Part 2: Doug Ford Loves to Exploit the Environment and Indigenous Peoples Almost as Much as his Brother Loved Crack
Canada's Amazon Forest: A 3 Part Series
Doug Ford clearly has a fetish for molesting the natural environments of Ontario. If the opening up of the Greenbelt for development wasn’t enough evidence for you, how about his emphatic desire to begin the destruction of the Hudson Bay Lowlands.
The Hudson Bay Lowlands per square kilometer hold more carbon and green house gases (GHG’s) than the Amazon. In Part 1 of this series I explained how the Amazon has begun to contribute to the warming of the earth rather than contribute to its cooling. This is occurring because it is releasing more greenhouse gases (GHG) than it is storing annually. Which subsequently is occurring due to deforestation and increases in anthropogenic (Human) activity in the Amazon. With this wonderous forest reaching a deforestation tipping point it is becoming increasingly more important to protect the ecological wonders we have left, like the Hudson Bay Lowlands.
The Hudson Bay Lowlands and its vast wetlands are under threat due to Doug Ford. When Doug Ford took the podium after his second consecutive successful campaign (looking as red as any good alcoholic should) he began his speech with the usual yadda yadda, “thank you Ontarians (all 20% or so of you) who put your faith in me…thank you for committing to me…thank you for forgetting about Rob..” you know the usual stuff. But do you know what the first policy or action item he mentioned was? Bet you don’t, cause who gives a fuck honestly, only 20% of Ontarians even voted for him. Alas, I do care, simply because what it was that he did mention.
He said “We're building that road to the ‘Ring of fire’.”
The “Ring of fire” is a 5,000 square kilometer area rich with mineral deposits in Northern Ontario. These mineral deposits were discovered in 2007 and the mining claims to said deposits are currently owned by Ring of Fire Metals (formerly known as Noront Resources). Since Ford has taken office, mining the “Ring of fire” has been a persistent talking point. It also happens to be located entirely in the Hudson Bay Lowlands and its ecologically rich wetlands.
For those who may not be aware of this, mining tends to destroy the environment it takes place in. Countless studies go over in detail the effects of mining on the environment which include but is not limited to deforestation, erosion, emissions/pollution, and contamination/alteration of soil profiles, local streams, and wetlands (Haddaway et al, 2019). All of these impacts would be concerning if it were taking place in your local area let alone in one of the most valuable ecological landscapes on the planet.
This is of specific concern for the wetlands in the Hudson Bay Lowlands due to the vast amount of carbon stored in the peat that is produced in these wetlands. As discussed in part 1 the peat produced in these wetlands takes decades to even accumulate an inches worth. Therefore if this peat were crushed or ripped up by say an excavator, it would not only release a large amount of carbon into the environment, it would also take decades to restore, if ever.
(Map of Northern Ontario showing the location of the Hudson Bay Lowlands and the “Ring of Fire”)
The impacts of mining in the Hudson Bay Lowlands go far beyond just the mines themselves, because people, equipment, and well everything still need to get to the actual mining area. As of now the only way to access the “Ring of Fire” is on ice roads in the winter or through the air, meaning there is essentially zero infrastructure in place for mining to happen.
Below I have included the province of Ontario’s proposal to put 3 new access roads leading into the “Ring of Fire” and surrounding areas. The first of these roads is an all-season community access road to the Marten Falls First Nations reservation. The second and third roads are economic development opportunities for the Webequi and Marten Falls First Nation communities with the second potentially being an all season access road. Not only would these roads involve excessive destruction of the wetlands in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, they would also be opening the door for extensive mining and exploration (for mining purposes) into the rest of the Hudson Bay Lowlands.
The process of developing this area involves precautions to protect the environment, but they fall short, much like the many roads meant to lower traffic Doug Ford uses our money for. Ontario’s environmental assessment requirements have been watered down ever since Ford came into power, but the Federal requirements are regarded as more stringent. But, both fail to fully encapsulate and consider the long-term compounded effects that increased economic activity and environmental disturbance of this nature would have not only on the landscape, but the watershed and its various flora and fauna. When dealing with an ecosystem of this size, importance, and complication the assessment of potential damage must go far beyond the same assessment protocol that has allowed the destruction of rain forests, great lakes, and various other ecosystems in Canada.
