Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli doesn’t buy for one second that Cliffs Natural Resources left the Ring of Fire because of market conditions. That’s what the minister of northern development claimed after Fedeli found the Liberals were going to hit Cliffs with a chromite tax. Fedeli says if market conditions are to blame, then all the mining companies at the site would have left but that hasn’t happened.
Fedeli says the sad truth is the Wynne Liberals chased Cliffs away with a secret tax he uncovered. He says the tax was the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as Cliffs was concerned. Fedeli says the Liberals continue to deny the tax, but the evidence is in the secret documents to Cabinet. Fedeli discovered the tax which was hidden among gas plant scandal documents. The documents show the Liberals were ready to hit Cliffs with a tax as high as $34-million a year.