With the province believing more must be done to bolster Ontario's economic resilience, Queen's Park said it is investing $500 million to create a new Critical Minerals Processing Fund.
Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy told the Legislature during his budget speech last week that “In the face of U.S. tariffs, it cannot be business as usual” in Ontario.
“We need to unlock the enormous economic potential of Ontario’s vast reserves of critical minerals in the Ring of Fire and across the province,” he said.
"We are investing $500 million to create a new Critical Minerals Processing Fund that will help unleash the potential of the province’s mineral sector by attracting investments in critical mineral processing capacity here at home," he said.
This processing fund was first revealed by Premier Doug Ford during the PDAC mining show in March.
Wherever new minerals are found and extracted in Ontario, the province wants to keep mineral processing in Ontario, and not in other provinces or other jurisdictions.
Bethlenfalvy said this will accelerate the province’s critical minerals processing capacity, offering a stable supply of critical minerals mined in Ontario, to be used in the province’s broader manufacturing base, while also capitalizing on growing global demand.
This is to help ensure that Ontario minerals are processed in Ontario, by Ontario workers, he said.
Bethlenfalvy also said the Ontario and federal governments plan to work together to reduce duplication of effort in the approvals process for developing a new mine.
"Right now, because of unnecessary bureaucracy, red tape, and duplication with the federal government, it takes 15 years to approve a mine in Ontario, one of the longest timelines in the world. We can no longer accept these delays," said the minister.
"We are cutting red tape and streamlining approvals to dramatically speed up this process with new special economic zones and a new One Project, One Process approach for major resource development projects,” said the minister.
