Opportunities for Northern Ontario

Northern Ideas for Northern Opportunity

Yasir Naqvi, Ontario Liberal Party leadership candidate, announces a comprehensive strategy to invest in Northerners.

Released - August 2, 2023 

Ontario is regionally diverse with communities across the province facing unique challenges and needs. Northern Ontario is by far the largest region of our province and is home to vibrant cities, towns, and Indigenous communities, but yet is too often an afterthought when it comes to policy-making at Queen’s Park. 

As Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, Yasir Naqvi will not accept the status quo – Northerners deserve better.

Driving growth and success in Northern Ontario starts with partnership.

With 5 universities, a world-class medical school, six colleges, and a diversified economy that spans forestry and mining, agriculture, tourism, arts and culture, TV and film production, as well as an emerging digital economy, Northern Ontario should be a bright spot when it comes to growth in our province. 

And with the potential to take a leading position in the extraction and processing of minerals that are crucial to the future economic growth of Northern Ontario, we should be looking forward to a sustained economic and population boom in the North. But the Ministry of Finance is projecting that the region’s population is going to grow more slowly over the next 25 years than the rest of the province. 

“It’s time for a government at Queen’s Park that recognizes the tremendous opportunity Northern Ontario presents, and that will actually listen to and work with Northerners to make the changes they need to unlock the economic opportunity of the region. Ontario needs a Premier and government that will listen to Northerners and prioritise health care, economic growth and prosperity in the North”

Yasir Naqvi

A Yasir Naqvi-led Ontario government will work with Northerners to develop and execute a Northern strategy that makes sense, focused on families, communities and the local economy;

1 - Ensure that every Northerner can access family and emergency healthcare when and where they need it most. Building on my plan to fast-track the licensing of Internationally Trained Professionals, we will provide incentives for doctors and nurses who are willing to practice in underserved communities in the North — whether in family practice or at a hospital, to help keep emergency departments open. We will also expand the use of Nurse-Practitioner led clinics, with a focus on establishing them in underserved communities to provide another way to access comprehensive family healthcare.

2 - Grow the population of Northern Ontario through improved connectivity and educational and economic opportunities. We will invest in improving the physical and digital connectivity of communities across the North to make them a more attractive place to live, work, and grow a business. By investing in connectivity, we will remove barriers to Northern businesses by ensuring physical access via four-lane highways and allow for more remote workers to reside in the North. We will also increase access to higher education in the North, by revisiting the funding model for Northern post-secondary institutions

3 - Position Northern Ontario as a world leader in critical mineral extraction and processing while respecting Indigenous rights. The North has an abundance of the necessary minerals, a critical mass of mining and processing knowledge and capacity, and the land required for heavy industrial plants. We need a government that is focused on this critical component of the supply chain, but that does so in a way that recognizes Indigenous rights, consults with Indigenous communities, shares economic opportunities equitably and considers environmental impact.

 

 

 

Policy Backgrounder

Opportunities for Northern Ontario

Ontario is a big province, with many different regions and communities, all of which have their own needs. Northern Ontario makes up the bulk of the Province’s land mass, and the region and communities that make it up have their own unique needs and need special consideration to address their challenges and take advantage of their opportunities. 

Northern Ontario is over 800,000 square kilometres — significantly bigger than Texas — and home to vibrant cities, towns, and Indigenous communities, and yet it is often treated as an afterthought when it comes to policy-making at Queen’s Park. 

With five universities, a medical school, six colleges, and a diversified economy that spans forestry and mining, agriculture, tourism, arts and culture, television and film production, and an emerging digital economy, Northern Ontario should be a bright spot when it comes to growth in this province. 

And with the potential to take a leading position in the extraction and processing of minerals that are crucial to the 21st Century economy, including made-in-Ontario electric vehicles, you would think that as a province, we would be looking at a sustained economic and population boom in the North. But the Ministry of Finance is projecting that the region’s population is going to grow more slowly over the next 25 years than the rest of the province. 

