The same day Premier Doug Ford called an early election, his government announced it had reached a $20-million deal with Aroland First Nation that will, “build roads along the entire route to the Ring of Fire.”

The Shared Prosperity Agreement includes $20 million for infrastructure and new energy transmission projects in Aroland. Ontario promises to upgrade existing roads to the community, located 60 kilometres north of Geraldton, and build a road from Aroland northward to Marten Falls First Nation. Ontario also made a vague commitment to support Aroland in vying for a smelter, and it intends to meet further over potential resource-benefit sharing.

Aroland Chief Sonny Gagnon posed for photos with Ford during the press conference in Toronto on Tuesday, wearing a PC campaign toque emblazoned with “Canada Is Not For Sale.” But while Gagnon said he was “pro-development,” he was also clear that this deal should not be understood as a license to mine in the proposed Ring of Fire.

“This is only for the Marten Falls road, this agreement,” he said. “The Ring of Fire will come when the time comes.”

Aroland joins Marten Falls and Webequie First Nations, who are in the process of leading environmental assessments for the construction of what they say are access roads to their communities. Ontario publicly refers to those projects as a road to the Ring of Fire, including Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Economic Reconciliation, Greg Rickford, who has dubbed the route a “corridor to prosperity.”

Matawa chiefs say it’s the latest announcement from Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government that presumes the proposed Ring of Fire mines will go ahead, regardless of the outcomes of ongoing engagement with the First Nations people who live there; those who have rights to consultation, accommodation, and consent.

In June, Gagnon publicly criticized Ring of Fire mineral stakeholder Wyloo for signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Sudbury that committed to building a battery minerals processing plant.

Gagnon called the announcement “putting the cart before the horse,” pointing out that environmental and economic assessments haven’t even been conducted that would give the First Nations in Matawa territory the information they need to give the project their informed consent.

“I have to respect my neighbours,” Gagnon told Ricochet Media a week before Tuesday’s announcement. 

“We have to complete comprehensive community plans so we can hear from each community what the membership is saying. We can do this together, but it has to be done in a way that we have understanding from the government. 

“You can’t just say ‘we’re going to dig up the minerals in the Ring of Fire’ and not consult or accommodate.’”

David Paul Achneepineskum is the chief executive officer of Matawa First Nations, the tribal council representing nine communities closest to the proposed Ring of Fire. He is personally pro-development, citing possible revenues for education.

But he says the way the Ford government has approached development is causing strife in the region.

“It’s kind of like divide and conquer, that’s what’s happening right now,” Achneepineskum says. “Yes, they are funding Marten Falls and Webequie because they’ve done a bit of work. But even in my community of Marten Falls – I have family there – there’s no consent by the people of Marten Falls. It’s probably the same thing in Webequie, too. I’m not going against the chiefs and councils on this but it’s obvious that these kinds of concerns are happening.”

Ford hasn’t personally met with Matawa as a collective representing the area’s chiefs for four years. The Liberal government that preceded Ford’s PCs made working with Matawa a public showcase, but fell to criticism that very little was getting accomplished.

Protecting sacred sites considered ‘red tape’ to Ford government

The Liberals passed the Far North Act in 2011, which required First Nations to identify sites of cultural significance, with an aim to protect 50 per cent of the region from development. The law was universally panned, from First Nations and northern municipal leaders to industry lobbyists and environmentalists. The PCs would repeal it in 2018, in the name of “cutting red tape” to increase “business certainty” in the Ring of Fire.

The Liberals then signed the Framework Agreement with Matawa First Nations in 2014, a $1-billion commitment to the relationship and what then-Premier Kathleen Wynne called, “getting it right.” That negotiating process pitted former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Frank Iacobucci on the government side versus former Ontario Premier Bob Rae representing Matawa First Nations.

In 2017, Wynne announced her government had “reached an agreement to build a road into the Ring of Fire. First Nations immediately protested that as a “premature” pronouncement.

“Kathleen Wynne and her Liberal government at the time didn’t do much consulting with First Nations. It was a big show,” Achneepineskum says. “There were the years of the Far North Act, but it was a big PR thing. That was it. They didn’t do any work with the First Nations at all. So that’s why at the end, the chiefs rejected it. They didn’t want to become involved in it.”

Before the PCs were elected, Rae issued Matawa chiefs a letter warning that Ford would likely tear up the framework and employ a strategy of picking off individual First Nations. At the time, Marten Falls Chief Bruce Achneepineskum told CBC the framework “failed” because Matawa could not agree on a negotiating protocol, and “we just ran out of time.”

Rickford disbanded the Framework agreement in 2019, saying his government wanted to “work with willing First Nations partners who want to move at the speed of business.”

Ford and Rickford announced a partnership for road construction with Marten Falls and Webequie in 2020. In 2022, Ontario approved the environmental Terms of Reference for the Marten Falls First Nation Community Access Road and the Webequie First Nation Supply Road, along with a Northern Road Link which would connect the 200-kilometre Marten Falls Community Access Road to the 110-kilometre Webequie Supply Road.

