Northern Ontario NDP Candidates Howard Hampton (Kenora) and Claude Gravelle (Nickel Belt) blasted the Prime Minister for his failure to support mining jobs in the region.

“It’s pretty rich for Mr. Harper to come to Northern Ontario and pretend he supports mining jobs after he has so badly mishandled the Ring of Fire,” said Hampton. “The Conservative failure to support infrastructure in our region has cost billions of dollars of investment and thousands of potential jobs for Northern Ontarians.”

The Ring of Fire project has stalled because of the federal Conservatives’ failure to work with other governments to unlock the once in a generation potential of the mineral deposits. The Conservatives’ 2015 Budget ignored Northern Ontario and failed to allocate any funding for infrastructure and training to develop the project.

“The Conservatives claim of helping ‘hard to reach’ mines is laughable – many of these mines are hard-to-reach because their government has failed to invest in infrastructure in Northern Ontario,” said Gravelle, who has repeatedly demanded action on this critical file. “This is a project that will benefit our region for generations to come. The government must sit down with First Nations, the province, and northern communities to get moving on the Ring of Fire.”