Vic Fedeli

On a rock-covered beach in the heart of the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario, Alex Moonias gazes east, then north. All he sees is undisturbed land, water and air.

Stellantis and LG Energy Solution announced on Wednesday, July 5, 2023, that their electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor, Ont., is back on track after reaching a "binding" financing deal with the governments of Canada and Ontario.

Ottawa and Ontario have reached a deal with a global materials technology and recycling group to build a new battery component facility in the province's Loyalist Township that will supply parts for electric vehicles.

The federal and Ontario governments are spending $259 million each to support production at General Motors facilities in the province, including an electric vehicle production line they say will be the first of its kind in the country.

The cabinet shuffle comes as the Ford government looks to reset after two months of bad polling for the Ontario Conservatives, a badly received budget that was full of cuts across industries and sectors, and three sets of boos directed at the premier (including one very loud one conducted by tens of thousands of people at the Toronto Raptors Championship parade on Monday).

Ontario residents who need a lawyer but cannot afford one may soon be affected by dramatic cuts announced on Thursday in the Ford government's first budget. This is among a series of sweeping changes that the government says is part of "modernizing" the justice system and saving money.

The Ontario budget is neither as dramatically geared for austerity as was feared nor as transformational as some might have hoped. The budget theme is “protecting what matters most.” That means what they spend on is a clear indication of their priorities. That priority is clear: balancing the budget. But carefully, over six years. Spread the time to spread the pain. 

Efforts to exploit mineral resources in the Ring of Fire region has been fraught with controversy and opposition, as First Nations communities assert jurisdiction over traditional territory and raise concerns about the use of land and risk of water contamination.

The words “red tape” were mentioned 80 times in the 383-page budget document, compared to 17 references to “climate change” — a fair reflection on the priorities Ford pitched on the campaign trail last year. 

The 2019 budget forecasts that Ontario’s public account will not reach balance until 2023–24, one year earlier than the prior Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne had proposed but beyond the current term of the government’s mandate, breaking one of Ford’s key election promises.

Though he officially takes up the premier's mantle on Friday, June 29, 2018, Doug Ford has already set the wheels in motion for several of his plans for Ontario — and one expert predicts the Progressive Conservative leader will move quickly on his agenda once he seizes the reins of the province.

The interim leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservative party issued a statement Friday morning announcing former leader Patrick Brown has been removed from the party's caucus altogether.