Ontario's premier says she’s optimistic about the federal government's potential involvement in the Ring of Fire.
At the Northern Leaders Forum in Timmins on Friday, Premier Kathleen Wynne said her Dec. 5 meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper was constructive and the two spoke about several topics, including infrastructure support for the Ring of Fire.
"We did not get to that level of specificity n terms of dollar amounts or any particular financial mechanism," she said during a teleconference with media.
The two leaders did discuss the economic importance of the Ring of Fire, including what Wynne called the integral importance of infrastructure to the development of the project.
The prime minister said he would consider federal representation in the Ontario Liberal's proposed development corporation.
"I feel much more optimistic about that," said Wynne.
"I did make the point to the prime minister this is actually the perfect time for us to be working on forming the development corporation," she said, adding the federal government expressed some concerns that there hadn't been upfront consultations.
But Wynne said she assured Harper they are just at the beginning stages of the development corporation.
"We see the development corporation as a mechanism for working on getting the infrastructure built and getting the right infrastructure built so now is the exactly right time to be having this discussion with the federal government," Wynne said.
In the coming weeks, Minister of Northern Development and Mines MIchael Gravelle will meet with Kenora MP Greg Rickford, the federal minister responsible for the Ring of Fire, to discuss the formation of the development corporation.
