To access Ring of Fire, Ontario needs to build a road. Internal docs say it's years away

Global News

2 days ago

A major portion of the road to the Ring of Fire won't be ready to begin technical permitting and construction until at least 2028, internal government documents concede, in a potentially major delay for the province's high-priority plan.
A road to the mineral-rich Ring of Fire in northern Ontario is at the centre of the Ford government's economic strategy, relying on mining contracts to create jobs and prosperity in the face of tariffs from the United States.
It is also a key reason cited for the province's controversial Bill 5, which is likely to become law by the end of the week, despite protests and the threat of blockades from First Nations leaders.
The minerals Ontario wants to access in the Ring of Fire, which include copper, platinum, palladium and nickel, are buried in an area more than 300 km north of the province's existing highway network.
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In order to access them, the government will need to construct a massive series of new roads. Documents obtained by Global News using freedom of information laws show the government is currently a long way from achieving that.
A briefing binder written by civil servants for Minister of Energy and Mines Stephen Lecce this year lays out the plan to build a three-part road network to the Ring of Fire. The plan involves the Webequie Supply Road, the Northern Road Link and the Marten FAlls Community Access Road.
The documents show the 126-km northern link portion of the route won't finish its studies and assessments until the beginning of 2028, 'at the earliest.' Once the assessments are approved, technical permitting would then need to take place, followed by construction.
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A slide presented to Minister Stephen Lecce outlining the timelines for a road to the Ring of Fire. Global News
The Ford government has said it is frustrated with the current timeline to open mines and complete major projects, the justification it has offered for tabling Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act.
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That legislation allows for the creation of so-called Special Economic Zones, where cabinet would be allowed to exempt projects from a variety of environmental and potentially labour laws. Those zones, the government argued, are necessary to speed up projects.
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In order to get closer to creating those areas, and in turn to speed up projects, the government said it is bypassing some debate and fast-tracking the proposed legislation.
Ontario NDP MPP Jamie West said the fact that a road to the Ring of Fire can't currently begin construction for roughly three years suggests the mineral-rich area is not the reason for the law.
'Although Premier Ford continues to use the Ring of Fire as the main purpose for Bill 5, it's not a valid excuse for rushing it through the legislature,' Ontario NDP MPP Jamie West said in a statement.
'The Conservative government's own documents state that the Northern Link Road for the Ring of Fire can't begin construction until 2028.'
The government did not address whether it would consider designating the road to the Ring of Fire as a special economic zone to allow it to bypass parts of the assessment process and begin construction earlier.
While the province has said the Ring of Fire itself will eventually be designated, ministers have been keen to stress that decision won't be rushed.
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Last week, Minister of Indigenous Affairs and First Nations Economic Reconciliation of Ontario Greg Rickford said it was too early to discuss what would be designated as a special economic zone.
'We're not talking about the designation of an economic zone at this point,' he told reporters on May 28. 'I don't think it adds anything right now to speculate on anything.'
Lecce, whose briefing binder contains the warning that the road is years away from beginning construction, said the powers wouldn't be used until consultation was complete.
'We're also committing to not utilizing the authority of the special economic zones, for example, in the Ring of Fire until we've consulted; that's an important process that's been raised from the communities,' Lecce said, also on May 28, speaking alongside Rickford.
'The regulatory process allows us to literally assess the nature of how we develop legislation, get out there, launch a public transparency opportunity for feedback and for governments to take those perspectives.'
The internal government documents show just how long the process of developing a road to the Ring of Fire has been. Work on the three-part road began in 2018, with final submission of the environmental assessments for one part in 2026 and the other in 2028.
The government did not answer questions about the timeline or whether Bill 5 could be used to speed up — or entirely bypass — the assessment process for the road.
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Last Friday, Ford suggested the Ring of Fire, along with Highway 401 and nuclear power generation stations, could be designated.
West and the NDP contend the three-year lead time for construction of a road — which must be done before minerals can be extracted from the area at any scale — shows Bill 5 has not been introduced to access the area.
'Bill 5 isn't about getting shovels in the ground. It's not about supporting mining or economic growth in the North,' West said.
'If it was, we'd see real consultation with Indigenous communities and local workers, not more behind-closed-doors decisions. This Bill is all about sweeping powers to sidestep protections and silence opposition. It has nothing to do with building up the North and everything to do with helping Ford's friends get their way.'