Letter to the Editor

Rebuilding Ontario Starts in the North

For decades, Northern Ontario was the undisputed engine of Canada’s economy. What once powered the province—resource wealth, skilled labour, and strong communities—has been run into the ground. The engine isn’t just sputtering. It has stalled entirely.
A recent report from the Fraser Institute, a conservative think tank, confirms what people across Northern Ontario already know: Ontario’s economy is in managed decline. Percapita GDP has fallen for five straight years, leaving the average Ontarian poorer today than before the pandemic. In regions already struggling with disinvestment, that decline hits harder, lasts longer, and cuts deeper.
In a province blessed with skilled labour and natural resources, that isn’t a “rough patch.” It’s economic malpractice.
The crisis isn’t just stagnation—it’s debt, and a staggering amount of it, with little to show in return. 
Doug Ford has run billiondollar deficits every year he’s been in office. Provincial debt now sits at $416 billion, projected to climb to $547 billion by the end of his term. To put that in perspective: Ontario’s debt is now larger than the entire annual economic output of Norway.
And as any homeowner knows, debt isn’t free. This year alone, Ontarians will pay $14 billion just in interest—money that builds no hospitals, repairs no schools, and paves no roads. It produces nothing except a bill.
What makes this worse is that record spending has not delivered record results. Ontario ranks last in Canada for percapita healthcare funding, even as emergency room closures reached record levels in 2024. Nearly half of Ontario’s schools are in poor repair, and 150,000 students lack permanent classroom space, according to the Auditor General.
Doug Ford’s lavish spending has flowed into corporate sweetheart deals and politically connected projects, while the real foundations of economic health have atrophied. We have traded an economy of merit for an economy of patronage. While 700,000 Ontarians struggle to find work, those with the right connections, cash in.
Ontario’s Auditor General documented that Ford’s government has handed out $1.3 billion through the “Skills Development Fund” to well-connected lobbyists with terrible business plans. Meanwhile, sawmills in Northwestern Ontario are shutting down, entire communities are hollowed out, and workers are left with no public support.
Billions have been burned on splashy announcements, broken megaprojects, and shortterm political theatre—while good jobs, stable industries, public infrastructure, Northern development, and longterm planning have been sacrificed.
Ontario doesn’t suffer from a lack of spending. It suffers from a lack of priorities.
If we want real, lasting growth, we need to fundamentally change how our economy works—and who it works for. That means putting workers first and rebuilding from the north out.
It means supporting workerowned sawmills and enterprises. When workers hold equity, they reinvest locally, keep operations rooted in their communities, and prioritize stable employment over shortterm extraction. Profits stay where they’re earned—and so do the jobs.
It also means serious public investment in sustainable, valueadded northern industries—from engineered wood products to battery minerals—so Ontario isn’t just exporting raw materials, but building the future economy at home.
Ontario needs a new economic strategy: one that makes the investments required for the future we want. One that works—for working northerners.
Because the truth is simple: an economy that leaves people poorer year after year isn’t just “underperforming”—it’s broken. And fixing it will require rethinking who owns Ontario’s economy, who benefits from it, and what kind of future we want to build.
Luke Hildebrand
Northern Co-Chair
President Kenora—Rainy River Ontario New Democratic Party
Co-President Kenora—Kiiwetinoong New Democratic Party