Far North Act not repealed

A private member's bill to repeal the Far North Act was defeated March 22 in the Ontario Legislature.

It was put forward by PC Northern Development and Mines Critic Norm Miller (Parry Sound-Muskoka) and would have removed the severe restrictions previously placed on development and exploration by the McGuinty government. However, Liberal and NDP members joined to defeat the Bill by a vote of 50-36 on second reading.

“I’m most upset that the NDP members across the North, many of whom have previously spoken out against the Far North Act in the past, decided to toe the party line instead of standing up for their constituents and voted against this,” Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli said. “You really have to wonder how much influence these Northern members actually have in driving their party’s agenda.”

Fedeli has been outspoken in his opposition to the Far North Act, noting that it puts 225,000-square kilometres of Northern wilderness off limits to future development.

“Bureaucrats in Toronto basically determined which areas would become protected and no longer available for exploration with little or no consultation of Northern or First Nations residents,” he said.

“If this law had been in place a few years earlier, the massive Ring of Fire mining deposit would never have been discovered.

“The question has to be asked and answered – what are we not discovering this

week, this month, or this year – all because of the Far North Act?”