And now for something radical. Public ownership of what could be the next few decades’ biggest source of natural resource management and a chance to develop Northern Ontario into something great – all while sharing the wealth across Canada.

The Ring of Fire, a remote region in Northern Ontario rich with critical minerals like nickel, cobalt, platinum and chromite, has long been touted as Canada’s next big mining opportunity. But more than a decade after its discovery, development remains stalled—tangled in jurisdictional disputes, infrastructure delays, and a provincial government whose tone-deaf approach to Indigenous consent has eroded trust and undermined progress on top of a glaring lack of public vision. What if, instead of leaving this monumental project to multinational corporations, Canada created a Crown corporation to develop it in the public interest?

For decades, Northern Ontario has been treated as an afterthought—useful mainly for resource extraction, but rarely the focus of serious long-term investment. Basically, Northern Ontario is treated like an economic colony to rest of the province and the country at large.

A Crown corporation dedicated to the Ring of Fire would flip that model. It would make the region a central pillar of Canada’s economic strategy while delivering tangible improvements in infrastructure, jobs, and quality of life for Northern and Indigenous communities. Public infrastructure built to access the Ring of Fire can support far more than mining—it can connect remote First Nations communities, enable trade and travel, and support health, education, and emergency services in the North. A public enterprise can prioritize local employment, offer long-term stability, and partner with Northern-based colleges and Indigenous training programs to grow a generation of skilled workers rooted in their communities.

Canada’s Future Shouldn’t Be For Sale.

The minerals in the Ring of Fire are essential for our future—especially as the global economy transitions to low-carbon technologies. Nickel, lithium, and cobalt are critical for EV batteries and clean energy infrastructure.

Why should private corporations extract these resources, export the profits, and leave Canada with a massive environmental bill?

If we commit to a public ownership model, we can guarantee that a Northern Ontario Crown Corp would:

• Generate revenue for all Canadians, not shareholders.
• Protect our national sovereignty over strategic resources.
• Reinvest profits into public services, tangible climate action, and well-needed regional development.

In short, it ensures our collective wealth serves our collective needs – not the portfolios of some Bay Street suit.

Yet – the development of such a super-project cannot happen without the leadership and consent of the First Nations whose lands the Ring of Fire crosses. A Crown corporation should not merely “consult” Indigenous communities. It must co-develop and co-govern alongside them, providing equity partnerships, revenue sharing, and environmental oversight that reflect Indigenous sovereignty.

Anything less would be a repeat of the same colonial dynamics that have failed Northern and Indigenous communities for generations.

Canada is investing billions into EV manufacturing, battery plants, and decarbonization. But unless we control the upstream supply chain, we risk importing the future instead of building it ourselves.

A publicly owned Ring of Fire could provide preferential access to Canadian clean tech industries, ensure responsible, low-emissions mining practices, and massively reinvest in green innovation, research, and reclamation nation-wide.

In other words: Canada could build a green industrial strategy from the ground up, rooted in the Northern Shield. With such a robust, green industrial strategy from Northern Ontario, creating a Canadian New Green Deal policy platform becomes viable.

From Extraction to Renewal

Creating a Crown corporation for the Ring of Fire isn’t just good economics. It’s good politics, good climate policy, and good regional development. It’s a chance to do resource extraction differently—to turn a region long treated as a resource colony into a model of sustainable, responsible public-led development that helps us as a collective step forwards into a brighter future — not just for us living today, but for all generations to come.

-K-