Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has announced the intention of creating a five-year plan to fight the shortage of skilled workers in the province. McGuinty wants to turn Ontario into an education mecca and open up the north of the province to large-scale mining. 

“Open Ontario” is the name of the plan that McGuinty announced to an audience of 2000 who attend a Liberal fundraiser in Toronto.

With this new plan, Ontario’s government is expecting to compete for international post-secondary students, hoping those students will then settle in Ontario and contribute their skills to the building of the province.

In addition, McGuinty hopes to turn Toronto into “one of the world’s elite financial centres”, as well as develop a clean water technology sector.

The north of Ontario may contain the largest chromite deposit in the world and, since chromite is a key component in stainless steel and there is no other North American producer, the exploration of the north of the province could be a central point to its development. “This is the most promising mining opportunity in Canada in a century,” commented the Premier. 

The new provincial budged for Ontario will be tabled in late March by Finance Minister Dwight Duncan.