports sustainable development. He is committed to nation to nation collaboration with First Nations communities, a collaboration built on their consent rather than mere consultation.

The NDP supports too that all resource processing from the Ring of Fire project be carried out as much as possible in Northern Ontario and elsewhere in Ontario.

I have said before that the politics between Ottawa and Ontario’s Queens Park has snared substantial progress for the Ring of Fire.

With the Ontario election over, I had hoped we could now move forward. The danger lies in more politics with a fall 2015 federal election on the horizon.

We have the opportunity to get a lot accomplished in the next several months.

We need all the key players on the Development Corporation. We need to focus on a specific, first phase infrastructure commitment of governments.

Rather than a century-long game plan, we need to assess how to get started for the first five to 10 years in a way that lays the foundation for the long term.

Claude Gravelle is the New Democrat MP for Nickel Belt.