From Noront's MD and A (ended March 31st, 2016):
"Eagle’s Nest Regional Development :
Management meets regularly with the Provincial Government of Ontario which includes the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, the Ring of Fire Secretariat and the provincial negotiators of the Ring of Fire Regional Framework Agreement. The Company is advocating for the provincial government to formally commit to the East-West Access corridor including a timeline for construction.
The East-West corridor will serve as the main corridor to access the Ring of Fire and to provide local First Nations’ communities with all-season road access to the provincial highway network. As such, the corridor is part of the Regional Framework discussions between the province and the First Nations in the area surrounding the Ring of Fire. The provincial and federal government funded a First Nations’ led study to assess all season access routes for the remote First Nation communities along the proposed East-West shared transportation corridor. This study is due to be completed by the end of June 2016. The Company expects a formal commitment from the provincial government in late 2016 once the First Nations’ study is completed."
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Although the results of the current study may be inconclusive this doesn't necessarly preclude a formal commitment from the provincial government by late 2016. It will be interesting to see how NOT responds to the release of the report, and to those comments by Minister Gravelle (although it is unlikely that NOT would comment pubically regarding the latter, in my opinion) as surely it cannot reasonably NOT comment on the release.
It is unclear to me whether NOT has had an opportunity (and ample opportunity) to review the report. In the spirit of collaborative development, surely the First Nations communities involved would need to share such a report with the intended regional economic drivers/exploration companies/partners ; otherwise, they couldn't very well accuse other players involved of not being respectful of consultatation MOUs.
...Just trying to make some sense of this release rather than defaulting to my initial reaction/feeling of : " I should have bought shares in "WTF"(rather than in NOT) as many ROF observers might be jumping onboard that momentum play"
