The MPP for Nipissing says you can search high and low, but no matter how intensely you delve into last Thursday’s Ontario budget, you won’t find any mention of the Ring of Fire. The budget is nearly 300 pages long and Vic Fedeli says the Tories did an electronic search of the document looking for any sign of the chromite project. “There’s no mention of it,” he said. “It’s gone. The minister and others can say they’re still interested, but that’s nonsense.” Fedeli says from 2014 to 2016, the Wynne Liberals committed $1 billion toward the Ring of Fire. Although they never spent the money, they recommitted the funds for two years in a row. “This year there’s not a peep,” he said.
Fedeli says the Tories have always had a hard time pinning down Premier Kathleen Wynne on where she stands on the chromite discovery. “When we ask her during Question Period, her response is I was canoeing on the Attawapiskat River and then she says we have to protect the watershed. It’s never really about the mining or minerals and the wealth the Ring of Fire can create.” Fedeli isn’t sure why all references to the project were dropped. However he says it’s something the Progressive Conservatives will ask the Liberals about in Question Period in the coming weeks.
