Development, highway safety among northern Ontario leaders' key priorities for 2026
CBC
As both the provincial and federal governments hone in on mining opportunities in northern Ontario, supporting local industries and building safer highways are top of mind for regional leaders this year.
The Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association (NOMA) advocates on behalf of the region at both the provincial and federal levels. It works closely with the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities, which represents communities in the northeast.
After a year of uncertainty amid the Canada-U.S. trade war, NOMA has welcomed recent policies which aim to fast-track development, such as the lucrative Ring of Fire mineral deposit in the James Bay lowlands.
This includes the new One Project, One Process, One Decision model introduced by the Ontario and federal governments in mid-December. Under this framework, projects in Ontario that were previously subject to both federal and provincial approvals are now only subject to Ontario’s environmental assessment process.
“We gotta keep bringing the message to southern Ontario and Queen’s Park and of course to Ottawa, talking about how important the north is to Ontario and Canada for that matter,” said Rick Dumas, president of NOMA and mayor of Marathon, in an interview with CBC News on Wednesday.
“Everything in [a] home, including the electronics we're talking on today, come from either a mine or the forest — so without those two industries and the key vital economic impact to our regions, we're really in rough shape.”
While a number of environmental advocates and First Nations leaders have criticized efforts to speed up development approvals, particularly in the Ring of Fire, Dumas said it’s important for people to recognize the region’s potential to bring jobs and prosperity to smaller communities.
One of his main focuses is making sure “we get some of those dollars back coming to our communities for the things we need from the resource sector that we supply,” he explained.
The local forestry sector faced many challenges in the last year; the Ear Falls sawmill and the Kapuskasing paper mill both saw shutdowns attributed to financial pressures from U.S. tariffs. Meanwhile, residents are concerned about the fate of the Terrace Bay pulp mill, which has been left idling since January 2024.
“People don't realize that every part of their life every day is affected by the mining or forestry sector, a resource-based industry,” Dumas said.
As for improving highway safety — specifically along the Highway 11-17 corridor — Dumas said while roads have been better maintained than in previous years, there’s still an urgent need for change.
Days before Christmas, three members of a family from Dryden were killed following a collision between a pickup truck and a tractor trailer on Highway 11 in Opasatika Township, east of Hearst.
“A 41-year-old, a 15-year-old, and a 12-year-old were pronounced deceased at the scene. No injuries were reported for the driver of the tractor trailer,” the James Bay OPP said in a news release issued Dec. 21.
Guy Bourgouin, the MPP for Mushkegowuk—James Bay, wrote a letter to Ontario Premier Doug Ford the following day, saying “this loss is devastating — and it was preventable.”
Tucked inside Toronto’s leafy, quiet and private residential neighbourhoods are facades that tell the story of another time in the city’s urban planning history.
Ontario’s two main opposition parties will try to turn the page on what was a difficult year, with one rebuilding after an underwhelming leadership vote result and another searching for a new person to take the party helm.
This year, two things will happen to Canada's fiscal watchdog: Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer Jason Jacques will be replaced or made permanent, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will publish its review of the office.
As the era of bilateral bad blood between Canada and the U.S. drags on, some snowbirds are facing a choice this January: Go south to warmer climes, or boycott a country that has gone from friend to somewhat of a foe.
RCMP are warning people of slippery conditions on the Trans-Canada Highway after a transport truck slid off the road in the area of Clarenville, N.L.
Sidney Crosby is remembering fellow Nova Scotian Lowell MacDonald, a former NHLer who died Sunday, as an inspiration to his career.
Moncton artist Alan Spinney doesn't usually paint on a five-by-five inch canvas, but he and his wife have started doing that for a new mini-art gallery.
Residents of Pimicikamak Cree Nation are celebrating and relieved now that power and electricity are being restored to the community.
Two people are dead after an early-morning highway collision on New Year’s Day, the Saskatoon Fire Department said Thursday morning.
A small group of Haitian Canadians celebrated the island nation's Independence Day at a B.C. church on Thursday by serving soup that symbolizes freedom.
The crowd of spectators was much larger than the number of people lined up to go into the icy waters of the Charlottetown harbour for Thursday's polar bear dip.
In a park just outside city hall, along one of the main routes through Williams Lake, B.C., sits a memorial to Cheryl Folden, a woman described as a former drug dealer who died after a lifetime of struggling with addiction, abuse and homelessness in the province's Cariboo region.
A day after officials first asked Calgarians to reduce their water use in the wake of Tuesday’s catastrophic water main break, the city says it is not seeing any real reduction in usage.