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Harper, NDP candidates trade jabs over mining

On a campaign swing in North Bay on Wednesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced he would extend a tax mining tax credit to include projects such as the Ring of Fire.
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Cutline: On a campaign swing in North Bay on Wednesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced he would extend a tax mining tax credit to include projects such as the Ring of Fire. File photo.
On a campaign swing in North Bay on Wednesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced he would extend a tax mining tax credit to include projects such as the Ring of Fire.

According to a release from the Conservatives, the existing Mineral Exploration Tax Credit was introduced in 2006 and has helped mining companies raise more than $5.5 billion for exploration.

“A re-elected Harper government will extend the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit for three years to continue to support mining exploration and investment,” the release said.

“Prime Minister Harper also announced an enhanced Mineral Exploration Tax Credit for Northern and remote projects to help support potential mines that face higher costs because of their remote location and distance from transportation routes.”

“With this enhanced credit, companies and communities will be able to move forward with more potentially game-changing mining projects in remote parts of the country,” Harper said in the release.

In a video posted to YouTube, the prime minister said his government's support shows they are committed to economic development for all Canadians.

“Unlike our opponents, our party will continue to stand up for the interests of Canada's rural and Northern communities,” Harper said.

He accused Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau of opposing “a number of critical projects that would develop our resources responsibly and create jobs.

“He simply doesn’t recognize the importance of responsible natural resource development to Canada’s economy and isn’t capable of managing Canada’s $1.9 trillion economy.”

And he said Thomas Mulcair and the NDP oppose resource development “for ideological reasons.

“When it comes to resource development, Mulcair stands with anti-development activists who want to halt all development no matter the consequences. The NDP’s economic policies would kill jobs and hurt Canada’s rural and Northern communities.”

In response, Northern Ontario NDP candidates Claude Gravelle (Nickel Belt) and Howard Hampton (Kenora) accused Harper of failing to support mining jobs in the region.

“It’s pretty rich for Mr. Harper to come to Northern Ontario and pretend he supports mining jobs after he has so badly mishandled the Ring of Fire,”

Hampton said in a news release. “The Conservative failure to support infrastructure in our region has cost billions of dollars of investment and thousands of potential jobs for Northern Ontarians.”

The Ring of Fire has stalled because of the federal Conservatives’ failure to work with other governments, the release said.

“The Conservatives claim of helping ‘hard to reach’ mines is laughable – many of these mines are hard-to-reach because their government has failed to invest in infrastructure in Northern Ontario,” Gravelle said in the release.

“This is a project that will benefit our region for generations to come. The government must sit down with First Nations, the province, and northern communities to get moving on the Ring of Fire.”

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