OTTAWA — That $17.8 million from FedNor? It paid for 26 projects. Community readiness.
Planning studies. Training sessions.
Staff hires. All in northern Ontario, all since 2009. Premier Doug Ford said last week the federal government gave “zip, zero, zilch” to the Ring of Fire.
The numbers show something else. The Ring of Fire sits 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, in the James Bay Lowlands.
It holds minerals used in electric vehicles, batteries, and clean energy tech. Ford wants Ottawa to fund infrastructure to get at those minerals. The province has committed about $1 billion, he said.
But the federal response, from a Natural Resources Canada spokesperson, was direct. They pointed to the $17.8 million in FedNor money. They pointed to two grants from the First and Last Mile Fund, run by Natural Resources Canada itself.
Those grants support Indigenous community engagement with proposed infrastructure projects tied to critical minerals. The technical reality is modest but not zero.
That is the core of the dispute. Ford’s language was blunt. The federal retort was precise.
It listed dollars, projects, programs. It did not mention the $1.5 billion Ottawa says is available for mining and infrastructure work.
That number sat in the background, unclaimed by either side in this exchange. So what does $17.8 million buy over 15 years? In a province spending $1 billion, not much.
But it is not zip. It is not zilch. It is 26 separate projects, each one a grant, each one tied to regional planning or community readiness.
Some of that work directly prepares communities for Ring of Fire opportunities. The federal government is not claiming victory.
It is correcting a statement. The spokesperson did not say the money was enough. They said it existed.
Ford’s criticism last week was about infrastructure funding specifically. Roads.
Power lines. The kind of big-ticket items that cost hundreds of millions. The $17.8 million in FedNor grants does not build roads.
It pays for the paperwork that comes before roads. The First and Last Mile Fund grants pay for community conversations about where roads might go. That distinction matters.
Ford said the province has committed about $1 billion. He asked Ottawa to match that scale.
The federal response listed $17.8 million. The gap is wide. But the federal spokesperson did not stop there.
They noted that up to $1.5 billion is available for mining and infrastructure projects. That money exists in programs, not in a specific Ring of Fire commitment.
Ford wants a specific commitment. Ottawa says the money is there if the province applies. The Ring of Fire has been talked about for years.
Mineral deposits were identified long ago. Development has been slow. Infrastructure is the bottleneck.
The region is remote. The ground is peat and muskeg.
Building roads and power lines is expensive and technically difficult. Ford wants Ottawa to share that cost. Ottawa says it already has.
The numbers are small, but they are not zero. That is the federal position, stated plainly, with project counts and dollar figures attached.
