Ok Ed -- you asked for some additions, so let me try

a. The first thing is what's going on with Noront's Eagle's Nest EA/EIS. Last I remember, say 2 months ago (please correct me), FN's in the area were given funding from the feds to study the route of the E/W road, and the time for that study should be ending soon, no? Then what?

b. ontario government funding -- yes the federal liberals have committed the billion dollars to the Ring of Fire, and Ed, I think you blamed the botched roll-out of the DevCo after Wynne's re-election for the money not being forthcoming, botched because it did not include FN representation. Maybe, but another driver is that the billion dollars will probably be coming from sale of part of Hydro I, and that's in a bill that hasn't yet gotten before parliament. That's going to be a big thing for the liberals to pull off, as there could be quite a bit of opposition due to fears of hydro rate increases. Plus their ability to pull off this sale and their general competence can be questioned because they're doing such a fine job negotiating with the teachers' unions...

c. the federal government -- IMHO, the federal government seems to have a system in place where Mr Rickford gives out these small grants, a couple million to study chromite smelting with natural gas, a million here for a FN co-operative banking initiative, 40K for a research grant at Lakehead, and then have a big press conference about it. However, whenever asked commit big money, the feds then point their finger and blame the 'incompetence' of the ontario liberals. However, they can't play this game indefinately -- at some point everyone will see their bluff, if they aren't already.

d. FN's -- what I think they want is everything, that is to say they want jobs, transportation, economic opportunity, and independence from the tender mercies of the department of Indian Affairs, that brings them bottled water by plane and gives them barely enough money to patch up their aging water treatment facilities with duct tape and band-aids. In addition to wanting the maximum, they will be very hard to negotiate with because they have very poor education and literacy scores (geez that thousand page EA must give them a headache), and are always suspicious of the intention of the whiteys, including the Fed's, Ontario government and the mining companies, Noront included, no matter how much outreach Alan Coutts does. However, the FNs really do want the ROF to move forward because they want economic indepenence, and the mining jobs are their only way to get that. And when I mean the FN's, I have to disagree with Ed in that not just the folk in Webique and Martin River -- they don't just want the money to come to them and have their neighbours remain jealous and in poverty. So if the E/W road passes through the villages in the Nishkatanga, Wibimik and Eabamatoong FNs, presumably they'd be using the road to get to their jobs in Eagle's Nest, Blackbird, Black Horse, etc., so they become part of the ROF as well.

e. railroads -- I don't even want to go there as that's about the chromite and too far in the future. I think we have enough to deal with the eagle's nest EA, the province getting their act together to come up with the billion, the FN's figuring out what to do with the EA etc.

Anyway, my thoughts. Overall, IMHO this ROF stuff is a long process with a lot of different variables in play -- FN agreements, Ontario gov't passing bills etc. I've only been in this for a year, but I think we can't expect anything else but to be patient.

Alex