TORONTO — Premier Doug Ford told the Empire Club of Canada Wednesday that Ontario’s plan to protect the province is already producing results and that the province must treat U.S. tariffs as a permanent feature of the relationship with its largest trading partner.Speaking at the club’s annual state-of-the-province event, Ford said Canada’s economic partnership with the United States “has changed permanently” and that the province needs to plan accordingly.“We need to ensure that Canada’s future is in Canadian hands now and always,” he said. He repeated that the goal of the plan is to make Ontario “the most competitive place in the G7 to invest, do business and create jobs.”Ford highlighted two large resource and energy projects. He said the critical-mineral deposits in the Ring of Fire region alone will add $22 billion to Ontario’s economy and create 70,000 jobs. He also said the province’s nuclear expansion — upgrades and expansions at Darlington, Bruce and Pickering, the first small modular reactor in the G7, and new large-scale plants — will add 150,000 jobs and $800 billion to GDP. Construction of an all-season road to the Ring of Fire began this summer and is on track to finish five years ahead of schedule, he said, after Ontario and the federal government agreed to a one-project, one-process approval system that cuts timelines in half..On red tape, Ford said the province has reviewed nearly 60% of business-facing permits in less than a year and is cutting the time spent processing them by nearly 220,000 days. He linked that work, plus earlier tax and regulatory cuts, to $12 billion a year in savings for families and businesses. He credited the changes with moving Ontario from the 20th-most attractive jurisdiction for mining investment in 2018 to second in the world and first in Canada last year. “We’re not content with second place,” he said.Ford also listed skills-training and health-care figures. The government is spending more than $2.5 billion to train 1 million people (already at 750,000) and another $1.7 billion to train 70,000 additional students in priority fields, he said. On primary care, he said a $3.4 billion action plan has already connected more than half a million people to family doctors or primary-care providers and is on track to connect everyone by 2029. He stated that provincial health-care spending has risen from $50 billion to $101 billion. Overall infrastructure spending, he said, exceeds $236 billion and covers highways, roads, tunnels and schools.On trade, Ford said Ontario is diversifying markets. He claimed trade with the United Kingdom is up more than 190% and that overall exports are 75% higher than before. He noted that Ontario alone still accounts for half a trillion dollars in trade with the United States and is the top or second-largest trading partner for many American states.He also teased “a really, really good announcement” in Ottawa next week.Ford closed by saying the next legislative session will bring further measures to support tariff-affected workers and businesses while unlocking growth-ready sectors. “That’s our plan to protect Ontario in action, and we will continue getting it done,” he said.
