Does your proposal re-open…

Does your proposal re-open southern Ontario for mineral exploration and development activities? Is it fair to support mineral exploration and development opportunities primarily for northerners? Why are southern Ontarians limited in their opportunities to develop critical mineral projects in our communities? The direct and indirect mineral exploration, mining, support services, research and development,... jobs should also be given a fair opportunity in southern Ontario. It appears that many historic mine sites in southern Ontario have not been assessed using modern day science and technology which has advanced substantiality in the last ~100 years e.g. metallurgical processes/recovery.

Does the province have a handle on what critical mineral opportunities exist in southern Ontario and thus what critical mineral opportunities are being left out in your proposal? The proposal infers a sense of urgency, nearing what could be interpreted as an emergency situation. Within an environment of urgency, why would the province of Ontario not re-open southern Ontario to mineral exploration and development in support of the urgent/emergency environment highlighted in your proposal. It is challenging to understand why the situation is urgent/an emergency, when 1/4 of Ontario's land base has not been included in Ontario's ongoing search for and production of critical minerals. Leaving out a large portion of the province with known critical mineral occurrences does not support that this proposal is urgent to the province. It is only urgent to be conducted in northern Ontario. The proposal details as presented by the province appear to support a quasi urgent situation which is primarily located north of the French River and not impacting the rest of the province when it comes to the opportunity to conduct mineral exploration and development in Ontario? The proposal includes no details or mention as to why the southern ~1/4 of the province is not important to include into the urgent search for and development of critical mineral sources. Are there science and/or fact based reasons as to why critical mineral exploration and development is not being directly encouraged in southern Ontario through your proposal?

Does the Ontario Ministry of Mines intend to respond to the comments provided as part of the Building More Mines Act proposal that was previously posted on the Environmental Registry? If no, what are the regulatory consequences for the public servant(s) who chose to ignore Ontarians legal rights? Will Ontario be responding to these new comments? If not, what is the point of the environmental registry? If the Ministry can choose to not follow regulated requirements does this mean that the mineral exploration and development businesses, public, stakeholders... also do not need to follow provincial law? Should these final comments be sent to a different Ministry if the Ministry of Mines is not providing the legally required responses to registry comments?