TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The Ontario provincial government and local First Nations on Thursday celebrated the recent signing of a landmark regional framework agreement to develop the Ring of Fire (RoF), a mineral-rich area in the northern muskeg-wastelands of Ontario.

The agreement was billed as a first step in the historic, community-based negotiation process that would aim to bring together the nine First Nations and Ontario to discuss and negotiate an approach for development in the First Nations' traditional territories. The process would help ensure that First Nations participate in, and benefit from, RoF developments.

“With this agreement, we have taken an important step forward together – we have adopted a different kind of negotiating process that is based on respect. We now have a framework to guide our discussions as we work toward achieving our common goals, and ensuring that everyone benefits from development in the RoF,” Premier Kathleen Wynne said.

Among the provisions of the agreement were that it would guide long-term, regional environmental monitoring; enhance participation in environmental assessment processes; facilitate resource revenue sharing; offer social and economic support; and facilitate the adoption of regional and community infrastructure.

The high-profile event included First Nation traditional ceremonies, a commemorative signing ceremony with Premier Wynne and an exchange of gifts.

“Since the discovery of the deposits at Wawangajing [RoF], there have been many premature initiatives, from the continuing, and much-maligned, railroad corridor to the proposed slurry pipelines through the muskeg sponge.

“Our two winter protests, which highlighted the lack of consultation, were designed to slow down the ideas and take stock in reality. The MoU [memorandum of understanding] our First Nation has with Ontario is aimed at achieving involvement with the individual First Nations and the regional framework is an extension of that effort to include others in the surrounding proposed development area,” Marten Falls First Nation Chief Elijah Moonias said.

He said the dismantling of the Indian Commission of Ontario, in 2005, by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada was a distressing event, leaving no instrument to conduct tri-level talks.

“… but there is no question about the need for trilateral discussions for development in the RoF. I believe our local MoU and the regional framework provide the window for that,” Moonias added.