Ottawa’s interim plan to regulate large resource projects causing confusion for Ring of Fire stakeholders

The federal government’s plan to continue to regulate major resource projects despite a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that says those powers are largely unconstitutional is creating confusion and uncertainty in Ontario’s Ring of Fire.

This week the federal government reiterated that because of the ruling, it intends to introduce legislation to change the 2019 Impact Assessment Act that will limit its oversight over resource projects. But Ottawa has not provided details on when that will happen and what the new regime will look like.

Marten Falls, a remote First Nations community located 430 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, is involved in two proposals – leading one of the studies on a road project in the Ring of Fire corridor and co-leading another with Webequie First Nation.The division of regulatory powers between the federal and provincial governments over the Ring of Fire “has to be clarified,” Marten Falls Chief Bruce Achneepineskum said in an interview.

Amid confusion over whether some of the bureaucracy was even needed in the first place, Mr. Achneepineskum stressed the importance of timeliness around a massive resource project that could bring significant economic benefits to the community. The federal government, however, is not backing down. Steven Guilbeault, the federal Environment Minister, said in a news conference on Thursday that the Ring of Fire is “clearly a federal area of jurisdiction,” as he vowed to assert Ottawa’s powers, particularly when it comes toOntario’s legal moves, he said, are a “waste of time,” and something that “will only delay the approval of these projects.

Earlier this week, Ottawa said it was pausing the environment minister’s power on new designated projects, but stopped short of saying it would do so permanently. Instead, the government said that consideration of new designated-project requests could potentially resume once amended legislation is in place.

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