My question is to the Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry. Last week, you were at fonom meeting. At that particular meeting, there were many questions in regards to the whole issue of processing ores in Ontario. In that particular bear pit that you’re involved in, you alluded that your government was going to ensure that, in fact, refining and smelting happened out of the Ring of Fire. How, pray tell, are you going to make that happen if we don’t have the legislative force to make it happen, knowing that companies have already indicated that they’re not going to be processing ore in Ontario?

Hon. Michael Gravelle: I appreciate the question. It was great to be at fonom. I was there with my colleagues the Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the Minister of Natural Resources. We had a great opportunity in the bear pit to discuss those questions.

As for the Ring of Fire, we all know what an exciting economic development opportunity it is. We also know that we need to manage this process well. Certainly, we have every intention, when and if we move forward with this process, to be sure that we get the best value-added opportunities there, which include processing and refining the product that comes out of that ground in the province of Ontario.

Those discussions are ongoing. I’m certainly having discussions directly with the companies that are involved in this process, as we’re having discussions with the First Nations and, obviously, other stakeholders involved.

But we are very committed to this, and it’s important for you to know that. We, in fact, are very optimistic that indeed—

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you. Supplementary?

Mr. Gilles Bisson: I heard the word “committed”; I heard the word “discussion”—all of which didn’t mount up to anything when it came to stopping the closure of the Xstrata refinery-smelter in the city of Timmins. Why should we have any more confidence in your government, when you are not able to hang onto the very refinery-smelter that is operating in Ontario now, to do a better job when it comes to ensuring that at the very least, when the Ring of Fire goes forward, refining and smelting continues in Ontario? Why should we have any confidence in you?

Hon. Michael Gravelle: As the member knows very well, we have an extraordinary government-wide commitment to the Ring of Fire development. It’s part of our Open Ontario plan. In our budget, we made commitments related to $45 million for skills development and also the hiring of a Ring of Fire coordinator. This is a long-term, complicated process, but one that is going to provide us with some extraordinary economic opportunities.

Indeed, we recognize that one of the challenges will be making sure that those processes, in terms of the value-added opportunities, take place. Those are the discussions we’re having now. We look forward to working with all of the stakeholders. I’ve got meetings with the companies that are involved with this.

This is something that we recognize is one of our responsibilities, certainly our ministry’s responsibility—to see the economic opportunities of thousands of jobs that will be coming forward as a result of this. It will happen as a result of our government’s commitment to the Ring of Fire development.