There is still an \u201copportunity for collaboration with the province of Ontario in the regional assessment,\u201d the group wrote in the report. The group said it\u2019s preparing what \u201cspecific information\u201d it will need to request from the province.<\/p>\n
Ontario\u2019s absence is notable as the Doug Ford government continues to push through development in the Ring of Fire<\/a>, an environmentally sensitive area of boreal forest and peatlands in the James Bay Lowlands, known as Bakitanaamowin Aki, which means \u201cthe Breathing Lands,\u201d and Mammamattawa, or \u201cmany rivers coming together,\u201d by the First Nations that call it home.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they really, really cared about [the assessment], they would work with the federal government,\u201d Ontario NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa, who represents the Ring of Fire region, told The Narwhal. \u201cBy not providing any information or any data to the process, they are essentially muzzling the process itself.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the federal Impact Assessment Agency confirmed to The Narwhal that the working group understands \u201cseveral areas it must assess are within provincial expertise.\u201d It will \u201crequest information from Ontario as needed\u201d in addition to consulting publicly available data, the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n Dive deeper on this topic<\/p>\n The Ontario government is hoping the region will be the centre of new mining activity. During a press conference with Prime Minister Mark Carney in December, Premier Ford said Ontario is on track to get \u201cshovels in the ground this June\u201d to build a road to the remote region.<\/p>\n But the regional assessment has also been in the works for at least seven years. Aroland First Nation and environmental groups asked for a federal regional assessment in 2019.<\/p>\n The Ontario government has signed<\/a> deals with three First Nations along the proposed roads to the Ring of Fire, even as other local communities urge the government to pause and properly address environmental protections and long-standing issues on the ground, such as boil-water advisories, health care and housing.<\/p>\n The interim regional assessment report reiterates some of these concerns, recommending the existing conditions for First Nations in northern Ontario be \u201cthoroughly examined\u201d and for \u201cimmediate interventions\u201d to be made, even as mining and development are greenlit.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of things happening in these First Nations and their territories that both Canada and Ontario need to address,\u201d Mamakwa said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBefore the conversation turns to mining, conditions need to be properly assessed and improved.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The working group\u2019s plan<\/a>, updated in November, shows it has already built an information sharing platform<\/a>, held technical sessions, developed community-led studies and begun to evaluate cumulative impacts of development in the Ring of Fire.<\/p>\n It\u2019s now seeing through evaluations and studies and continuing to engage with communities to eventually compile a final report, which the group expects to land around June 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether or not Ontario will come to the table for the next phase is not yet clear.<\/p>\n \u201cI think [the Ford government] is not happy with the federal assessment,\u201d Mamakwa said. \u201cThe process itself, I think, they don\u2019t want to be part of. And they just want to do their own thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Ontario\u2019s participation was \u2018TBD\u2019 \u2014 now it\u2019s non-existent<\/p>\n Last January, when the working group finalized<\/a> its terms of reference<\/a>, it described an \u201couter ring\u201d of contributors, such as experts and industry representatives and listed Ontario as one of these \u2014 but with \u201cTBD,\u201d or to be determined, attached to its name.\u00a0<\/p>\n The latest report suggests Ontario is not participating despite having a trove of scientific information readily available about the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n While 22 federal departments and agencies show up on a list of respondents to the working group\u2019s public call for information and data, no provincial ministries are listed.<\/p>\n Even Wyloo Metals, the company behind the Eagle\u2019s Nest mine, currently in the exploration phase in the Ring of Fire, contributed to technical sessions of the regional assessment, according to the report.<\/p>\n All of this is raising questions about whether the Ford government is preventing Ontario public servants from participating in the regional assessment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Without Ontario at the table for the regional assessment, \u201cstaff obviously won\u2019t be given the mandate to participate,\u201d Kerrie Blaise, the founder of the non-profit Legal Advocates for Nature\u2019s Defence, told The Narwhal.