Ontario is Canada's leading manufacturing province, accounting for 52% of the total national manufacturing shipments in 2004. Ontario's largest trading partner is the American state of Michigan. The government of Ontario posted a record C$21.3 billion ($20.7 billion) deficit for the 2009-10 fiscal year. The province’s net debt will rise to C$220 billion in 2010-11, or a record 37% of gross domestic product.
Ontario's rivers make it rich in hydroelectric energy. In 2009 Ontario Power Generation generated 70% of the electricity of the province, of which 51% is nuclear, 39% is hydroelectric and 10% is fossil fuel derived. Much of the newer power generation coming online in the last few years is natural gas or combined cycle natural gas plants. OPG is not however responsible for the transmission of power, which is under the control of Hydro One. Despite its diverse range of power options, problems related to increasing consumption, lack of energy efficiency and aging nuclear reactors, Ontario has been forced in recent years to purchase power from its neighbours Quebec and Michigan to supplement its power needs during peak consumption periods.
An abundance of natural resources, excellent transportation links to the American heartland and the inland Great Lakes making ocean access possible via container ships, have all contributed to making manufacturing the principal industry, found mainly in the Golden Horseshoe region, which is the largest industrialized area in Canada, the southern end of the region being part of the North American Rust Belt. Important products include motor vehicles, iron, steel, food, electrical appliances, machinery, chemicals, and paper. Ontario surpassed Michigan in car production, assembling 2.696 million vehicles in 2004. Ontario has Chrysler plants in Windsor and Bramalea, two GM plants in Oshawa and one in Ingersoll, a Honda assembly plant in Alliston, Ford plants in Oakville and St. Thomas and Toyota assembly plants in Cambridge and Woodstock.
However, as a result of steeply declining sales, in 2005, General Motors announced massive layoffs at production facilities across North America including two large GM plants in Oshawa and a drive train facility in St. Catharines resulting in 8,000 job losses in Ontario alone. In 2006, Ford Motor Company announced between 25,000 and 30,000 layoffs phased until 2012; Ontario was spared the worst, but job losses were announced for the St. Thomas facility and the Windsor Casting plant. However, these losses will be offset by Ford's recent announcement of a hybrid vehicle facility slated to begin production in 2007 at its Oakville plant and GM's re-introduction of the Camaro which will be produced in Oshawa. On December 4, 2008 Toyota announced the grand opening of the RAV4 plant in Woodstock, and Honda also has plans to add an engine plant at its facility in Alliston. Despite these new plants coming online, Ontario has not yet fully recovered following massive layoffs caused by the global recession; its unemployment rate was 7.3% (as of May 2013), compared to 8.7% in Jan. 2010 and roughly 6% in 2007.
Toronto, the capital of Ontario, is the centre of Canada's financial services and banking industry. Neighbouring cities are home to product distribution, IT centres, and various manufacturing industries. Canada's Federal Government is the largest single employer in the National Capital Region, which centres on the border cities of Ontario's Ottawa and Quebec's Gatineau. The information technology sector is important, particularly in the Silicon Valley North section of Ottawa, as well as the Waterloo Region, where the world headquarters of Research in Motion (the developers of the BlackBerry smartphone) is located. Providing more than 19% of the local jobs and employing more than 13% of the entire local population. Hamilton is the largest steel manufacturing city in Canada, and Sarnia is the centre for petrochemical production. Construction continues to employ more than 6½% of the province's work force as of June 2011.
Mining and the forest products industry, notably pulp and paper, are vital to the economy of Northern Ontario. More than any other region, tourism contributes heavily to the economy of Central Ontario, peaking during the summer months owing to the abundance of fresh water recreation and wilderness found there in reasonable proximity to the major urban centres. At other times of the year, hunting, skiing and snowmobiling are popular. This region has some of the most vibrant fall colour displays anywhere on the continent, and tours directed at overseas visitors are organized to see them. Tourism also plays a key role in border cities with large casinos, among them Windsor, Cornwall, Sarnia and Niagara Falls, which attract many U.S. visitors.
Agriculture Fruit from the Niagara region for distribution, ca. 1914Once the dominant industry, agriculture occupies a small percentage of the population but still a large part of Southern Ontario's land area. As the following table shows, while the number of individual farms has steadily decreased and their overall size has shrunk at a lower rate, greater mechanization has supported increased supply to satisfy the ever increasing demands of a growing population base; this has also meant a gradual increase in the total amount of land used for growing crops.
Ontario Farming 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 Number of Farms 72,713 68,633 67,520 59,728 57,211 Total Hectares 5,646,582 5,451,379 5,616,860 5,466,233 5,386,453 Acres 13,953,009 13,470,652 13,879,565 13,507,358 13,310,217 Planted Crops Hectares 3,457,966 3,411,667 3,544,927 3,656,705 3,660,941 Acres 8,544,821 8,430,438 8,759,707 9,035,916 9,046,383 Source: Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture. Wikipedia.org/OntarioCattle, small grains and dairy were the common types of farms in the 2001 census. The fruit and grape growing industry is located primarily on the Niagara Peninsula and along Lake Erie, where tobacco farms are also situated. Market Vegetables are also grown in the rich soils of the Holland Marsh near Newmarket.
The area susinctly defined as the Corn Belt covers much of the southwestern area of the province extending as far north as close to Goderich, but corn and soy are grown throughout the southern portion of the province. Apple orchards are a common sight along the southern shore of Nottawasaga Bay (part of Georgian Bay) near Collingwood and along the northern shore of Lake Ontario near Cobourg. Tobacco production, centred in Norfolk County has decreased leading to an increase in some other new crop alternatives gaining popularity, such as hazelnuts and ginseng. The Ontario origins of Massey Ferguson, once one of the largest farm implement manufacturers in the world, indicate the importance agriculture once had to the Canadian economy. Southern Ontario's limited supply of agricultural land is going out of production at an increasing rate. Urban sprawl and farmland severances contribute to the loss of thousands of acres of productive agricultural land in Ontario each year. Over 2,000 farms and 150,000 acres (61,000 ha) of farmland in the GTA alone were lost to production in the two decades between 1976 and 1996. This loss represented approximately 18% of Ontario's Class 1 farmland being converted to urban purposes. In addition, increasing rural severances provide ever-greater interference with agricultural production.
Energy See also: Energy policy of Canada, Renewable energy in Canada, and Smart grid The CANDU Bruce Nuclear Generating Station on Lake Huron is the largest nuclear power plant in the world.The Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009 (GEA), takes a two-pronged approach to creating a Renewable energy commercialization. The first is to bring more renewable energy sources to the province and the second is the creation of more energy efficiency measures to help conserve energy. The bill would also appoint a Renewable Energy Facilitator to provide "one-window" assistance and support to project developers in order to facilitate project approvals.
The approvals process for transmission projects would also be streamlined and for the first time in Ontario, the bill would enact standards for renewable energy projects. Homeowners would have access to incentives to develop small-scale renewables such as low- or no-interest loans to finance the capital cost of renewable energy generating facilities like solar panels.
Ontario is home to Niagara Falls, which supplies a large amount of hydroelectricity for the province. The Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, the largest nuclear power plant in the world, is also in Ontario and uses 8 CANDU reactors to generate electricity for the province.
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