_
Ontario
Three main geological regions make up
Ontario: the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Lowlands, the Canadian
Shield and the Hudson Bay Lowlands. Although the soil is poor and
not well suited to large-scale farming, there is a wealth of
minerals, forests and water power.
The Canadian Shield
and the Hudson Bay Lowlands cover 90 percent of the province's 1 068
580 km2 of territory, but are home to only 10 percent of the
population. Although the fur trade was the original catalyst for
development in Northern Ontario, many towns in the northern part of
the province were built because of the railway, and today rails and
roads carry the products of the mines and lumber mills southward.
The Economy
Ontario is Canada's
most productive province, generating some 40 percent of the
country's gross domestic product (GDP). Its manufacturing industries
lead the way. Ontario's competitive advantages include its natural
resources, modern transportation system, large, well-educated labour
force, reliable and relatively inexpensive electrical power, and
proximity to key U.S. markets: less than a day's drive puts
Ontario's products within reach of 120 million American consumers.
Automobiles are
Ontario's major manufacturing industry and most important export,
employing more than 140 000 people.
Mining has always
played an important role in the development of Ontario's economy.
Extraction of gold, nickel, copper, uranium and zinc represents a
multi-billion-dollar business. Also, many Ontario towns have at
least one industry connected to forestry. Ninety-one percent of the
forest land is owned by the provincial government, which licenses
logging rights. The forest industry accounts for 5.8 percent of
Ontario's exports.
Financial industries
are also a source of prosperity. Toronto
boasts
the world's fourth-largest capital market and its stock
exchange is ranked among the world's top exchanges.
Tourism, the
province's third-largest industry, is also important to the Ontario
economy. A total revenue of
$2.14 billion was generated in 2006.
|
