Ontario’s future depends on Northern and rural communities with reliable services, safer roads, growing main streets, and world-class food and resource economies.
Guarantee access to essential services across rural and northern communities.
Build regional prosperity through small-town renewal and resource value chains.
Keep Ontario's family farms in production and lead the food economy of the next century.
Drive a couple of hours out of the Greater Toronto Area in any direction and you are in the Ontario that feeds the rest of us, powers the rest of us, and sits on the resource wealth the whole province lives off. It has been told to make do with less for a very long time. Fewer doctors. Buses that thinned out and then stopped. Emergency rooms that close on a schedule. Main streets where every third window is papered over.
This is not a small corner of the province to be managed around. It is a quarter of Ontario's people and the foundation of its economy, and for too long it has been an afterthought to governments that count their votes in the suburbs.
This section says it plainly: Northern and rural communities deserve better, and Ontario's own future depends on them having it. It sets real provincial standards for the essentials, the healthcare and transportation and broadband and safe roads people should be able to count on, and it funds the doctors, paramedics, and buses to meet them. It brings main streets back to life and moves good public sector jobs out of the GTA and into the towns that hold the rest of the province together. Finally, it backs the farming and resource economies that will matter even more in the century ahead.
Set clear provincial standards for healthcare, mobility, and basic infrastructure in rural and Northern communities. Fund the doctors, paramedics, transit, and broadband needed to meet them.
Build the Main Street, public sector, tourism, and resource economies that keep communities together. Move provincial jobs out of the GTA and invest in the towns that anchor Ontario outside the south.
Keep Ontario's family farms in production and build the processing, distribution, and storage capacity that turns Ontario food into a globally competitive industry.
| Goal | Lower | Upper |
|---|---|---|
| Total — Northern and Rural Communities Deserve Better | ($330M) | ($450M) |
| Easy Access to Essential Services | ($100M) | ($300M) |
| Growth That Keeps Communities Together | ($230M) | ($150M) |
| Feed Ontario and The World | $0 | $0 |
Net budgetary impact over the Ontario Budget 2026 baseline. Negative numbers represent net new provincial spending; positive numbers represent net savings or revenue.
Detail on how each cost or savings estimate was derived. All figures represent net budgetary impact over the Ontario Budget 2026 baseline.
| Idea | Lower | Upper | How it was estimated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Set a provincial rural mobility standard. | $0 | $0 | Cost of intercity bus, Ontario Northland, and regional rail expansion is carried in the Transportation section. |
| Restore provincial bus connectivity for rural and smaller communities. | $0 | $0 | Stable operating funding, Ontario Northland expansion, and regional-hub links at $200-400M/yr. Cost is carried in the Transportation section. |
| Set rural and northern healthcare access standards backed by provincial incentives. | ($100M) | ($300M) | Recruitment, compensation, and relocation incentives for doctors in underserved communities at $100-300M/yr above the current Northern and rural recruitment fund. Broader healthcare costs sit in the Health section. |
| Improve rural and northern basic infrastructure. | $0 | $0 | Funded through the Transportation section and existing programs: the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund, Northern Highways Program, and provincial broadband strategy. |
| Create a framework for Indigenous-led urban partnerships in Northern centres. | $0 | $0 | Framework development and consultation are covered by the existing Indigenous Affairs Ontario budget. Implementation costs depend on the partnership agreements reached. |
| Protect Northern and rural communities from forest fires. | $0 | $0 | Positioned as a strategy and coordination effort — wildfire prevention, faster response, and insurer engagement — delivered within existing emergency-management, forestry, and ministry budgets. Faster prevention and response is expected to reduce future firefighting, evacuation, and disaster-recovery costs. |
| Guarantee French-language services for Franco-Ontarian communities. | $0 | $0 | Standards, active offer, and agency designation delivered within the existing French Language Services framework and the federal Canada-Ontario francophone agreement, so there is no net new provincial cost. |
| Idea | Lower | Upper | How it was estimated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch a small-town and Main Street renewal strategy. | ($250M) | ($500M) | Main Street renewal across small towns and mid-sized cities at $250-500M/yr for downtown revitalization, commercial vacancy, small-business succession financing, and tourism infrastructure. A land value tax could help finance renewal zones. |
| Move provincial jobs out of the GTA. | +$100M | +$500M | Lower wages, real estate, and maintenance costs plus sales of redundant Toronto-area buildings save $100-500M/yr as relocations take hold. |
| Revitalize Ontario Parks and grow the rural tourism economy. | ($50M) | ($100M) | Capital and operating expansion of $50-100M/yr above current Ontario Parks spending, partly offset by higher fee revenue. Qualified outside operators can expand the network. |
| Help Northern and rural communities manage mosquitoes, ticks, and black flies. | ($30M) | ($50M) | A targeted program at $30-50M/yr for surveillance, public information, and mitigation in priority zones, including Lyme disease and West Nile virus capacity. |
| Support forestry and resource communities by rebuilding local value chains. | $0 | $0 | Works within existing Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation and Invest Ontario budgets; a mandate change directs that funding toward value-added processing and downstream manufacturing. |
| Create a Northern service-centre growth strategy. | $0 | $0 | Strategy work and pilots cost $10-30M/yr, handled within existing Northern development and municipal affairs ministry capacity. Major capital flows through the Housing, Transportation, and Health budgets. |
| Upgrade the Northern Trans-Canada Highway as a national project. | $0 | $0 | Cost is carried in the Transportation section. Twinning and 2+1 upgrades draw largely on the federal National Trade Corridors Fund and the existing Northern Highways Program. |
| Explore the viability of a Northern passenger rail network. | $0 | $0 | Feasibility study and corridor preservation cost $10-30M. Construction would be considered in future capital cycles once the study reports. |
| Work with the federal government on a Northern Ontario immigration pathway. | $0 | $0 | Federal-provincial coordination at no direct provincial cost. Builds on the existing Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot, expanding nominations through the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program. |
| Idea | Lower | Upper | How it was estimated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keep family farms in production. | $0 | $0 | Works within existing Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and Farm Credit Canada partnerships. Loan guarantees help families pass farms between generations, with the modest cost absorbed by existing risk-management and rural development programs. |
| Grow Ontario's food economy. | $0 | $0 | Works within existing Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Invest Ontario, and Build Ontario Fund mandates, pointing agri-food capital support toward processing, storage, and market expansion. |
| More buyers for farmers, more choice for families. | $0 | $0 | Existing Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs programs cover small-scale capital support for local processors, distributors, abattoirs, and storage. Bigger gains depend on federal competition law reform, with no new provincial spending. |
Every dollar goes to work — with up to 75% back in tax credits.
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