The Ford government is pressing forward with its pro-mining agenda to delineate new deposits and establish Ontario as a global critical minerals leader.
In an annual rite of passage, Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce announced the funding portal is now open for prospectors and junior miners to apply for the Ontario Junior Exploration Program (OJEP).
The government is setting aside a $10-million pool of funding to assist licensed individuals and companies with their grassroots exploration efforts.
Lecce delivered the news at Milne Aggregates in Thunder Bay, July 3.
“Early exploration can be high-risk, capital-intensive and often it’s overlooked, but not by us,” said Lecce, in recognizing the underappreciated, arduous work done by prospectors and junior exploration outfits in remote, rugged areas of Ontario. “There’s no mining without exploration.”
Lecce said the OJEP fund has been “doing what it was designed to do” in unlocking an additional $99 million in private investment — “a 2:1 return for the taxpayer” — that's been delivered to these exploration projects.
The junior mining industry has been getting a helping hand from the Ontario government since the creation of the Junior Exploration Assistance Program (JEAP), a rebate program launched by the Wynne government in 2015.
The Ford government has enhanced and expanded it under the new moniker of the Ontario Junior Exploration Program in 2021.
The funding program covers up to 50 per cent of eligible costs for exploration projects.
Appreciative of the financial support, Ontario Prospector Association president and interim executive director Bill MacRae said prospectors need to be praised for their resiliency in the field, adding they are the “base” in the mining cycle.
Ontario’s mineral sector is a $13.5-billion industry and represents 22 per cent of Canada’s total mineral endowment, he said.
“If you don’t have the prospector, you don’t have the mine. They go hand in hand.”
The OJEP program has helped sustain many junior miners’ exploration programs during tenuous financial times.
One of the early recipients — and a program poster child — was Great Bear Resources’ Dixie gold project in Red Lake, which was acquired by Kinross Gold in 2022 and is poised to become one of the largest gold mines in Canada.
As with all mining-related government programming and policy, the availability of this fund was framed by Lecce as locking down Ontario's and Canada’s critical minerals supply chain amidst global conflict, shifting geopolitical alliances, and breaking the Chinese stranglehold in the minerals market.
“We have a mandate from the people of Ontario to responsibly get resources out of the ground. We have the most ethically sourced resources on earth. If we don’t step it up … we’re enabling the Chinese to win the day.”
This political term, the Ford government has taken a throttle-up approach to its agenda on mineral extraction, domestic processing, faster permitting times and value-added job creation.
A signature piece of that agenda is the recently passed Bill 5, the Protect Ontario By Unleashing Our Economy Act. Its passage into law last month has raised anger from Indigenous communities and organizations concerned about threats to their sovereignty and their treaty rights being steamrolled.
Lecce didn’t directly address a media question regarding ongoing Indigenous protests in Thunder Bay and Queen’s Park, other than saying the government remains in listening and engagement mode led by Indigenous Affairs Minister Greg Rickford.
“We’re moving forward, but we’re doing it in collaboration with a lot of listening along the way,” Lecce said.
Rickford has reached out to Indigenous leaders in the Treaty 9 area of the Ring of Fire to find common ground and collaborate on the creation of much-maligned special economic zones under Bill 5 where major mining projects can be fast-tracked into production through a slimmer regulatory process.
“All of us are going to continue to listen, “ said Lecce, “but we’re fully committed to the implementation of 'one project, one process' to cut the (permitting) timelines in half get on with building a clean strong economy.”
With the OJEP program itself, two new twists involve a dedicated funding stream for licensed prospectors to apply for up to $50,000 per project, with an Indigenous Participation Support to bring the total funding package up to $65,000 per applicant.
Other money is available through a boost to the Enhanced Indigenous Participation Fund, from $10,000 to $15,000, to support Indigenous employment and business opportunities.
Applications will be accepted online through the Transfer Payment Ontario (TPON), beginning on July 3, 2025, at 10 a.m. EST and closing on July 31, 2025, at 4 p.m. EST.
Funding will be provided to approved projects on a first-come, first-served basis.
