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In Northern Ontario is located the Ring of Fire, a geological feature in the James Bay Lowlands that holds a massive chromite deposit and a nickel-copper deposit known as the Eagle’s Nest. Exploration in 2007 led to the discovery of these ore deposits and they have yet to be mined. The area is remote from existing infrastructure with the nearest “town” of Nakina more than 300 km to the south.
Local indigenous communities such as Webequie have very small populations. Webequie, for example, is home to less than 1,500 Ojibway.
To mine the ore from the Ring of Fire will require a railway, a roadway and electrification. Early estimates of the cost for such infrastructure were $2-$4 billion and were scoffed at as being too high. Now the cost estimates are starting to trickle in.
To build a hydro line into the Ring of Fire is estimated to cost about $1.7 billion.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ring-fire-electrical-infrastructure-capex-study-finds-kevin-thomsen
The so-called “massive nickel deposit” that is the Eagle’s Nest is estimated at 20 Mt. This compares to Voiseys Bay at over 100 Mt, Thompson Manitoba at over 200 Mt and the mighty (now mostly mined-out) Sudbury Basin at over 1 Bt (B=billion).
The total cost to provide infrastructure to the Ring of Fire will exceed $4 billion – easily. The total value of the Eagle’s Nest has been estimated at $5-$7 billion in-situ (as if the ore was sitting on the ground processed and ready to ship to eager markets). The cost of mining is typically 50% of the value of the ore. This means the nickel deposit will be mined by an Australian company at a gross profit of $3.5 billion for infrastructure costs of $4 billion (and more).
It is very likely the project will go ahead. I just thought the fine taxpayers of Ontario would want to know that $4 billion of their tax revenue is being spent on a few thousand people in Northern Ontario and an Australian mining company without any discussion of who will pay to maintain the infrastructure after the mines have closed.
Wuhan Flu: Laws Are For The Little People
That’s different, because shut up.
Put Your Trust In The Experts
Dr. Yaffe: "I just say whatever they write down for me."
Dr. Williams: "Yeah, same." pic.twitter.com/cdsw4n1Ax0
— CrasHTalk (@CrasTalk) December 15, 2020
Protesters call Ford’s plan ‘outrageous’ and ‘unacceptable’
And ‘glorious’
We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans
They Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Mirrors
Ontario’s new Progressive Conservative government is cancelling 758 renewable energy contracts, in what it says is an effort to reduce electricity bills in the province. […]
“For 15 years, Ontario families and businesses have been forced to pay inflated hydro prices so the government could spend on unnecessary and expensive energy schemes,” Rickford said. “Those days are over.”
They don’t need no flaming sparky cars, either.
(h/t raid)
Ford Country
“The elites said it couldn’t be done. But the entire Hydro One Board is now on the way out.“
h/t raid
Ford Country
What the Doug Ford Government means for the Energy Sector – the great unwynnding;
“Premier Doug Ford ran and won on a platform labeled For the People: A Plan for Ontario. The platform set out Ford’s energy plan, in its entirety, as follows:
• Clean up the Hydro Mess and fire the board of Hydro One and its $6-million-dollar CEO.
• Our first act will be to end the Liberal practice of making millionaires from your hydro bills!
• Stop sweetheart deals by scrapping the Green Energy Act.
• Cut hydro rates by 12% for families, farmers, and small businesses by:
• Returning Hydro One dividend payments to families.
• Stopping the Liberal practice of burying the price tag for conservation programs in your hydro bills and instead pay for these programs out of general government revenue.
• Cancel energy contracts that are in the pre-construction phase and re-negotiate other energy contracts.
• Declare a moratorium on new energy contracts.
• Eliminate enormous salaries at Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One.
h/t raid
Fewer Pavilions At Fordfest
Blaming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government for creating “a mess,” Premier Doug Ford’s new Progressive Conservative administration is withdrawing Ontario’s co-operation with Ottawa on resettling asylum seekers, the Star has learned.
