Ottawa, Ontario sign deal cutting regulatory overlap for Ring of Fire projects

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is in Ottawa on Thursday at 10:45 a.m. announcing a co-operative deal with the federal government involving the development of northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire.

The deal is meant to speed up approval for projects under a model called “one project, one deal, one decision.”

This would make projects, that would have previously been subject to environmental assessments at both levels of government, to go through Ontario’s process alone.

The agreement also essentially sets a deadline of June 2026 for the federal impact assessment agency to complete their reviews of roads going to planned Ring of Fire mining projects.

Webequie First Nation and Marten Falls First Nation are leading environmental assessments on roads connecting the highway to their communities and mining projects in northern Ontario.

Despite these two First Nations communities saying the roads will help lift the exclusively fly-in communities out of poverty, other First Nations in the area are not as keen to jump on board.

Both the provincial and federal government see the Ring of Fire as a major driver of the economy as it is home to massive critical mineral deposits.

With files from the Canadian Press. 

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