THUNDER BAY — Expanding a provincial financing program that guarantees loans to Indigenous-owned resource projects, putting millions into training First Nations workers and a plan to designate mineral-rich regions of the province as areas of “strategic importance” were several pledges Conservative leader Doug Ford made while in Thunder Bay.
Ford was in the city Saturday for a campaign stop at the Laborers' International Union of North America local office in the city. He was joined by the Progressive Conservative candidates running in the two Thunder Bay-area ridings — Kevin Holland in Thunder Bay-Atikokan and Rick Dumas in Thunder Bay-Superior North.
Among Ford’s campaign pledges was a promise to launch a new First Nations Opportunities Financing Program, which would effectively triple an existing $1 billion provincial program called the Aboriginal Loan Guarantee Program. That initiative provides provincial guarantees for loans to Indigenous-owned entities for energy projects.
Ford said his revamp would expand eligible projects to include those in resource extraction and development.
It will offer “generational economic opportunities for First Nations communities in Ontario,” Ford said.
“It's always ideal to get investment directly here,” Ford said when asked whether he would ensure such natural resource-based projects remained primarily owned by Ontario interests. “The First Nations communities will always be involved, it doesn't matter who invests.”
“I want other countries' money. I want to bring their money into Ontario.”
Ford focused heavily on northern Ontario’s mineral deposits, specifically the Ring of Fire, and how “northern Ontario's critical minerals are a global game changer.”
Ford also pledged a $70 million expansion of a fund that’s used for consultation with Indigenous communities to also use it for training First Nations workers for the resource extraction sector and promised more scholarships for Indigenous students pursuing resource development-based careers.
Additionally, he said his government would “designate regions where multiple critical mineral deposits are present or likely to be present,” as “regions of strategic importance.”
That, Ford said, “will significantly speed up approvals and permitting pre-approved project proponents that meet high operating safety and environmental standards,” adding that they “will be granted automatic approvals to proceed with early works once they met their duty to consult obligations.”
In order to speed up project approvals, Ford also said he would urge the Federal government to scrap their impact assessment process, calling it redundant and "wrongheaded."
Asked what the PCs would do to improve highway safety, Ford turned to Holland who said the issue with commercial vehicles is largely because of drivers licensed outside of Ontario.
“It's one thing we're looking at how we can address that and make sure that people that are coming into Ontario (who are) licensed in other jurisdictions are aware of the conditions they're going to see here and experience here,” Holland said.
Neither Holland nor Dumas attended an all-candidates forum earlier in the week. Asked why his candidates didn't participate, Ford pivoted to talking about his own campaigning.
Ford’s Saturday itinerary also included a stop at Thunder Bay’s Alstom plant before leaving the city for campaign stops in Iroquois Falls and Timmins.