Page 78 sidered That is very important Mulder said It always has been especially with the Supreme Court of Canada deci sion a week or so ago that adopted a broad approach to Aboriginal title and granted title to more than 1750 square kilometres of land to T s ilhqotin First Nation in British Columbia Mulder said the environmental plans for the Ring of Fire have to be sorted out and rules established and the roy alty plans have to be established as well Mulder s commentary on his Ring of Fire infrastructure authority model was released on June 17 It is avail able online This alternative model would in volve creating an independent rep resentative and arm s length statutory Ring of Fire infrastructure authority Mulder said at the time All parties would have formal representation on the board and the board not govern ment would plan and procure facili ties and services for road rail power and air while sharing costs and risks with the private sector Mulder s commentary stated that his Ring of Fire infrastructure authority model would place the onus and risks provincial government and taxpayers Because of the uniqueness of the Ring of Fire development and its many challenges there will be an inevitable need to make changes in the transpor tation authority model Mulder said in the commentary Nonetheless its main elements independence inclu siveness risk sharing marketdriven political independence legislated le gally binding powers would all be practical and essential The New Deal for the North was born out of drive to save the Ontario Northland T r ansportation Commis sion ONTC The need for a new and revitalized ONTC came to the forefront when the provincial government announced its decision to divest the commission in March 2012 The General Chairperson s Associa tion representing ONTC s unionized employees decided that it needed to take action to maintain transportation in Ontario s North Many people representing dif f er ent key stakeholders got involved Discussions with First Nations com munities in the James Bay Lowlands have been ongoing since mid April 2012 In August Roy Hains was ap proached by a former government Corporation CCC a claim holder in the mineralrich Ring of Fire CCC had already secured a right of way for a rail line to the Ring of Fire and was Meetings have also been held with federal government representatives and the mayors of communities throughout Northeastern Ontario among others Or ganizers have created a Ports Au step to establishing the James Bay Lowlands Ports Authority under the Canada Marine Act ONTC s opera tions and the new Ring of Fire line would be operated by the Ports Au thority As for cooperation the New volvement of numerous stakeholders including First Nations communities the unions representing ONTC em ployees Northern Ontario communi ties NipissingT imiskaming MP Jay Aspin and mining and other business interests The provincial government was in vited to participate The key to the New Deal is the well accepted principle of public owner ship of national assets Infrastructure assets of this nature are best suited to some form of pub lic ownership Throughout Canada s history the public sector has always played a key role in delivering sig opment in lar ge sparsely populated regions of the country This axiom ap plies directly to the region now served by ONTC and to the Ring of Fire A ports authority is also the best struc ture to ensure that the rights needs and aspirations of the First Nations communities in the areas now served by ONTC and in the Ring of Fire will be fully respected Act match closely with the goals of the New Deal for Northern Ontario New Deal supporters ar gue that rail is by far the most economic and envi ronmentally friendly solution to ship thousands of tons per day of chromite products to markets around the world Given the huge volumes of material that will be shipped over many de cades plus the region s challenging terrain and climate only a rail solu tion makes sense Moreover key elements needed to build a new rail line are already in place Chief Peter Moonias of the Neskanta Contd from pg 77 Contd on pg 79 Rail favour e d for Ring