Ontario Premier Doug Ford signed an agreement with the last of three First Nations along Ontario’s proposed road to the Ring of Fire last week, promising it would “change lives.” But the announcement comes as neighbouring nations urge the premier to balance his priorities with environmental protection and addressing long-standing issues in their communities. 

Marten Falls First Nation — a small fly-in Anishinaabe community approximately 400 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay — signed the agreement with the Ontario government on Nov. 27 to help manifest a more prosperous future, the chief said. Ford’s Progressive Conservatives will give the nation $39.5 million to address local infrastructure issues in exchange for Marten Falls submitting its environmental assessment for the 184-kilometre road to the Ring of Fire by Feb. 20. 

The Ford government has made similar agreements with Webequie and Aroland First Nations, both of which are along the route to the mineral-rich Ring of Fire — a crescent-shaped deposit in the James Bay Lowlands in northwestern Ontario that has become a linchpin in both federal and provincial plans to mitigate the impacts of U.S. trade tariffs. The region can only be accessed by plane or winter roads, routes that can be driven on for a few weeks in the snowy season to bring in essential supplies, everything from food and medicine to construction materials. 

With the funding from this agreement, Marten Falls First Nation believes it could build a new community centre, an upgraded wastewater system and a power line. 

The community has been under a decades-long boil water advisory and a separate state of emergency, due to a failure at its wastewater plant that resulted in sewage leaking into a creek connected to its water treatment plant. 

“It’s all about working in partnership and living together in peace and being able to prosper together,” Chief Bruce Achneepineskum told reporters at Queen’s Park on Nov. 25. 

If all goes well, the Ford government expects to begin construction on the road in August 2026, “subject to the federal government ending its duplicative impact assessments in the region,” the government’s news release of its agreement with Marten Falls said. Consultations for how to do that are open now until Dec. 15.

“It’s time the federal government steps up and helps out. I’ll be all over them on this one,” Ford said when announcing the agreement. “Let’s get some money so that they can pave their runway, get money so that they can have a proper wastewater system.” 

“But yeah, put down the cash, get out of the way and we’ll handle everything else,” Ford added.

The draft environmental assessment for the Marten Falls road found it could improve the quality of life for many people, but also affect cultural traditions and impact wildlife and the environment more broadly.

On Thursday, Ford told reporters he wants “all communities involved, even if it doesn’t impact them.” 

“I want them all part of it. I want to change their lives,” he said. “Years down the road, when I’m pushing out tulips, I hope they’re saying, ‘There’s Ford, he helped us change our lives and gave us the electricity, gave us opportunity, gave us training, gave us, you know, x, y and z.’ That’s what I want to do.” 

But before any of that happens, the Ontario government has to secure buy-in from all Indigenous communities, which remains tenuous. While the Ford government has made agreements with three First Nations, others are continuing to make their opposition and demands clear — citing concerns about lack of meaningful consultations, environmental protections and clear information — as the spotlight firmly remains on their lands.

Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug chief asks Doug Ford to ‘balance it out’ by permanently protecting the nation’s homelands from mining

An hour before the government announced its agreement with Marten Falls First Nation, leaders from neighbouring Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug and Wapekeka First Nation came to Queen’s Park to demand the permanent protection of three million hectares of their homelands, just northwest of the Ring of Fire.

About 20 years ago, both First Nations passed their own laws declaring their lands were closed off to mining claims in perpetuity. These lands are 48 times larger than the city of Toronto and include boreal forest and sensitive peatlands, both sequestering massive amounts of carbon dioxide. 

Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug Chief Donny Morris challenged Ford to offer that same protection so that “in the future, these lands are secured — secured in a way where there’s no disturbances until we feel ourselves in that region that we’re ready for whatever opportunities there are in the future.”

“We need to do more to protect our waters, our lands and animals,” he told reporters. “And I think this is where we’re asking Doug Ford, let’s sit down. Let’s have a discussion, government-to-government.”

Chief Morris said if the premier was set on bringing mining to the Ring of Fire, he could “balance it out” by preserving Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug and Wapekeka’s homelands. “That’s why we’re here, offering [Doug Ford] an option to support us, walk with us. Let’s see how far we can go.”

Officials from Neskantaga First Nation receive personal calls from Ford about another road to the Ring of Fire

Neskantaga First Nation has been under a boil-water advisory for more than 30 years — the longest in effect in Canada. Still, Chief Gary Quisess said no one in the Ontario government has tried to help. “I haven’t seen any government people or provincial people come here in a community to support our needs,” he told The Narwhal.

Instead, in recent weeks, Quisess said senior officials with the nation have received phone calls from Ford and Indigenous Affairs Minister Greg Rickford seeking support for a new “east-west crossing” — a proposed alternative to the Northern Road Link route that goes through Marten Falls, Webequie and Aroland First Nations. 

“We see this as an act of desperation,” Quisess said, “probably to try and get their wish.” 

A senior official from Rickford’s office, speaking on background, told The Narwhal the government is broadly looking at all options to get to the Ring of Fire, including this one, and having many conversations about it.

The east-west crossing was proposed in 2017 by the previous Liberal government led by former premier Kathleen Wynne. It was pitched as an overland route to the Ring of Fire, paving an existing winter road system that connects to provincial highways and follows the now-built Watay Power transmission line. 

The government official told The Narwhal discussions about this crossing have been extremely preliminary; no route, path or plan has yet been decided. 

But Quisess remains skeptical as a leader who hasn’t yet been officially consulted on any of this — while calls went to his officials, no one called him. The government, he said, “is jumping over us,” as members of his community have set up an encampment at a potential river crossing where the road could be built.  

“We have lots of things that need to be fixed first before the Ring of Fire,” he said. “[The] Ring of Fire is not going to happen without Neskantaga.”

“Yes, we have a lot of rich minerals in our backyard, but that’s not going to be touched because we’re not happy,” he added. “We’re getting excluded. We’re getting bypassed. We are in the middle of this soup called Ring of Fire, which the whole world wants, but they don’t care who’s inside the Ring of Fire.”

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