The city where I live is an ecological wonder. Built at the only natural
outflow from Lake Superior, Sault Ste Marie is uniquely positioned geographically.
Before Europeans arrived, the area was fertile fishing grounds and the
site for the gathering of Indigenous people from around the Great Lakes
regions. One can only imagine the relationships, trade deals, and peace
agreements that developed here over the millennia.
European
colonization brought European industry. For a time, this seemed to work out just fine for some. Sure, the Indigenous nations were pushed out. Sure,
generations of people grew up dependent on the vagaries of the steel and
pulp-paper markets, riding an addictive cycle of boom and bust all the
way to the cancer ward. Now, centuries after the beginnings of
colonization, we have an economy that putts along, a failed pulp
industry, a steel industry that employs a small fraction of the workers
it had in its prime, and, to top it off, inter-generational illness. In fact, we have
among the highest rates of cancer in Ontario.
With all this in
mind, the city is now courting a new saviour in the form of a small
mining company called Noront. I am not an economist, but Noront's
financial records scream volatility. This company wants to build a
ferrochrome refinery on the Great Lakes waterway, in the centre of the
city. I won't go into it here because there is lots of information
available from more reliable sources, but ferrochrome smelting is lethal business. The nearest
comparison to the mill proposed for my city is in Finland. The Finnish
refinery, as i understand it, is located away from human settlement, at the edge of open ocean where emissions are difficult to measure.
City Council has already committed to a partnership with this new industry, presenting the key administrators with personalized street signs. Stay tuned.
Below is a version of a letter sent to my councilors and the mayor of SSM It has been edited for this blog posting. If this issue is important to you -- if you live in the region or live downstream -- please consider expressing your thoughts and concerns.
August 12, 2020
Dear Mayor and Councilors,
I hope that you and your family are well in these strange times.
I
am writing to express my opposition to Council’s decision to option
Sault Ste. Marie for the site of Noront’s ferrochrome refinery. In
recent years, through your efforts and those of many young entrepreneurs
and visionaries, the Sault economy has experienced a grassroots renewal
focused on local services and products. While these endeavours are more
modest than the “$100,000/year” jobs promised by Noront,
community-based economic growth can be sustainable and environmentally
sound in ways that Noront’s interests cannot guarantee. It is my
contention that the opportunities found in community-based initiatives
are more realistic than the promises made by Noront, which has no real connection to or investment in Sault Ste. Marie, its
ecosystem, and the long-term health of its people.
Our history
as an industrial centre will lead many to accept Noront’s interest as a
grand opportunity. By force of habit, the Sault would accept Noront and
its potential dangers. The promise of steady industrial jobs is
seductive to many people in our community who have grown up in industry
and believe that prosperity and well-being can be manufactured in a
furnace. Partnering with Noront is an easy, temporary answer to our long
struggle in creating sustainable employment. It is easy because we have
always looked to industry for economic salvation. It is temporary
because Noront is interested in Sault Ste. Marie for its infrastructure
and access to transportation and would choose any community that met its
technical demands and welcomed its ambitions. I ask that City Council
look more deeply at Noront’s proposal and at the company’s history and
track record for community development. Are they conscientious, proven
partners? Or are they looking to make their reputation on St. Mary’s
waterway?
There has been much debate over the safety of the
ferrochrome refinery process City Council wants to bring to the Sault.
Health professionals and environmentalists have addressed the very real
possibility for inter-generational health effects from Noront’s
proposal. I do not have the expertise to add to these
arguments. However, the harmful effects of centuries of industrial
activity on the health of our region are widely documented. We are now,
again, at a turning point. We have the choice to break away from the
old, default patterns of behavior that generate dramatic boom-bust
economies in favour of a more egalitarian, sustainable community-based
model.
I understand that the challenges to build an
environmentally sound local economy are many, and the temptation to
sacrifice future health for apparently immediate prosperity can seem
like a good deal. It is my fear that partnership with Noront in the
contentious and environmentally devastating “Ring of Fire” project will
lead us to deeper dependence upon limited resources and externally based
industry. This is the time to be bold and to reject a return to old
patterns.
Batchewana First Nations has expressed its opposition
to the ferrochrome refinery, and Sault Ste. Marie should follow its
lead. The band’s opposition alone should give us pause.
Thank you for all that you do.
Best wishes,
