Ontario

Press Relase from Matawa First Nations: Thunder Bay ON, August 24th, 2010 - Matawa First Nations Chiefs representing their respective communities are looking for immediate resources following a meeting with three provincial ministers. Matawa First Nations Chiefs gathered with Ministers Chris Bentley, Michael Gravelle, and Linda Jeffrey last week in Thunder Bay, Ontario, in attempt to secure much needed funding to better prepare their First Nations communities about the initiatives within the Ring of Fire.

Joint news release with Ecojustice and Great Lakes United: New data released Friday in response to a lawsuit won last year by Ecojustice, on behalf of Great Lakes United and MiningWatch Canada, is beginning to shine a light on the toxic legacy of Canada's mining and tar sands industries. Unfortunately, despite a lawsuit and a government order to report pollutant releases, some facilities have failed to comply.

In the last two years, the number of active mining claims has more than doubled in Ontario’s Far North in an area in the James Bay lowlands about the size of Prince Edward Island. Known as the “Ring of Fire”, it is the homeland for several Cree and Ojibway communities and sits at the edge of one of the world’s largest fresh water wetlands. The Attawapiskat and Albany Rivers flow west from the area past the Cree communities of Attawapiskat, Fort Albany and Kashechewan on their way to James Bay.

MiningWatch has been informed in an email from the company, and confirmed by the staff for local MP Bruce Hyer, that Marathon PGM is no longer considering the destruction of Bamoos Lake as one of two tailings management options.

A federal environmental assessment of Marathon PGM's proposed mine in northern Ontario started on April 16, 2010. One of two proposed tailings management options would have 61-million m³ of mine waste dumped into Bamoos Lake. Bamoos Lake is a deep, cold water lake with a naturally sustaining lake trout population. It is used as both an aboriginal and recreational fishery.

Extensive revisions to Ontario’s Mining Act were approved by Queen’s Park on October 21, 2009, and received royal assent a week later. The new Act follows commitments made by Premier McGuinty to “modernize” the Act and strike a balance between the diverse interests that are affected by and involved in the sector. Though another round of consultations took place as part of the legislative process while the bill was under Committee review, few substantive changes have been made since the bill was introduced in the spring.

At the invitation of Brazilian activists who are supporting communities struggling against multinational mining giant Vale (formerly Companhia Vale do Rio Doce) in Brazil, and with support from the Steelworkers Humanity Fund and the Canadian Auto Workers Social Justice Fund, MiningWatch’s Catherine Coumans attended the World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil in January 2009. Catherine was asked to provide local activists with information about relations between Vale and communities in Canada (Port Colborne and Sudbury in Ontario as well as Labrador), Indonesia and New Caledonia. In each of these places Inco (now owned by Vale and operating as a subsidiary, Vale Inco) is facing serious community concerns and criticism of its operations.

MiningWatch Canada is very pleased with yesterday’s announcement from the Government of Ontario regarding a resolution to the three-year stand off between the community of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug ("KI") and Toronto-based exploration company Platinex.

Joint release with CPAWS-Wildlands Leagues and Ecojustice: TORONTO – A rapid increase in exploratory mining activities, including staking, drilling and clearance of vegetation in the heart of Ontario’s northern Boreal Forest, one of the world’s most carbon-rich ecosystems, has become a “Wild West” free-for-all, warn public interest groups. CPAWS Wildlands League, Ecojustice and MiningWatch Canada are concerned that development in an area known in the industry as the ‘Ring of Fire’ in Ontario’s Far North is exploding due to inadequate control under an antiquated Mining Act.