Government Foot Dragging Endangers Ring of Fire Future: NDP

QUEEN’S PARK – NDP Northern Development and Mines Critic Michael Mantha says the government is trumpeting non-announcements about the Ring of Fire in an attempt to hide years of mismanagement.

  “In November of last year, after Cliffs announced it would stop operations in the Ring of Fire, the minister hastily announced the creation of the development corporation,” explained Mantha during question period this morning. “Last Friday, the ministry announced that it had hired consulting firm Deloitte to set up a development corporation - the same ‘development corporation’ that had already been announced three months prior.”   Attempts by Ontario’s New Democrats to access information about the new development corporation have been called ‘premature’ by the Liberal government. The federal government is facing similar difficulty getting information about the corporation. Mantha, the MPP for Algoma-Manitoulin, is worried that the development corporation is a smokescreen to disguise lack of concrete action on the Ring of Fire.   “For the past three years, the NDP has been calling on the government to take a leadership role in creating a real plan that will benefit job creation in the province,” said Mantha. “Hiring Deloitte is an admission that the government never had a plan for Ring of Fire development in the first place.”   Mantha says the time has come for the government to start taking real action to develop the Ring of Fire before the opportunity is lost.   “How much is Deloitte getting paid to come up with a project that the Liberal government already announced it had created?” asked Mantha. “Will this government stop giving out consulting contracts to outside firms and do its job by coming up with a serious plan for Ring of Fire development instead of wasting another 5 years?”