Ontario Premier Doug Ford reiterated his promise Monday to speed up mineral extraction in the Ring of Fire, but advocates for First Nations say it can't happen at the expense of Indigenous treaty rights.

Ford told an audience at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs take aim at the Ontario economy, and Ontario needs to prepare for "anything and everything."

"Together we need to build a stronger, more resilient and self-sufficient economy," Ford said.

"Together we need to build the most competitive economy in the G7 to invest, create jobs and do business."

Ford didn't make any new announcements at the conference but instead repeated his campaign promises to streamline resource development approvals and create special zones in which critical minerals projects can be fast-tracked.

He also reiterated his pledge to add $70 million to the Aboriginal Participation Fund, which helps First Nations assess and take advantage of resource projects. Ford promised to relaunch the Aboriginal Loan Guarantee Program as a $3 billion First Nations Opportunities Financing Program.

But the Nishnawbe Aski Nation has said that investment does not equate to consent, and industry partners will only experience predictability and certainty when First Nations are true partners in decision-making.

"Premier Ford's promise to 'unlock' the Ring of Fire and fast-track development is a direct attack on the inherent, treaty and Aboriginal rights of First Nations who have governed and stewarded these lands since time immemorial," said Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler in a news release issued Feb. 25.

"These are not 'Ontario's minerals'; they exist within our territories … The unilateral will of the day's government will not dictate the speed of development on our lands, and continuing to disregard our legal rights serves to reinforce the colonial and racist approach that we have always had to fight against."

Reporters asked Ford if his promise to speed up mineral extraction meant he would cut short the environmental assessment process in the Ring of Fire, which First Nations are involved in.

He replied by saying, "We're going to sit down with them and have a great conversation."

Ford placed some of the blame for project delays on the federal government, calling its impact assessment process redundant and wrongheaded and saying, "We cannot afford to add years and years of delays, massive costs to critical mineral projects so that the federal government can waste time repeating and replicating assessments that Ontario has already done."

But a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School who has worked with First Nations in the Ring of Fire called the comments disingenuous.

The federal and provincial impact assessments have already been occurring jointly and are not holding each other up, Dayna Scott said.

"On the regional assessment, it is additional to what would be required in Ontario, so maybe it makes a little more sense for Premier Ford to be complaining about that additional lawyer of investigation," Dayna Scott said, referring to a larger study co-led by the federal government and First Nations.

"But it's also true that the regional assessment is not holding up any approvals."

Scott said the government's signal to First Nations that they should "just get out of the way so we can get this stuff done" is not helping build trusting relationships.

"Even, you know, amongst the proponent community in the PDAC session, you could hear a bit of that same sentiment that those kinds of attitudes and remarks are really not helping anything," she said.