Page 46 If Ontario is now Open For Business By Kevin V incent premier says yes Ontario s does it include mining The pendulum of Ontario politics is swinging in a direction it hasnt seen for more than a decade and a half and the resource sector is keep ing a close eye on its momentum The 2018 election of a Conserva tive government led by Doug Ford put the brakes on what many in the mining and exploration sector feel was a race to investment obscurity In an exclusive interview with Min ing Life and Exploration News pre mier Ford is adamant that the Ring of Fire is a priority for his govern ment W e continue to move for ward on the Ring of Fire he said Signifcant progress has been made including the environmental assessment led by two First Na tions Ford raised eyebrows during the 2018 election campaign when he suggested he would hop on a bull dozer himself to kickstart the proj ect Under successive Liberal govern ments Ontario s reputation as an attractive jurisdiction to conduct re sourcebased enterprise especial ly mining dwindled horrendously Premier Ford instructed govern ment bureaucrats to reverse the trend At PDAC Prospectors and Developers Association annual conference this year our govern ment announced a mining working group made up of sector leaders to help guide our government in reduc ing red tape in mining and help more projects get of the ground W e are excited about the important work of this group and their recommenda tions moving forward Ford said In its April budget the Ford govern ment laid out a number of initiatives that it hopes will restore Ontario as one of the world s premiere mining jurisdictions Even before the budget was unveiled the government took aim at the Far North Act FNA implemented by the Liberal government in 2010 In February 2019 Finance Minister V ic Fedeli announced that the FNA would undergo a 45day consultation period And while indigenous lead ers have yet to come to any specifc agreements or terms with the new Conservative government they too have been critical of the FNA Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler has stated publicly that he welcomes another look at the leg islation as it was enacted without meaningful consultation He said it overlaps and in some cases threat ens longstanding treaty rights The Ontario Prospectors Associa tion believes the implementation of components of the FNA were lacking a full scientifc review and justifcation when the context of economicsocial realities The determination that 50 of the Far North be protected lands efec tively parks did not adequately take into consideration of the lands required for potential eco nomic development wrote OP A Executive Director Garry Clark in a letter to the program manager of the Ministry of Natural Re sources and Forestry Sterilization of lands is poor sighted whereas multiuse or en hanced management designa tions allow the development of assets and infrastructure as re quired he added The OP A further stated it endors es the repeal of the Far North Act and the examination to de termine if it should be placed into the Public Lands Act by way of amendment On other fronts when it comes to mining Fedeli s frst budget an nounced what it calls historic in vestments in Northern Ontario s mining and forestry sectors Along with those investments the Ford government created a spe