And as that plays out, Northerners today are facing a significant number of challenges, including:

  • A shortage of medical professionals, including a lack of family doctors, and ER closures being experienced this summer.
  • Challenges accessing services in larger communities because of inadequate roads.
  • Underutilized post-secondary institutions.
  • An economy that needs to be diversified, so there are more jobs and opportunities to attract and keep young people and new Canadians 
  • Economic prosperity that is not being fairly shared with indigenous communities, and challenges to developing mineral deposits in a way that recognizes indigenous rights.

It’s time for a government at Queen’s Park that recognizes the tremendous opportunity Northern Ontario presents, and that will execute a strong  plan to support the growth of the northern economy and northern communities that’s in the best interest of Northern Ontarians..

A Yasir Naqvi-led Ontario Liberal government will challenge the status quo and make economic growth and prosperity in Northern Ontario a priority. 

At the core of this strategy will be a focus on creating the conditions for the economy and communities of Northern Ontario to grow through targeted investments and incentives, and by ensuring policy development is done in partnership with Northerners.  in policy The key components of this Northern agenda include:

1) Ensure that every Northerner can access family and emergency health care when it is needed and close to home.

Building on my plan to fast-track the accreditation of  Internationally Trained Professionals, we will provide incentives for doctors and nurses who are willing to practice in underserved communities in the North, whether in family practice or at a hospital, to help keep emergency departments open. The incentives will be dependent on a multi-year commitment to remain in small communities, and the parameters of the program will be decided on through consultation with experts and northern representatives. 

We will expand the use of Nurse-Practitioner led clinics, with a focus on establishing them in underserved communities to provide another way to access comprehensive family health care. The focus will be on building out multi-disciplinary teams that can provide care that is appropriate for the community. 

 

2) Grow the population of Northern Ontario through improved connectivity and educational and economic opportunities.

We will invest in improving the physical and digital connectivity of communities across the North to make them a more attractive place to live, work, and grow a business. Roads are critical in Northern Ontario, but as the Auditor General found in her 2022 report, the Ford government redirected money committed to Northern Highways to Southern Ontario and politicized northern highway funding by re-prioritizing lower priority projects so they happen over higher-priority projects. The Ford government is also moving to a 2+1 lane approach in the North, instead of four-laning. 

We will focus on increasing accessibility in Northern Ontario by four-laning key highways, with a focus on the Trans-Canada, and major routes connecting population centers. Along with expert advice, our approach will be informed by Northerners, so that decisions are made in a way that prioritizes the economy and Northerner’s ability to access services in large population centers. 

We will also invest in improved digital connectivity across the province, removing barriers to businesses locating in Northern Ontario and allowing for more people to work remotely in the North if they choose to by making targeted investments in broadband and cellular connectivity, building on existing programs. 

We will increase access to higher education in the North, by revisiting the funding model for Northern post-secondary institutions, allowing them to increase the rates of post-secondary attainment in the North, and make their campuses more attractive to students from elsewhere in Canada. We know that many people who go to school in Northern Ontario choose to build their careers and families there, so exposing more individuals to the north will help to grow northern communities in a sustainable way. 

We will look to learn lessons from the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot, a Federal program that is designed to increase the number of economic immigrants moving to Rural and Northern communities, by creating a path to permanent residence for skilled foreign workers. The pilot is scheduled to run through February 2024. 

3) Position Northern Ontario as a world leader in mineral extraction and processing while respecting Indigenous rights.

Ontario has a chance to be a world leader in the Electric Vehicle revolution, but governments are currently only focused on manufacturing jobs in Southern Ontario. The north has an abundance of the necessary minerals, a critical mass of mining and processing knowledge and capacity, and the land required for heavy industrial plants. We need a government that is focused on this critical portion of the supply chain, but that does so in a way that recognizes Indigenous rights and shares the economic opportunities fairly. This means proper consultation with Indigenous groups and Northern residents, and a plan to manage the environmental impacts of these projects before proceeding.