Counties exist only in southern Ontario. Local municipalities cities, towns, villages, townships within counties provide the majority of municipal services to their residents. The services provided by county governments are usually limited to arterial roads, health and social services and county land use planning.
Prescott and Russell, United Counties. Areas may use the term district but these are territorial boundaries that do not serve any municipal government purpose. Only the District Municipality of Muskoka provides services on a regional-scale. Single-tier municipalities exist across Ontario. They include separated municipalities that are geographically located within a county see County list but are not part of the county for the municipal purposes.
Between and , Ontario shut down all of its coal-fired power plants, replacing them with a combination of renewable, natural gas and nuclear energy sources. As a result of this shift, greenhouse gas emissions produced by the electricity sector dropped 80 per cent during the same time period. There are roughly 71 million hectares of forested land in Ontario, amounting to about two-thirds of the province.
Ninety per cent of these lands are owned by the Crown. Ontario is home to the largest freshwater fishery in North America. Lawrence River. Commonly caught fish include yellow perch , walleye , lake whitefish , white bass and rainbow smelt. Ontario is the leading manufacturing province in Canada. This situation was well-established at the time of Confederation, as the desire was to place industry in a province favoured by ample transportation, abundant natural resources and accessibility to export markets in the United States.
Historically, proximity to the American automotive industry encouraged the location of manufacturing plants in Ontario. The establishment of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler plants spawned a series of related industries dotted all across Southern Ontario. Between and , there was a 25 per cent decrease in manufacturing jobs in Ontario, or , jobs lost. The decline was in large part due to a strong Canadian dollar in the early s, in turn tied to the high price of oil at the time.
A strong dollar meant companies had higher labour costs, prompting many to close or move their businesses elsewhere. The financial crisis only added to the challenges faced by manufacturing firms. For example, in , unemployment in Ontario was 6. By industry, the largest number of Ontarians are employed in the retail and wholesale trade, followed by health care and social assistance, manufacturing, professional services, and financial and real estate industries.
According to the Elections Act , provincial elections are to be held on the first Thursday of June, every four years. Sometimes, should the party in power see it as advantageous, an election may be called before this date. Elections may also occur before four years have passed in cases where the government no longer has the confidence of the Legislative Assembly see Minority Government. As with the other provinces, Ontario uses a first past the post electoral system, meaning the candidate with the most votes in each electoral district wins.
Typically, the party with the most seats forms the government, and the leader of this party becomes premier. However, a party with fewer seats may also form a coalition with members of another party or parties in order to form the government. The premier typically appoints members of the Cabinet from among the MPPs also belonging to the party in power. Cabinet members are referred to as ministers and oversee specific portfolios.
Typical portfolios include finance, health and education. See also Politics in Ontario. Most medical services in Canada are free. Money from taxes is pooled together to fund a health care system often referred to as medicare. While the federal government sets guidelines, each province and territory is responsible for administering its own health care insurance plan; funding for the plan comes from both governments.
As with other provinces and territories, certain services in Ontario are not covered by the provincial health insurance plan. These include going to the dentist, prescription drugs and routine eye exams for those between the ages of 20 and In Ontario, the government department responsible for administering the health care system is the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. See also Health Policy. Within both of these systems are French-language school boards or French-language sections.
Each system is run by boards elected by members of the public. Since , Ontario has provided public funds to support education in Roman Catholic separate schools to the end of grade In , Premier Bill Davis startled Catholics and non-Catholics alike with a sudden announcement that his government would cover all the costs of separate school education in the remaining grades.
This policy was implemented between and Private schools are permitted to operate in accordance with the Education Act but do not receive any funding. Parents may also obtain permission from their local school board to educate their school-age children at home. On reserves, schools are run by the local First Nation and financially supported by the federal government. The federal government also operates six schools on reserves in Ontario, including five on the Six Nations reserve and one on Tyendinaga Mohawk territory see also Education of Indigenous Peoples.
In , the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that every francophone and anglophone student in the province has a right to education in his or her mother tongue. Linguistic minorities, the court also made clear, must be guaranteed representation on school boards and a say in minority-language instruction.
The education system is organized into elementary and secondary levels. Secondary students bound for university formerly completed a fifth year of high school, or grade In general, elementary schools provide programs for children from junior kindergarten to grade 8.
As of September , all school boards were required to make junior and senior kindergarten programs available.
By , full-day, optional kindergarten was available for all 4- and 5-year-olds attending English-language schools; this option had been available for over 10 years to those attending French-language schools. Many municipalities in Ontario have public transit services, most of which include services operating on fixed routes and schedules for the general public and specialized door-to-door transit services for those with disabilities.
