SUDBURY — It’s been 15 years since metal deposits were found in the so-called Ring of Fire. Now, the planned mining development, which spans 5,000 square kilometres in northern Ontario, has entered a new phase — and a group of First Nations wants to make sure its concerns are front and centre.
The new phase includes a regional assessment, a federal process that considers the effect that mining could have on one of Ontario’s last undeveloped regions. Five neighbouring First Nations are demanding that the government “start afresh with a commitment to have the regional impact assessment mutually and equally co-developed and co-led and co-enforced by an Indigenous governing body … that we Indigenous Nations will develop.”
TVO.org breaks down what a regional assessment involves, what the First Nations are hoping to achieve, and what comes next.
What is the Ring of Fire?
The Ring of Fire, roughly 540 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, contains nickel, copper, chromite, and platinum. The mining firm Noront Resources owns 85 per cent of claims in the area. In its public documents, Noront states that the Ring of Fire “will become the next great mining district in Ontario” and that the Eagle’s Nest deposit alone could produce 3,000 tonnes of ore per day. Premier Doug Ford has touted its importance to developing the electric-vehicle industry in the province.
According to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce in 2015, the first 10 years of development could contribute $9.4 billion to the province’s gross domestic product.
The Ring of Fire is located roughly 540 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay. (TVO.org)
Several factors have delayed development in the Ring of Fire. It is difficult to move people and goods to and around the remote region; there are not yet roads to the Indigenous communities surrounding the Ring of Fire, let alone to the deposits themselves. The area involves environmental considerations, too: the deposits are near the James Bay lowlands, a globally significant carbon sink that stores an estimated 26 billion tonnes of carbon. The proposed mines are also near several communities from the Matawa Tribal Council and downriver from a number of Mushkegowuk Cree communities, which have raised concerns about potential water pollution.
What is a regional assessment?
According to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, regional assessments “assess the effects of existing or future physical activities carried out in a region.”
Most recently, an assessment was conducted off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador to study the impact of offshore oil drilling.
A November 2020 IAAC fact sheet states that the Ring of Fire assessment could gather existing scientific, technical, and cultural information and Indigenous knowledge; analyze the potential environmental and socio-economic impacts future development could cause; and identify potential mitigation measures. Each assessment begins with a draft agreement and terms of reference. The assessment itself is carried out by a committee. The IAAC states that “the Minister must establish the terms of reference for regional assessments and appoint Committee members for assessment led by a committee.”
What’s at stake?
In fall 2019, Aroland First Nation, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, and Osgoode Hall’s Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic contacted the minister of environment and climate change, asking for a regional assessment of the Ring of Fire. (Any member of the public has the option to request an assessment.) In February 2020, then-minister Jonathan Wilkinson agreed that such an assessment should be conducted.
But Attawapiskat, Fort Albany, and Neskantaga First Nations had concerns about how the process was coming together. On April 5, 2021, they issued a moratorium on development and access to the region, saying it would remain in place until the government agreed to an assessment that was, among other things, led by an “Indigenous governing body” — a collective representing the affected First Nations — that would work jointly with the province and federal governments on conducting the assessment. “First Nations have expressed our expectation of equal partnership in the RIA,” the letter says.
The draft agreement was posted on December 3, 2021. It establishes how the IAAC and Ontario can together conduct the assessment and lays out how it will be administered. Also included was the draft terms of reference, which indicates what content will be required in the resulting report.
Assessment priorities, it states, could involve: surface and ground water; animal populations, cultural sites for Indigenous peoples, and the socio-economic impacts to the communities.
In April 2021, Neskantaga First Nation and two other First Nations issued a moratorium on development and access to the region. (Globe and Mail)
The assessment is to be carried out by a regional-assessment committee, with members appointed by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and Greg Rickford (the provincial minister for northern development, mines, natural resources, and forestry). The committee will consult Indigenous communities for their environmental, social and economic concerns, and establish an Indigenous-led talking/sharing circle, “to bring forward and share traditional knowledge, information and perspectives in a collaborative manner for consideration by the Committee,” the draft agreement states.
The plan, though, did not include the provision of the Indigenous governing body. On January 19, Neskantaga, Eabemetoong, Attawapiskat, Kashechewan, and Fort Albany First Nations responded by sending a letter to Guilbeault demanding that he retract the terms of reference and ensure that the assessment was “Indigenous-led.” The letter states, “Your draft terms of reference is narrow in geographic activity and scope and wrongly excludes us Indigenous peoples from all but token roles.”
