OTTAWA – Treasury Board President Tony Clement will publicly take on federal responsibility for the massive Ring of Fire mineral discovery today in northern Ontario today.

He’ll be walking on eggshells as he makes his first speech on the chromite and nickel interest in Thunder Bay this afternoon.

That’s because the Ring of Fire file is not only complex, it is also controversial among environmentalists, First Nations and many of the communities who would be affected by the large-scale building of infrastructure and decades of mining.

It’s also a huge test case of the federal government’s “responsible resource development” approach that has influenced major changes in legislation but has also had a rough ride of late. Attempts to build pipelines to the West and to the south have met with a public outcry, and Ottawa’s record on climate change record has been challenged, not just by the federal environment auditor but also by the new Obama administration.

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