TORONTO – The Ontario government has pledged $1 billion for infrastructure in the Ring of Fire and challenged the federal government to match it.
Ontario’s minister of northern development and mines, Michael Gravelle, told an audience in Thunder Bay, ON, “That is absolutely a commitment we expect will be matched by the federal government. We are coming to the table with our best offer and we need the Prime Minister and his team to join us there,” he added.
Ontario can apply for matching funds from the federal government through the new Building Canada fund.
The total cost of infrastructure – most importantly transportation – is expected to reach $2.5 billion. With infrastructure in place, at least five potential new long life mines could be developed. The Ring of Fire could become a base metal mining camp on the scale of the Sudbury Basin.
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