“Materially, it looks like Canada and Ontario are going to make all those decisions,” says Dayna Scott, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and chair of the Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic, one of the groups that originally requested the assessment. “Indigenous people are going to be allowed to comment on those decisions or offer their knowledge, insights, or data into the things that the panel looks at — but they won’t be one of the decision-makers.”
“We’re looking for a meaningful stake where we can participate,” says Attawapiskat chief David Nakogee. “We know the land. We know the area. We know what our backyard looks like.”
Scott, who works with Neskantaga, says the Indigenous governing body would make decisions alongside the federal and provincial governments. She says similar three-way partnerships have been used elsewhere, such as in Voisey’s Bsay, in Labrador. “We reiterated that we didn’t think it would be legitimate without an Indigenous partner,” she says.
Chief David Nakogee, of Attawapiskat First Nation. (Facebook)
Nakogee agrees. “They have to recognize it, because we are the ones that live in the immediate area.”
(There isn’t consensus among all the communities in the region. Marten Falls and Webequie First Nations are undergoing their own project-level assessments for roads that will link them to the Trans-Canada Highway and, eventually, the Ring of Fire. While Marten Falls chief Bruce Achneepineskum indicates that he has no objections to the Indigenous-led process proposed by Scott and the other First Nations, he says that “we’re willing to work with the current process [for the regional assessment] as it is.”)
A spokesperson for the IAAC tells TVO.org via email that it is not possible to recognize the proposed Indigenous governing body, as only groups ”currently defined as ‘jurisdictions’ under the Impact Assessment Act (IAA) [can] be signatories to a Regional Assessment Agreement.”
The agency is developing regulations to broaden its definition. However, “they will not be complete before the start of the regional assessment,” the IAAC says. The agency says “significant opportunities” for Indigenous community participation will be available, “ensuring Indigenous knowledge and perspectives are included in the regional assessment.”
Environmental-assessment consultant Cole Atlin, who worked with Eabametoong First Nation from 2014 to 2017, stresses that it’s important to get this right, as development could forever change the region. “This is 150 years’ worth of mining,” she says. “The Ring of Fire is too valuable culturally, as a biodiversity hot spot, as a carbon sink — you can’t mess around with it. Don’t do a bad job.”
What comes next?
The chiefs of Neskantaga, Eabametoong, Fort Albany, Kashechewan, and Attawapiskat First Nations met with the IAAC on January 17. The period for public comment on the terms of reference was initially set to close on February 1 but has now been extended until March 2.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault rises during question period, in Ottawa, on December 10, 2021. (Fred Chartrand/CP)
In the January 19 letter, the First Nations gave Guilbeault a deadline: “We need your decision by January 28. Yes or no: Will you tear up the current [terms of reference] and agreement with Ontario, and restart in equality with us Indigenous Nations to develop an RIA that will accomplish what the Breathing Lands and humanity require.”
The IACC confirmed to TVO.org that Guilbeault replied by letter on January 28 but directed additional questions about its contents to the First Nations. Nakogee says it mentions plans to set up another meeting with the group. “He will continue to meet with us, and hopefully it’s in person this time,” Nakogee says.
That document also states that “any attempt by the Crown to come back with less than the equality we have asked for and deserve, and which the fight against climate disaster needs, will be seen as nothing but an attempt to dress up a broken window with pretty drapes. And any such attempt will lead to our active enforcement of the Moratorium issued last April.”
Scott says court challenges would be possible if the moratorium were broken, but acknowledges its enforcement “is a currently developing area of law.”
Agenda segment, September 24, 2019: Hitting reset on the Ring of Fire
In response to a question about possible moratorium enforcement, the IAAC told TVO.org that “the Agency is meeting regularly with Indigenous communities and organizations to better understand their perspectives and concerns related to the Regional Assessment, including the Attawapiskat, Fort Albany and Neskantaga First Nations.”
Nakogee says the First Nations don’t plan to back down: “There’s going be some more action on the issue if they don’t provide us the opportunities to participate.”
This is one in a series of stories about issues affecting northeastern Ontario. It's brought to you with the assistance of Laurentian University.
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