Neskantaga chief will only meet with Premier Doug Ford to discuss the Ring of Fire
Neskantaga Chief Chris Moonias said he’ll only deal with Ontario Premier Doug Ford when it comes to having a dialogue on the Ring of Fire.
“Well, I don’t have to write a letter to anybody,” said Moonias, during the hearing. Ford will have to come to him for a meeting. Proper consultation and accommodation, he said, happens “in the community, with the people” and that obligation is on the Ontario government, beginning with the premier. To date, he said, Ontario has not offered anything.
Mine and access road development in the mineral-rich Ring of Fire in the isolated James Bay region figures prominently in the government’s plans. Sol Mamakwa, MPP for Kiiwetinoong, representing Neskantaga and other Far North communities, said the provincial governments needs to do a better job of engaging with all the communities in the region, not just the ones closest to the site of development.
For Brennain Lloyd, project coordinator of Northwatch, a regional environmental group, that’s too much power and responsibility left in the hands of one person while reducing bureaucratic input. It will lead to a “politicization” of the process and “ad hoc decisionmaking.” “Erasure” of the position of the director of mines rehabilitation, Lloyd said, will only lead to more abandoned mines and the lack of environmental accountability in the future. Mines Minister Pirie has years of experience in mining, she said, but he is not a subject matter expert on baseline studies and closure plans. She asked the committee to “put the brakes on” these changes.
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