Championing the Ring of Fire.

AuthorRoss, Ian
PositionMINING

The Timmins Chamber of Commerce wants Ottawa to partner with mining companies in the Ring of Fire to build the infrastructure needed to reach that future mining camp in the James Bay lowlands.

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At the Canadian Chamber of Commerce's annual general meeting in Kelowna, B.C., the Timmins Chamber successfully lobbied to have Canada's largest business advocacy group push the federal government for more funding for mining-related transportation and energy infrastructure in the region.

The development of any plan to bring either a permanent road or rail to the remote chromite and base metals exploration camp, 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, appears to be at a stalemate, at least on the provincial level.

"The policy that we've put forward with the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce is asking the feds to come to the table in a consistent way," said Nick Stewart, the Timmins Chamber's manager of policy, research and communications.

Stewart said the chamber would like to see the same degree of federal investment in Ring of Fire development as it would with any highway or major infrastructure works in other parts of Canada.

He accompanied Timmins Chamber president Phil Barton to B.C. for the three-day event attended by nearly 500 delegates representing more than 200,000 member businesses across Canada.

The policy also garnered support from chambers in Sudbury and Terrace, B.C.

With two-thirds support from voting members, the Canadian chamber now takes it up as a priority policy issue to lobby government for the coming three years.

"The Canadian chamber is a really strong voice," said Stewart. "They're Canada's biggest business advocacy group and (president and CEO) Perrin Beatty (a former federal cabinet minister), who leads the charge, is incredibly well respected and is a well-connected gentleman.

"He's a great voice for moving a lot of this stuff forward and the Canadian Chamber tends to have a lot of success with a lot of these policies."

First submitted last June, Stewart said it was a long process to get their policy plank filtered through the various committees and caucuses before it reached the floor in Kelowna.

Each year, local chambers are asked to submit recommendations that the Canadian Chamber can take to senior government, but it has to be national in scope.

The Ring of Fire certainly has national strategic value with its high-grade and world-class chromite deposits, which can be used in stainless steel production.

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