Take action: Mega-mines Threaten Ontario Caribou and Wild Rivers

Public hearings needed in Ring of Fire mining project. CPAWS demands greater scrutiny through regional environmental assessment.

In Ontario’s far north, proposals for mega-mines are creating a massive new threat for carbon rich wetlands, clean, free flowing rivers such as the Albany and Attawapiskat, and habitat for threatened wildlife like caribou that local people still rely on for their livelihoods.

Mining companies in Ontario’s ‘Ring of Fire’, located approximately 500 km northeast of Thunder Bay, have initiated several environmental assessment processes for major mines and  infrastructure  projects including all-weather roads, transmission lines, slurry pipelines and winter roads.  All of this is at a scale and intensity that has not yet been seen in Ontario. It will cause massive, permanent changes to the Ontario's Far North sensitive ecosystems and to local communities.  Scientists predict irreversible changes to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. 

One of the first of the proposed mega-mines is called the Cliffs Chromite Project.

Latest news: Wildlands League requests provincial government mediation on Cliffs Terms of Rerence for its Environmental Assessment

Read our request for mediation here.

Read our press release and our blog entries about this issue here and here.

Read our letter to the government of Ontario with respect to the Cliffs project.

Read Environment Canada’s opinion on the need for a regional environmental assessment.


Please let the government know what you think.   

Please write a short letter below!

Here’s what CPAWS is saying:

CPAWS believes that Ontario should establish a regional  environmental planning process that fully involves northern First Nations, to assess the merits of this  and other proposed projects. Until then, it should give no further approvals to this project. Given that the Cliffs Chromite Project is at a scale and intensity that has not yet been seen in Ontario and will involve massive, permanent changes to the Ontario's Far North sensitive ecosystems and to local communities, it’s time for public hearings and a strategic regional environmental assessment.

We urge the government to:

• Hold full discussions with northern First Nations towards a proper regional environmental assessment and regional decision making forum;
• Heed the advice of scientists and work with First Nations and the public on a regional assessment;
• Protect two of the last great rivers of Ontario namely the Albany and Attawapiskat before mining proceeds in the Ring of Fire; and,
• Ensure that any new proposed activities in Ontario’s north will help to sustain rather than harm species at risk including Boreal woodland caribou.