The Provincial North is the centrepiece of Canadian nation-building

Globe and Mail

13 hours ago

Ken Coates is the senior fellow for the Provincial North, and Charles Cirtwill is the president and CEO, at the Northern Policy Institute.
Not for the first time in Canadian history, the vast sub-Arctic area known as the Provincial North holds the key to the country's economic future. This time, we need to get it right.
For generations, Canada and its provinces have capitalized on the resource wealth of the Provincial North, returning surprisingly few benefits and considerable dislocation to the people living there. The country got rich on Northern development and was propelled to sustained prosperity by it in the post-Second World War era. But it was a prosperity enjoyed almost exclusively by regions outside the Provincial North. This approach must be reordered, and quickly. This new phase of development must be North-centred, prioritizing prosperity in the regions most affected, and include comprehensive Indigenous engagement.
To a degree that Canadians have long since forgotten, it was this region, stretching from Newfoundland and Labrador to Northern British Columbia, that sustained the commercial fur trade that solidified Britain's hold on northern North America. Much of Canada's current prosperity continues to stem from the Northern parts of its provinces.
Newfoundland and Labrador contributes the Voisey's Bay nickel mine and the Churchill Falls Generating Station. Hydropower from Northern Quebec supports the provincial treasury and economy. Ontario has long counted on Northern mining and forestry operations to underpin provincial prosperity, while hydropower and mining projects in Northern Manitoba, uranium mining in Northern Saskatchewan, oil sands and natural-gas extraction in Northern Alberta, and natural gas and forestry operations in Northern B.C. all support their respective provincial economies, and Canada's prosperity at large.
The Provincial North's population belies its importance, with fewer than two million Canadians residing in the area. It has a large Indigenous population and, reflecting well-established socio-economic patterns in Canada, many of the poorest communities in the country. Poorly planned projects following the Second World War left serious ecological and social scars across the region, undermining regional confidence in economic planning and the unreliable promises of developers.
The Provincial North has rarely held significant political power. The regions are largely subservient to provincial capitals. But the federal election of 2025 transformed the political calculus of the Canadian sub-Arctic. The Liberal Party won seats in Labrador, Northern Quebec, Northern Manitoba and Northern Saskatchewan, and three out of five seats in Northern Ontario. Predictably, the Liberals were shut out in Northern Alberta and Northern B.C., although the election of Conservative Ellis Ross in Skeena-Bulkley Valley in B.C. brought another highly influential Indigenous leader into the House of Commons. The Provincial North, for the first time, has a political presence of real substance.
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But the authority goes further. Rebecca Chartrand (representing a Northern Manitoba riding) is now the Minister of Northern and Arctic Affairs; Mandy Gull-Masty (representing a Northern Quebec riding) is the Minister of Indigenous Services; Patty Hajdu (who resides in Thunder Bay, Ont.) is Minister of Jobs, and Buckley Belanger (from Northern Saskatchewan) is Secretary of State for Rural Development. Rebecca Alty, from the Northwest Territories, is Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations. Ms. Chartrand and Ms. Hajdu are also in charge of the federal economic development agencies for Northern Canada and Northern Ontario, respectively. The Provincial North has, for now, cabinet authority that matches the region's future economic importance.
Proposed development projects in the Provincial North feature prominently in the national conversation. A bitumen pipeline from Alberta to the B.C. coast is the most controversial – and economically important. Extending northern-corridor development through to the coast of Hudson's Bay includes a region-changing proposal for a gas pipeline from Southern Manitoba. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has also pushed for the development of the province's Ring of Fire and defends the idea of a deep-sea port in James Bay. To this list can be added numerous major mining projects, the upgrading of the Hudson Bay Railway to the Port of Churchill, Man., and various road and energy proposals.
The 'sleeper' in the development package, championed by Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, is the suggestion that Canada make a commitment to elevating infrastructure in Indigenous communities. Many communities in the Provincial North have substandard internet, water services, fire protection and roads, to say nothing of the most serious shortcoming in the region: housing. While not a traditional megaproject, a collective commitment of this nature could well form part of a 'grand bargain' that secures Indigenous support for resource and infrastructure plans.
If Prime Minister Mark Carney's ambitious and still ill-defined plan for national economic renewal has a chance of success, the next decade will clearly be shaped by the development of the Provincial North. The people of the Provincial North should be clear winners in this endeavour, or Canada will be the loser.