We have basically already destroyed all the other important ecosystems in Canada so we do not have any more chances to get it right. But what does the government care about getting it right, they have “sworn” to reconcile with the Indigenous peoples of Canada and this project is just another example of failing this goal.
(Ontario Governments Proposal for Road Studies into the Ring of Fire)
As can be seen on the map above there are numerous First Nation communities surrounding the proposed roads and the “Ring of Fire”. Canada in recent years has made a “commitment” to reconciliation between Indigenous peoples of Canada and the Canadian government which for those unaware attempted a systematic cultural genocide of the Indigenous population for over 150 years. And it can be easily argued that this genocide continued far beyond that estimate. To this day, Indigenous people continue to be discriminated against and mistreated by the government of Canada. Despite this “attempt” at reconciliation with the Indigenous peoples of Canada the Ontario government has ignored the requests and demands of a majority of the First Nation communities in the area.
The communities of Attawapiskat, Eabametoong, Fort Albany, Kashechewan, and Neskantaga have informed the government numerous times of what is required for development related to the “Ring of Fire” to continue. Through moratoriums, letters of request, and numerous other means these First Nation communities have made provisions for the government to follow and the Ontario government has failed. These provisions included a Indigenous governing body that would lead and work jointly with the province and federal governments to conduct the environmental assessment where an equal partnership would persist. Instead the government of Ontario did not include an Indigenous governing body nor did it give any decision making power to the First Nations communities but rather allowed for input that would be apart of the committees decision making. In response the First Nation communities opposed to the proposal sent a letter stating “Your draft terms of reference is narrow in geographic activity and scope and wrongly excludes us Indigenous peoples from all but token roles.”
It is important to note that not every First Nations community in the area has placed a moratorium on developing the area. The communities of Webequie and Marten Falls have agreed to the proposal seen above and will work with the Ontario government to perform an environmental impact study which will allow for development to begin. Though this goes against the wishes of other First Nation communities in the area I place no blame on these two communities exercising their right to self determination. At the minimum at least it puts them in a position to have at a bit more influence on how the environmental assessment is conducted. The Ontario government ultimately still has more tools and options to apply pressure on these communities to accelerate the process and skip steps. The project came with $1 billion from the Ontario government to “support critical legacy infrastructure such as the planning and construction of an all‑season road network, and investments in high-speed internet, road upgrades and other community supports." which can easily be used to negotiate and threaten the communities with.
I must include the fact that around 90 First Nation communities in Ontario alone (134 across Canada 73% of all First Nation communities) are under boiled-water advisories meaning they do not have clean drinking water. Not to mention another 54% of First Nation communities are food insecure in Ontario. This is all despite a $35 billion budget via the federal government and another $35 million from the government of Ontario. The government likes to pretend that they are helping these communities by releasing these big public budgets for them, but in reality the money they give is blocked by extensive and strenuous paper work and bureaucratic processes. And the money is designated for specific purposes proposed by government officials who have no sense of what is of most importance for these reserves. By the time money has actually been requested, approved, and put to action these reserves are at risk of losing this funding because many of these spending programs only last for a year or two at most.
So, I do not blame the Marten Falls and Webequie communities for taking this opportunity to exercise their right to self determination and to provide needed support and opportunity to their communities. But I do blame Doug Ford and the government of Ontario for clearly using all year access roads, high speed internet, and other needed infrastructure as a bartering chip in this exchange. Why did this needed infrastructure not be pledged before the “Ring of Fire”? Why is it that only the communities who agreed to the “Ring of Fire” proposal get this needed infrastructure? The Ontario government is clearly only interested in entertaining and fulfilling the needs of First Nation communities if they can further exploit the lands of Indigenous peoples in Canada.
In the end, will the economic impact of these mines really bring long lasting positive effects in these communities, or will they just end up like Alberta, Sudbury, and Flint? Dominated and exploited by dirty industries as they extract whatever value it can from you and the land leaving the community with crumbling infrastructure and a poisoned land.
In part 3 I will look at what Ford argues is the whole purpose of this destructive project and how those who want to, can try to stop it.
(Chief Cornelius, Wabasse Webequie First Nation, left, and Chief Bruce Achneepineskum, Marten Falls First Nation, centre, shake hands with Doug Ford after signing a new deal in the ring of fire via Nathan Denette)
Resource to support Indigenous Communities: