EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
TORONTO — Despite the Progressive Conservative government's promises to fast-track the building of roads to the proposed Ring of Fire mining development in northwestern Ontario as a way to build "Fortress Am-Can" with the United States, current estimates suggest the final leg of the all-season road to the project site won't be completed until sometime between 2035 and 2040.
At the same time, significant progress is being made on all three access roads needed to connect the Ring of Fire, Marten Falls First Nation and Webequie First Nation with the TransCanada Highway.
The PC government put Marten Falls and Webequie in charge of running the provincial environmental assessment (EA) of the access roads. At the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference in Toronto Sunday, the two First Nations, along with their consultants, announced the EAs of two of the three access roads are nearly complete — along with the federal regional impact assessment.
"We are entering the final stretch," consultant Qasim Saddique, project leader for the Marten Falls access road, told a crowded room at PDAC.
Draft EA and impact assessment reports examining the first 190-kilometre road running north between Aroland First Nation to Marten Falls were delivered to First Nations communities near the Ring of Fire on Feb. 18. The Indigenous communities will be given 60 days to comment on the lengthy reports before they are made public on April 22 for another 60-day consultation period.
After consultations are complete, the draft reports will be revised using the First Nations' and public feedback, and the final EA reports will be submitted to both levels of government for ministerial approval this fall or winter. Once approved, construction will be allowed to begin.
The draft EA and impact assessment reports for the supply road, which will run 107 kilometres east from Webequie's airport to the Ring of Fire site itself, are "on the cusp" of completion and will be provided to First Nations in the coming weeks for another exclusive 60-day comment period before they are publicly released.
"I would argue that these are the most extensive, most expensive, set of studies ever done in that region," said Webequie's consultation leader Michael Fox. "Why? Because it's Indigenous-led. This is their homeland, and if anyone is going to protect that area, it's those communities."
The routes for the Marten Falls access road and Webequie Supply roads have been meticulously plotted using traditional Indigenous knowledge to avoid environmentally and culturally sensitive areas, which Fox said has resulted in some rather "squiggly" routes.
"Usually it's some third-party proponent that slaps a line on the map to say 'this is how we are going to build,' but that is not the case with the two communities," explained Fox.
"The fastest route for Webequie was actually a north-south route, but there were sacred mounds around that road, so the elders said 'no, don't do that.'"
The Webequie supply road will allow mining equipment flown into the area to be transported to the Ring of Fire site. However, there won't be any road access between the Ring of Fire and the outside world until the final road running north from Marten Falls to the Ring of Fire is completed, and that is still a long way off.
The EA and impact assessment process for this "Northern Road Link" is running three years behind the other two roads, and the plan is to have the draft reports ready for ministerial approval in either 2029 or 2030.
"Baseline studies are ongoing this year and next year," said Saddique.
Building hundreds of kilometres of all-season gravel roads through undeveloped wilderness will also take many years.
Internal estimates say that building the Webequie supply road will take roughly five years. Consultant Angie Brooks told The Trillium that the Northern Road Link could take up to a decade to complete — meaning it could take until 2040 for the whole road system to be built. But it's too early in the planning process to say for certain.
"The details of all this are still being worked out," she explained.
The last major hurdle, however, is getting First Nation approval.
Despite running the provincial EA processes, Webeqiue and Marten Falls have not actually consented to the road projects. After the province approves the plans, both communities will have to make an official decision.
Marten Falls Chief Bruce Achneepineskum said he is confident that his community members will opt to approve the access road.
"Do we want progress? Do we want a better quality of life? Do we want inclusion in these large projects that are happening around our communities? The answer is yes," said Achneepineskum.
Whether other local First Nations in the region will consent to the projects, particularly Neskantaga First Nation, is far from clear, however.
During the opening prayer at the PDAC information session, Elder Ed Sackaney criticized the PCs and Premier Doug Ford's rhetoric about the Ring of Fire as problematic and called for all First Nations in the area to be included in the decision regarding the access roads.
"Enough with this 'enough is enough' talk. It's not conducive to good relations," said Sackaney.