Ring of Fire

Another $2 billion will support automotive manufacturing and investment in future vehicle production.

And an additional $1 billion in federal funding will help build roads into northern Ontario's mineral-rich Ring of Fire region.

These are multi-year investments, some building on existing funding programs, not immediate payments to workers.

The governments say their strategy is to protect Canadian manufacturing and reduce our dependence on the American market.

And that's the real challenge.

How do taxpayers know these billions will protect Canadian jobs rather than simply supporting and subsidizing these large corporations and failing manufacturing plants? On the screen is a PR Newswire article that indicates that there's also a longer term strategy behind this announcement.

Ottawa is committing up to $1 billion to help develop road infrastructure around northern Ontario's Ring of Fire mining region.

Ontario has already pledged matching funding.

As a scientist, I typically take the alternative view, which is the more you know, the better because you can make more informed decisions

One area that's of significant interest to developers is the so-called Ring of Fire, a crescent-shaped mineral deposit that sits right in the middle of the peatlands in the James Bay lowlands, just 500 kilometers northeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

There are over 40,000 mining claims in this area already because it's rich in minerals like chromite, copper, and nickel, all of which are critical for things like electric vehicle batteries and solar panels.

If you're going to affect the second largest peatland complex in the world, and your justification is that we're actually going to be saving the environment because these minerals are going to contribute to electric vehicles, then you've kind of, you've thrown out the baby with the bathwater.

People still travel on those rivers.

As far back as 2021, Indigenous communities in the James Bay and Hudson Bay lowlands have been speaking out against the development.

The Mushkegoek Council, which is a political organization made up of seven Cree communities in the region, even called for a suspension on development in the Ring of Fire until more comprehensive scientific studies were completed.

That same year, the Council teamed up with WWF Canada and McMaster University to measure and map peak carbon, producing some of the most detailed peak carbon maps ever made.