Five Northwestern Ontario First Nations pushing back against the province’s pro-mining, critical-minerals agenda are to take their case to the legislature today.

“The Ford government has granted thousands of mining claims without First Nations consent, and is now trying to fast-track dangerous mine approvals, delay safe closure plans, and build environmentally risky
roads through the muskeg to the Ring of Fire,” the five-member group calling itself the First Nations Land Defence Alliance said Tuesday in a news release.

The alliance consists of the Grassy Narrows, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI), Muskrat Dam, Neskantaga, and Wapekeka First Nations. The group is to kick off its Queen’s Park visit with a morning news conference, followed by questions in the legislature by NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa (Kiiwetinoong).

Mamakwa has earlier accused the government of taking a “divide and conquer” approach in its relationships with First Nations affected by mining projects.

Industry watchdogs like Ottawa-based MiningWatch, meanwhile, have called for a mining slowdown lest the quest for so-called critical minerals like nickel damage ecologically-sensitive lands and worsen
overall greenhouse gas emissions.

Ontario Mines Minister George Pirie has said mining development won’t occur at the expense of the environment or Indigenous rights on traditional lands.

Support or opposition among First Nations in face of mining proposals in Ontario’s remote North has varied.

In 2008, KI Chief Donny Morris and five other KI members served nearly 70 days of a six-month jail sentence for contempt after defying a court order to allow a Toronto-based exploration company to
drill near the shore of Big Trout Lake.

The company eventually gave up its mining claims at Big Trout after the provincial government agreed to pay it $5 million.

Currently, Webequie and Marten Falls First Nations have been overseeing environmental reviews of proposed all-weather roads in the Ring of Fire located about 550 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.
The roads, if approved, would connect the communities to the provincial highway system and also provide transportation routes for hauling ore and equipment for future Ring of Fire mines.

Earlier this month, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg signed a community development agreement outlining job and other economic benefits should a palladium and copper mine be built on the outskirts of Marathon.

According to the Ontario Mining Association, provincial mines provided nearly 30,000 direct jobs in 2021, paying out $3.7 billion in salaries for workers.

Ontario mines account for about 20 per cent of Canada’s total mineral production.