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne hundred per cent, there would be staffers who would have knowledge and things to contribute. Without the direction to do so, they\u2019re barred from doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview at Queen\u2019s Park on March 23, The Narwhal asked Ontario Environment Minister Todd McCarthy about the province\u2019s lack of involvement in the regional assessment. He said he\u2019d look into the matter.<\/p>\n McCarthy also told The Narwhal the province is \u201cco-operating\u201d with the federal government, citing a Dec. 18 agreement<\/a> between the two levels to streamline the environmental assessment process.\u00a0<\/p>\n In that agreement, Ontario promised to lead any assessments for projects that are subject to both federal and provincial jurisdiction. But this deal covers single projects, whereas the Ring of Fire regional assessment isn\u2019t examining a project, instead looking at cumulative effects of development in the region.<\/p>\n McCarthy said Ontario\u2019s absence from the interim regional assessment report was \u201can exception.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI suspect that Ontario is part of that conversation, and will be part of the conversation and will continue to co-operate and lead in terms of sharing data \u2026 to get all of it done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the sense is that we\u2019re not there at the moment, as I speak to you, we\u2019re going to be there as we are all the time in terms of co-operating and leading.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Narwhal sent specific questions to Ontario\u2019s Ministry of Natural Resources, as well as the premier\u2019s office, the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks and the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs and First Nations Economic Reconciliation, about the government\u2019s direction to public servants and financial willingness to support First Nation participation in the federal assessment. None responded to those emails by publication time.<\/p>\n Ontario is withholding scientific data on the Ring of Fire from the regional assessment<\/p>\n Within its interim report, the assessment group wrote that \u201cseveral priorities for the regional assessment would benefit from provincial expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n There are hints of what kind of expertise the group is hoping to get, in a submission by Environment and Climate Change Canada<\/a> filed in January in response to one of the group\u2019s requests for information.<\/p>\n In a question about Indigenous consent for non-Indigenous uses of land, the Environment Department pointed out that most traditional territories in Ontario are on non-federal lands, and the province is responsible for hunting and fishing regulations there.<\/p>\n The department also pointed out how the province has been monitoring boreal caribou and undertaking research to fill gaps in knowledge about the animal, and that the province holds valuable data such as aerial surveys on polar bears in the southern Hudson Bay subpopulation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ontario also hosts the Natural Heritage Information Centre, which has historical data and continues to track biodiversity in the Ring of Fire region, the federal Environment Department noted, and directed questions about the centre to the provincial government.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are certain things the federal government cannot touch,\u201d Blaise said. \u201cSo even if there\u2019s a comment deadline, and people bring up concerns, if it\u2019s not all within federal jurisdiction, you\u2019re not going to have those players at the table to actually respond to those information gaps and requests.\u201d<\/p>\n Without Ontario\u2019s participation, the working group will be forced to go to the province to request information. That could result in more delays and extra costs, Blaise said.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CP-Sol-Mamakwa-Denette-WEB.jpg\"\/)
Sol Mamakwa is the NDP MPP for Kiiwetinoong, a expansive riding that encompasses much of northwestern Ontario, including the Ring of Fire region. He says living conditions in northern Indigenous communities need to improve before conversations about mining in the area continue. Photo: Nathan Denette \/ The Canadian Press<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CP-Ring-of-Fire-Region-Aerial-Katsarov-Luna-WEB.jpg\"\/)
Mining in northern Ontario\u2019s Ring of Fire region will bring significant change to the Indigenous communities that have long called the territory home. Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna \/ The Canadian Press<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Supplied-ON-Ring-of-Fire-RA-Operational-Structure-Diagram.jpg\"\/)
The working group in charge of the Ring of Fire regional assessment envisions a key role for Ontario in the process. The provincial government holds important environmental data and expertise that would help inform the assessment, for example. But so far, the province has declined to participate. Illustration: Regional Assessment Working Group<\/p>\n