Ontario's Ring of Fire ads lack footage of the mineral-rich region. Is that a problem?

Doug Ford has been talking about the Ring of Fire a lot.

This spring, the Ontario government launched a new ad under the slogan "Protect Ontario," which describes how the province can become a “critical mineral superpower” by extracting resources from the nearly 5,000 square-kilometre area in the James Bay lowlands.

"Ontario's abundant supply of critical minerals is found all over our province, but nowhere is as exciting or rich with deposits as the Ring of Fire," the ad says.

For years, the Ring of Fire has been eyed by governments and mining prospectors alike for development. 

In 2025, the province signed agreements with three First Nations in the region (Aroland, Webequie and Marten Falls) with the goal of building roads to the Ring of Fire, linking the provincial highway network up to the remote peatlands. While the road projects are still subject to provincial and federal approvals, Ontario's premier says he wants construction to start next spring.

The province's ad describes different technologies that rely on critical minerals, such as medical scanning, smartphones and electric vehicles. It depicts mining sites and processing plants, as well as lush landscapes covered in trees, rocks and lakes.

"It's up to us to unlock this incredible opportunity by cutting red tape, speeding permitting and approval timelines for critical minerals, from mines to the factory floors," it says. "Working effectively with local First Nations and municipal hubs, we can build a more competitive, more resilient and more self-reliant province and country."

However, critics say the ad relies on stock footage from across Canada and abroad, and doesn’t actually show the Ring of Fire.

The Wildlands League, an environmental conservation organization and a registered charity, posted a video online responding to the Ontario government's ad.

In its video, it highlights several images from the province's ad and shares where they're actually from.

"They were being sourced from our provincial parks, they were coming from overseas, they were coming from the northern Yukon. It all felt deceptive and frankly, misleading," said the league's conservation director, Anna Baggio.

CBC's image verification team reviewed the shots called into question by the Wildlands League and confirmed none of them show the Ring of Fire.

The team confirmed the ad contains stock footage from various Canadian provincial parks as well as scenes from Australia, Sweden and Russia.

CBC News reached out to the premier's office and asked whether the ad contained any footage of the Ring of Fire, and how much the government spent on producing and running it. A response was not received by the deadline provided.