Metrolinx, an agency of the Ontario government, was created in to improve the co-ordination of transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas. In , Metrolinx merged with GO transit, a regional public transit service, and in introduced PRESTO, an electronic fare card with the goal of allowing passengers to transfer easily between different transit systems.
There are few roads in the North, and the most reliable form of transportation in this part of the province is still by air or water. The Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, a provincial agency, provides train and bus services to northern communities. Ontario has a large navigable water system, the St. Lawrence Seaway , along its southern frontier.
Thunder Bay moves mainly coal, wheat and canola , while Hamilton handles iron ore, iron, steel, alloys and coal. Munro International Airport. Artistic and cultural endeavour in Ontario is encouraged through a variety of government subsidy programs, some federal and some provincial, such as the Ontario Arts Council founded , an independent government agency that gives grants to individuals and organizations.
A major Shakespearean festival called the Stratford Festival was founded in and is held each year in Stratford. Major museums in Ontario include the Royal Ontario Museum, focusing on natural history and cultures from around the world, and the Aga Khan Museum, focusing on Muslim civilizations. Both are located in Toronto. The midth century Jesuit missions to the Wendat were among the first historic sites opened to the public.
Having supported research in the area since , the Ontario government undertook the reconstruction of Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons near Midland in , and opened it to the public three years later.
Picturesque forts, the legacy of a long period of tension along the American-Canadian border dating from the beginning of the American Revolution, dot the southern reaches of the province. At Kingston, Fort Henry , whose stone walls were originally completed in the s, is perhaps the best known, but Fort George and Fort Erie on the Niagara Historic Frontier , Fort Wellington Prescott , Fort York Toronto and Fort Malden Amhertsburg have also been restored to their appearance at the time of the international crises and conflicts that marked the first part of the 19th century.
Boating enthusiasts enjoy two 19th-century canals — the Rideau Canal , built from to by the Royal Engineers for the movement of troops and military supplies, and the Trent, which dates back to Health officials continue to be the best source of information during this time.
We encourage you to follow MLHealthUnit on Facebook and Twitter for up to date information and visit their website: www. What is now known as the City of London was founded in However, oral history and archeological records show that the London region has been inhabited for over 10, years.
Some of the Indigenous peoples who have continuously called this region home include the Anishnaabeg, Haudenosaunee, and Lenni-Lenape Nations. John Graves Simcoe. The European settlement history of London begins in , when Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe selected the Forks of the Thames as his choice for the future site for the capital of the province. Signatories to the Treaty also known as Treaty No.
London would not be founded until when there was a need for a new settler district town in the region. By that year the provincial capital had long been located in Toronto. What was needed in the southwestern peninsula was an administrative seat for the vast London District which covered most of central western Ontario.
Vittoria, a little village in Norfolk County which had served as the district town for some years, by was too remote from many of the little clusters of settlements which were spreading north from Lake Erie. When the court house at Vittoria was ruined by fire the legislature set up a committee to investigate the possibility of a new and more convenient location for the district town.
A committee presided over by Colonel Mahlon Burwell was appointed to make the selection. Burwell was qualified to advise on the region. He was the right hand man of Colonel Thomas Talbot, the chief colonizer of the western peninsula and had surveyed much of the territory himself.
The committee bypassed St. Thomas which was as close to Lake Erie as Vittoria. They eventually decided on the Crown Reserve of land that Simcoe had set aside many years before at the Forks of the Thames.
Their choice was confirmed in a provincial statute which came into force on January 30, Then a local committee of magistrates headed by Colonel Talbot himself, selected the present site of the Old Court House as the location for the government buildings. Burwell surveyed the town site which covered the area now bounded on the south and west by the two branches of the Thames, roughly by Queens Avenue on the north and by Wellington Street on the east.
A temporary court house was erected for the administration of the London District and work soon began on what is now the Old Court House. Gradually and unwillingly, officials of the London District began to move to the new centre from their comfortable homes in Norfolk County. With them came merchants and hostel keepers including Dennis O'Brien, who was London's first storekeeper and George J.
Goodhue, the first "Millionaire" of the city. Colonel Thomas Talbot. Soon a cluster of buildings mushroomed around the court house square and the streets loyally named after officials of the province and Great Britain, began to hum with life.
The Bank of Upper Canada opened an office in the town and substantial brick stores began to make their appearance. In , the Treasurer of the District John Harris erected the first elegant mansion.
The nucleus of " Eldon House " of today. By that year the settlement had the 1, people needed to be made a separate parliamentary riding. Eldon House. Naturally, London voted Tory. When the Rebellion broke out in , the local division of the Family Compact, the group which administered the province, held the town for the government without difficulty.
Shortly the new Court House was bursting at the seams with the captured rebels. The Rebellion was one of the greatest stimulants to the evolution of London.
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