Ontario's Environment Commissioner is warning that Queen's Park is risking “irreversible damage” to the wildlife and the landscape in the Far North unless research is done and proper safeguards are put in place.
“The government's long-held rule,” said Gord Miller in his 2012/13 annual report, “has been to establish planning controls before projects can be built. But infrastructure such as highways and transmission corridors are already on the drawing board in the Ring of Fire, and there's been little analysis or public debate of their effect on the environment or their benefits for First Nations.”
His report, released on Oct. 10, concludes that this unique 450,000-square-kilometre area of Ontario is threatened by advancing development without proper planning.
“We have one chance to get things right in the Far North,” said Miller in a statement. “It's imperative that the Ontario government make sound choices about the Ring of Fire, and that these choices are anchored in solid knowledge of what's going on there.”
