QUEEN’S PARK – In question period this morning, NDP Northern Development and Mines Critic Michael Mantha called on the Liberal government to make a plan for investing in and developing the Ring of Fire.
“This government has claimed for years to be lobbying Ottawa to match its $1-billion promise to invest in transportation corridor to the Ring of Fire development,” said Manta, MPP for Algoma-Manitoulin. “Yet Liberal Nickel Belt MP Marc Serré is quoted this week as saying that the feds can’t do anything until the province has a road plan, saying, ‘As of today I haven’t seen a road plan… It’s hard to invest on a blank piece of paper. We need a plan.’”
Mantha says inaction on the part of Kathleen Wynne’s government is threatening future investment in the project, and squandering a major resource development opportunity for the province.
“When you invest money to develop natural resources in the north, the entire province benefits from this investment. This Liberal government has been talking about the Ring of Fire for years, but you have nothing—nothing—to show for it,” said Mantha. “When is this government going to stop announcing development in the Ring of Fire and actually start developing the Ring of Fire?”
