Ontario economy
The modern Ontario economy began with the first Canadian resource economy of the multiracial fur trade in the 17th, 18th, and earlier 19th centuries. This image by Arthur Hemming pays tribute to the tough romance of a now largely vanished era.
Five days after the release of the 2013 Ontario Budget, Martin Regg Cohn at the Toronto Star wrote: “The big story in Ontario’s budget isn’t the political concessions to the NDP. Nor is it the austerity measures aimed at eliminating the deficit … The real news relates to our slumping economy and the sense that no one in government — or the private sector — knows how to deal with it.” It was the rare kind of newspaper column that at least briefly makes the hair stand on the back of your neck : someone is trying to speak the truth at last.
Probably the first thing to say about the problems of the Ontario economy today is that they have been around for quite a while now. The regional manufacturing sector that had so much to do with the province’s prosperity in the first half of the 20th century was beginning to buckle under new international pressures by the mid to late 1970s. (See, eg, “Economic development in the Peterborough area (staff report)” — a 1978 Ontario government document with which some of us here are especially familiar.) …
[This article is still under construction. More to come soon. Meanwhile, the source references below may help a little.]
SOURCES:
Ontario Economic Update, May 10, 2013
It’s about the economy, Charles Sousa: Cohn … Ontario’s economy is not only sagging, it is lagging the U.S. Beyond balancing the budget, the government is clueless about kickstarting the economy.
ONTARIO’S ECONOMIC OUTLOOK AND FISCAL PLAN,May 2, 2013
Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, April 2013
Emerging Stronger 2013 Ontario Chamber of Commerce … THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA FOR ONTARIO. THE PROVINCE MUST EMBRACE A TRANSFORMATIVE AGENDA THAT WILL CHALLENGE ONTARIANS TO MEET OUR HUGE POTENTIAL.
Ontario — Business and Economy
Ont Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Employment
Ontario Financing Authority, About Ontario
Ontario — A Stable, Growing and Diversified Economy
Ontario Economic Accounts – Fourth Quarter of 2012
Advantage Ontario, Jobs & Prosperity Council 2012
A warning for Ontario: government-led innovation rarely works
Statistics Canada, Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity in Canada, 2011
Revitalizing Ontario’s Forest Tenure System: Foundations for a 21st Century Forest Economy, April 2010
As James Cowan at Maclean’s has recently observed : “We’ve become so accustomed to treating Research In Motion as a dying enterprise, any indication that it might, actually, perhaps, maybe survive is nothing short of miraculous.” It is not dead yet. And Ontario at large still has a credible hi-tech sector, with room for more growth. Tough people built the modern Ontario economy. More tough people will carry on.
“Ontario’s economic life began with its natural resources like fur, timber and minerals. Today, natural resources are still an important part of the economy in northern Ontario, while southern Ontario has become a manufacturing centre. Most Ontarians (70 per cent), however, are employed in the service industries such as business, finance, tourism and culture.” [Exploring Ontario — Guiding Newcomers].
Infrastructure and the Economy: Future directions for Ontario, February 2009
The Changing Occupational Structure of Northern Ontario, April 2008
Economic development in the Peterborough area, 1978.
