The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) is a

Crown corporation A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

and development agency of the

Ministry of Northern Development and Mines The Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines (MENDM) was the ministry responsible for developing a safe, reliable and affordable energy supply across the province, overseeing Ontario’s mineral sector and promoting northern economic an ...

in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, whose purpose is to provide funding and program support to foster

economic development In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and o ...

in the economically disadvantaged

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Provi ...

region."North to get economic help". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', November 4, 1987. The NOHFC concentrates on six key funding programs:

job creation Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the referen ...

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

research and development,

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...

and

community development The United Nations defines community development as "a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems." It is a broad concept, applied to the practices of civic leaders, activists ...

, youth

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

, youth

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...

and

cooperative education Cooperative education (or co-operative education) is a structured method of combining classroom-based education with practical work experience. A cooperative education experience, commonly known as a "co-op", provides academic credit for struct ...

, and generation and conservation of renewable energy.

History

First announced in the

David Peterson David Robert Peterson (born December 28, 1943) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 20th premier of Ontario from 1985 to 1990. He was the first Liberal officeholder in 42 years, ending the so-called Tory dynasty. Backgro ...

government's 1987 throne speech, the NOHFC's creation was included in the 1988 provincial budget, and the enabling legislation was given

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...

on June 7, 1988. At the time, it was set up as a short-term program which was slated to conclude in 1999; it has since seen periodic funding expansions and term extensions, and continues to run today, although as of 2020 the NOHFC has still not been officially converted into a permanent program. The organization's first board, consisting of 19 representatives from various cities and towns across the region, was named in July 1988. One of the NOHFC's first large-scale investments was a $7.6 million contribution to the creation and construction of the

Sudbury Neutrino Observatory The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) was a neutrino observatory located 2100 m underground in Vale's Creighton Mine in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The detector was designed to detect solar neutrinos through their interactions with a large t ...

. In its earliest years, the NOHFC received some criticism focusing on allegations that it was too often used as an emergency

bailout A bailout is the provision of financial help to a corporation or country which otherwise would be on the brink of bankruptcy. A bailout differs from the term ''bail-in'' (coined in 2010) under which the bondholders or depositors of global sys ...

fund for failing natural resource companies rather than as a mechanism to actively encourage economic development or diversification, and that it lacked sufficient controls to prevent it from becoming misused as a vote-buying

slush fund A slush fund is a fund or account that is not properly accounted, such as money used for corrupt or illegal purposes, especially in the political sphere. Such funds may be kept hidden and maintained separately from money that is used for legitim ...

1990s

In 1990, the NOHFC gave a $5 million grant to the

Algoma Central Railway The Algoma Central Railway is a railway in Northern Ontario that operates between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst. It used to have a branch line to Wawa, Ontario. The area served by the railway is sparsely populated, with few roads. The rai ...

,"Algoma official denies 'secret deal'". ''

'', April 19, 1991. which opposition Progressive Conservative leader

Mike Harris Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a Canadian retired politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. During his time ...

alleged was a "down payment" on a secret deal to have the provincial government take over ownership and operation of the troubled company. Other investments in the early 1990s included a $1 million loan to Muscocho Explorations and McNellen Resources to fund construction of a new gold mine in Wawa, a $900 thousand loan to Brinkman and Associates, a tree-planting firm, and a $5 million loan to

Bombardier Transportation Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian-German rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, headquartered in Berlin, Germany. It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry ...

to expand the company's facility in

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...

. In 1995, the

Auditor General of Ontario The Auditor General of Ontario is an independent officer of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to aid accountability by conducting independent audits of Ontario provincial government operations. The office was created in 1869. Office The Aud ...

's annual report criticized the NOHFC for not having sufficient monitoring programs in place to ensure that its investments were actually achieving their job creation goals. In the late 1990s, the NOHFC was a key investor in new projects such as the Northern Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership,"Innovation, diversification spur Northern Ontario growth". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', November 23, 1998. NORCAT and the Northern Academic Health Science Network. The organization also continued to make grants or loans to existing companies or organizations to expand their operations, including grants to Cinéfest to expand its marketing and advertising, and to

Science North Science North is an interactive science museum in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The science centre, which is Northern Ontario's most popular tourist attraction, consists of two snowflake-shaped buildings on the southwestern shore of Ramsey La ...

for the creation of its F. Jean MacLeod Butterfly Gallery.

2000s

In the early 2000s, the NOHFC invested $16 million in the creation of a

fibre optic cable A fiber-optic cable, also known as an optical-fiber cable, is an assembly similar to an electrical cable, but containing one or more optical fibers that are used to carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with ...

network to improve the region's internet and telecommunications services, and made a $3.5 million grant toward the construction of Sudbury's Dynamic Earth. In this era, the NOHFC began to receive criticism for expanding its service area to include the

Muskoka District The District Municipality of Muskoka, more generally referred to as the District of Muskoka or Muskoka, is a regional municipality in Central Ontario, Canada. Muskoka extends from Georgian Bay in the west, to the northern tip of Lake Couchiching ...

, a region outside the traditional boundaries of Northern Ontario."Why Northern Ontario is creeping southward". ''

'', May 15, 2000. This decision was made by then-finance minister

Ernie Eves Ernest Larry Eves (born June 17, 1946) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 23rd premier of Ontario from 2002 to 2003. A Progressive Conservative, he took over the premiership upon Mike Harris's resignation as party leade ...

, who was the MPP for

Parry Sound—Muskoka Parry Sound—Muskoka is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1949. The riding consists of the Territorial District of Parry Sound (excluding the Town of Powassan, ...

at the time, and was later reversed by

Greg Sorbara Gregory Samuel Sorbara (born September 4, 1946) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1985 to 1995, and again from 2001 to 2012 who represented ridings north of Toronto in t ...

in the 2004 provincial budget."Muskoka moves to Southern Ontario". ''

'', May 27, 2004.

References

External links

Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation
{{ONGovDept 1988 establishments in Ontario Crown corporations of Ontario Politics of Northern Ontario Economy of Northern Ontario