Ontario Children, Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod told federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen that Queen’s Park is stepping back from the migration crisis. […]
That could sound the death knell for the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement signed by former premier Kathleen Wynne last November.
You don’t say.
Wynneing!
She may be gone, but the socialism lingers on: Ontario’s Minimum Wage Hike Has Been Disastrous, Especially for Disabled Workers
Wherein a Vancouver group funded from San Francisco decides the Ontario election
If Andrea Horwath wakes up as Premier of Ontario on June 8, she may have a shadowy foreign-funded group out of Vancouver to thank for her win.
Wynneing!
Kathleen Wynne on Saturday acknowledged that she will no longer be premier after the June 7 election and encouraged voters to elect Liberal candidates to prevent the NDP or PCs from securing a majority.
“Even though I won’t be leading this province as premier, I care deeply about how it will be led,” the Liberal leader said during a campaign stop in Toronto.
“People want change, but by and large they’re confident about where Ontario stands and where Ontario is headed. For this reason, many voters are worried about handing a blank cheque to either Doug Ford or the NDP,” she continued.
Oh.
Remember NDP leader Andrea Horwath saying May 14 she “unequivocally” had “no interest” in forming a coalition gov’t with Wynne? Guess what? She changed her mind: Horwath now open to coalition government with Wynne https://t.co/KKHOurkb3V #onpoli https://t.co/Yc9EYXgy0N
— Lorrie Goldstein (@sunlorrie) June 2, 2018
What Would We Do Without Pollsters?
The latest Ontario polls show … confusion?
EKOS reports a dead heat.
Innovative Research shows a 5 point PC lead.
Forum alleges a 14 point NDP lead, with the Liberals half of what’s reported in the other two polls.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_general_election,_2018
We need to ask at this point — do these pollsters do their surveys on the same planet? Or do they make them up as they go along?
Wynneing!
I guess the Liberals have to shoot the puck from anywhere at this point, but warning of a booze-in-corner-stores apocalypse after proudly rolling out booze-in-supermarkets kinda feels like a moment. Everyone's laughing at them.
— Chris Selley (@cselley) May 22, 2018
Wynneing!
If Ontario’s carbon pricing scheme is such a great idea, why aren’t Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne, and the NDP’s Andrea Horwath, who supports it, praising it to the skies on the campaign trail?
Thanks to a new Ipsos-Global TV poll, now we know why.
Wynneing!
with every new poll showing @fordnation as Ontario's next premier, we get endlessly creative pundits seeking to convince us that if you look at the numbers from a certain angle, with the light shining a certain way, it could be a really close race https://t.co/QAEHTvIAGu
— Jonathan Kay (@jonkay) May 10, 2018
Wynneing!
http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/goldstein-auditor-general-shatters-the-fiscal-fantasy
Lysyk said Wynne’s budget underestimates government deficits for the next three years by $16.6 billion, or 84 per cent, for two reasons.
First, it fails to reflect the true cost of its scheme to temporarily reduce electricity rates, known as the Fair Hydro Plan.
Second, the government improperly treated surpluses in the Ontario teacher and civil service pension plans as assets, since it can’t access that money without union permission.
“When expenses are understated, the perception is created that government has more money available than it actually does,” Lysyk wrote.
“Therefore, more money will need to be borrowed to pay for the unrecorded expenses, even when government reports an annual surplus or a balanced budget.
“A perception is also created of an improving trend in the relationship between the government’s financial obligations and its capacity to raise funds to meet them when the burden of net debt is actually increasing.”
h/t David Southam who adds a few comments of his own.
Wynneing!
Moody’s downgraded Ontario’s credit rating today from “stable” to “negative” and how some warnings about the books in the future. The reason for this downgrade? The Wynne budget that ramped up spending in a bid to stay in power.
Wynneing!
I accept Kathleen Wynne’s challenge to three televised debates. Let’s do the first one outside the jail where the senior Liberal operative will be spending 4-months.
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) April 11, 2018