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ETOBICOKE, ONT. – The Ontario government has announced it is taking a major step to help unlock the Ring of Fire by declaring the Greenstone Transmission Line a priority project and designating Hydro One to develop and construct it.

Construction of the 230-kilometre line that will run from Nipigon Bay to near the Aroland First Nation and the gateway to the Ring of Fire is officially being accelerated.

Hydro One states the project is a single-circuit 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission line, designed to support a future second circuit and will be connected to the existing 230-kV infrastructure (the East-West Tie) near Nipigon Bay.

The line will extend to the Longlac Transformer Station where a new 230-kV station will connect to the existing 115-kV circuit and continue to or near Aroland First Nation, terminating at a new 230-kV switching station with associated station facilities. 

Once complete in 2032, Greenstone will provide the capacity needed to unlock 350 to 700 megawatts of additional hydroelectricity and other power generation.

Ontario committed to building the line as part of the , which includes $70 million to advance work, the government explains. Indigenous communities will also have access to Hydro One’s First Nations Equity Partnership Model which will include First Nation leadership in decision making and 50 per cent ownership of the line.

The Greenstone project is anticipated to create more than 7,000 jobs and both the government and Hydro One have also committed to leveraging the Canadian and Ontario supply chain, with 93 per cent of the project’s costs to date staying in the country.

In general, the province says development in the Ring of Fire has the potential to support more than 70,000 jobs across Ontario and generate approximately $22 billion in economic output over 30 years.