TORONTO — Construction on the roads to the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario should start this year and be completed by 2031, the province announced Monday.
Premier Doug Ford said that is several years ahead of schedule.
“This accelerated schedule is a baseline, we won’t rest until we’ve taken every single last day, every second, every week and month out of the plan to open these roads as quickly as we can,” Ford said.
Ford made the announcement at a major mining convention in Toronto, where he also signed economic partnership agreements with Marten Falls First Nation and Webequie First Nation.
The government said those agreements will ensure the First Nations in the Ring of Fire region are full economic partners and benefit from job opportunities associated with development there.
The First Nations in the region can currently only be accessed by air or winter road, and Ford said all-season roads to the area will give access to what are believed to be large deposits of critical minerals, as well as bring more opportunities to the communities and their youth.
Through the province’s Indigenous Opportunities Financing Program, Ontario will help with equity opportunities for both First Nations to run new airports in their communities along with ownership of aggregate businesses to build the roads.
They’ll also float the First Nations money to own and run accommodation businesses for the work camps that will be needed to build the roads.
The Webequie Supply Road and Marten Falls Community Access Road should see construction start this year, while construction on the Northern Link Road is expected to get underway in 2028 and open three years later.
The agreement means a “future for our youth,” said Marten Falls Chief Bruce Achneepineskum.
“We need to give our youth a chance to be equal partners to move forward in this area where there’s development and training opportunities available and future jobs,” he said.
“So it means a great deal for our youth and our members in the face of oncoming development in our area.”
Marten Falls wants to take the lead on any development happening in its traditional territories, Achneepineskum said.
New Webequie Chief Lorraine Whitehead, who beat longtime chief Cornelius Wabasse in a narrow election victory in late January, said the agreement provides “training, education, capacity building” that her community needs for economic opportunities.
“For Webequie, this is about self determination,” she said. “It is about ensuring that our community members are fully participating and leading any work happening on our lands, whether it be business development, construction, environmental monitoring, engineering.”
Whitehead also said she is looking for a review of the project.
“I want to be clear this government-to-government announcement today with Ontario is only the beginning of a conversation to explore commercial possibilities,” she said. “I want to say that we look forward to meeting with the industry to discuss an Indigenous-led environmental review.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 2, 2026.
Liam Casey, The Canadian Press
