http://www.manitoulin.ca/2016/08/10/premier-wynne-makes-first-visit-manitoulin-northern-ontario-tour/

Premier Wynne makes first visit to Manitoulin during Northern Ontario tour

Aug 10, 2016

.....On the Ring of Fire, the premier said that “over the past couple of years the province has been working with the First Nations and the companies that have the claims to find a way to build infrastructure and to build some capacity among the Mattawa First Nations that are closest to the Ring of Fire so that they can share in the development, but, from my perspective, because commodity prices went down, there was a change in the timeline of the investments, but we had a billion dollars for investment for infrastructure for a couple of years now. We are going to be investing that money. I see now, is the economic development opportunity that is based on opening up that part of the province, based on creating linkages, we talked about transportation networks, there isn’t a transportation network for most of those units. What I want to see happen first? I want to see shovels in the ground, in terms of building, preparing, opening up roads that are going to allow for those communities, and that part of the province to be more accessible so that the Ring of Fire can be developed and other opportunities as well. The challenge right now is getting that infrastructure built.”

“I have a plan that I put forward and that we are implementing as a government, one of the important cornerstones of that plan is infrastructure investment. That means roads and bridges, that means infrastructure for the Ring of Fire, but it also means hospitals and schools. I was just in Espanola talking about health hubs and we are putting a couple of million dollars in a power project over the next couple of years, so we’re working on making those long term investments that will allow communities to thrive.”