The province is referring to these three projects as a road to the Ring of Fire. 

Ring of Fire development will fundamentally change how First Nations communities live

David Paul Achneepinekum says Matawa is being left out. He’s now calling on Ontario and Canada to fund a full regional economic and environmental assessment for the region. He says that study ought to consider how First Nations people use the land today, what they anticipate their future needs from the land will be, and what material infrastructure they want to have in their communities.

To guarantee free, prior, and informed consent, he argues, members of all First Nations in Matawa should feel confident that they understand and agree to the benefits, jobs, and resources that will be made available for their communities in the long term.

“These divide-and-conquer tactics are destroying us. They’re pulling us apart,” he says. “We have the information from our people that live and rely on the land for their livelihoods. We want to hear their concerns. You don’t want to start on the negative, you want to start on the positive. ‘How do you want to see your land impacted throughout the process of development happening?’”

Canada and Ontario already fund an environmental monitoring company Matawa owns called Four Rivers Environmental Services Group. Achneepineskum says that kind of contract would allow Four Rivers to expand its technical expertise while channelling the knowledge that people who use the land have, “like the backs of our hands.”

Neskantaga First Nation Chief Chris Moonias has seen firsthand what he also calls a “divide-and-conquer” strategy.

He says he has nothing against the proposed road from Nakina, past Aroland to Marten Falls, but he claims that Ontario has made the prospect of a road to Neskantaga contingent upon mineral development.

“That’s what the whole road is all about – it’s a road to the Ring of Fire and nothing else,” he says. “It’s going to have an impact on our relationships. We try to continue to work collaboratively as much as we can.”

In the fall, Neskantaga members published photographs and video to social media of a helicopter that was disrupting the community’s moose hunt. Moonias wasn’t among the hunters, but he did see the aircraft. He recognized it from neighbouring Webequie, where he stops over when he’s traveling to and from Thunder Bay. He says he then acquired its flight plan and found it had travelled across lakes that Neskantaga members normally access. He suspects its occupants were surveying the land on behalf of his neighbours.

“This is what we mean when we say our rights and way of life is being threatened by mining and exploration activities,” he posted to X on October 4.

On February 1, Neskantaga will mark the 30th anniversary of its boil-water advisory. The longest-standing such advisory in Canada is having an impact on conversations Moonias and his council are able to hold with governments and prospective industrial developers, including those looking to develop the Ring of Fire.

He says he’s willing to do the work but warns those looking to push through consultation that Neskantaga is prepared for the consequences.

“We want to wait until we do all the studies and we understand about the real impact and benefits of what is going to happen if there is a Ring of Fire – and if we’re not part of the decision-making, there’s going to be some tension,” Moonias said. “The people have said if they’re going to continue to build the roads without our consent, then our people will go out on the land and try to stop it.”

For Ginoogaming First Nation Chief Sheri Taylor, re-establishing trust with Ontario and Canada is going to take a demonstration of goodwill. Her community has lived through a century of forestry development and while it provided some jobs and it had impacts on the land, it didn’t bring long-term development or prosperity. 

Taylor and her council declared a state of emergency in November over a failing bridge that connects her community to the neighbouring town of Longlac. That compounded the state of emergency council declared last year, over insufficient resources to manage drug use and fight crime.

Taylor approached Ford when the premier visited last June to mark the opening of the Greenstone Gold Mine. She was holding a letter that outlined 70 years of Ginoogaming’s grievances. The communities of Matawa, she says, have inherent rights to free, prior, and informed consent and it’s her position that “nothing should be done” on the Ring of Fire until First Nations are satisfied those rights are met.

“They need to address those before he starts giving away land that isn’t his,” she says. “He goes to certain communities that will work with him on the basis of what he wants to see but he won’t go to communities that want accountability, and he won’t work with us the way we want things to happen. We have had so many injustices, for far too long.”

If Canada’s largest-ever mining project goes ahead, the First Nations who have lived there for time-immemorial will be irrecoverably changed. 

Eabametoong (Fort Hope First Nation) Chief Sol Atlookan says an umbrella conversation for Matawa is necessary to manage what kind of future regional governance will be possible.

Atlookan says Ford has never answered his questions about how prospective roads to fly-in communities like his would be governed or how the land would be preserved from those driving into the territory to fishing or prospect, much less develop forestry or mining. 

He believes the communities are on the same page and need to be given space to manage whatever disagreements they may have between them, not rolled into individual contracts with the province.

“In the years he [Ford] has been the premier, he has never sat down with the Matawa tribal council. He needs to start doing that,” Atlookan says.

“He speaks like he wants to intimidate First Nations and we don’t appreciate that kind of talk. He came to our land. We were here since time immemorial so he cannot be saying he can do what he wants. He has to consult with us. He says Canada’s not for sale?

“How can he sell something that doesn’t belong to him? It belongs to us.”

Jon Thompson is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based in Thunder Bay. Contact him with tips and story ideas at editor@ricochet.media. Sign up here for his newsletter and never miss a story from northern Ontario.