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Regions of Ontario

Unless there is some legal boundary established (e.g. county lines) "regions" are almost always amorphous things. No two people will have exactly the same definition and over time even the definition in the mind of one person can change. If you stop thinking of regions as being mutually exclusive and start thinking of them as overlapping at the edges then it doesn't really matter what's in and what's out. Each region will have a heartland and a hinterland, with the hinterland being shared with the next regional heartland.
 
Of course! There is no "correct" answer.

For instance, Muskoka, Parry Sound, Renfrew and even Nipissing can be thought of a sort of transition zone from southern to northern Ontario. Port Hope/Cobourg and Lindsay/Peterborough can be thought of as a transition zone from central to eastern Ontario etc.
 
howl said:
Unless there is some legal boundary established (e.g. county lines) "regions" are almost always amorphous things. No two people will have exactly the same definition and over time even the definition in the mind of one person can change. If you stop thinking of regions as being mutually exclusive and start thinking of them as overlapping at the edges then it doesn't really matter what's in and what's out. Each region will have a heartland and a hinterland, with the hinterland being shared with the next regional heartland.
Click to expand...

There are quasi-legal boundaries for "regions" like GTA or GTHA, but unlike counties, districts, regional municipalities or single-tier municipalities. They exist primarily exist for referring to a large geographical area, without naming every town, city, county or upper-tier municipalities in documents. Basically it's a label the province uses in documents. Stats Can does have a legal boundary definition, but that opens it up to more complexities.
 
CodeMonkey said:
There are quasi-legal boundaries for "regions" like GTA or GTHA, but unlike counties, districts, regional municipalities or single-tier municipalities. They exist primarily exist for referring to a large geographical area, without naming every town, city, county or upper-tier municipalities in documents. Basically it's a label the province uses in documents. Stats Can does have a legal boundary definition, but that opens it up to more complexities.
Click to expand...

You are right to a point, however different government departments and agencies identify regions differently to suit their needs. There is not always consensus on the boundaries.
http://www.mtc.gov.on.ca/en/regions/regions.shtml
http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/engineering/management/corridor/district.shtml
http://www.ontariocourts.ca/ocj/ocj/structure-of-the-ocj/

Also some do have legal status. The Greater Golder Horseshoe defines the region affected by the Growth Plan for the GGH. The GTHA defines the region affected by Metrolinx's Regional Transportation Plan (The Big Move).
 
howl said:
You are right to a point, however different government departments and agencies identify regions differently to suit their needs. There is not always consensus on the boundaries.
http://www.mtc.gov.on.ca/en/regions/regions.shtml
http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/engineering/management/corridor/district.shtml
http://www.ontariocourts.ca/ocj/ocj/structure-of-the-ocj/

Also some do have legal status. The Greater Golder Horseshoe defines the region affected by the Growth Plan for the GGH. The GTHA defines the region affected by Metrolinx's Regional Transportation Plan (The Big Move).
Click to expand...

I think it depends on the services that are provided and thus MTO, OCJ and MTC maps them differently. For OCJ, Toronto is more populated, so they'll need their own division to handle all the court cases. MTO really only covers the 400-series highways and a few artery roads, so they just need one division for the GTA for highways and artery roads. As for MTC...I really don't know why they group Toronto with Mississauga and Brampton together as one? At the same time not only excluded, but group York and Durham as another region on its own is kind of weird. o

However, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MAH) has mention in planning documents that the GTA is composed of Toronto, Halton, Peel, York and Durham. I think that's as close to authoritative as we're going to get. But I think this is something that they should put in regulation what is the true legal definition of the GTA and GTHA boundaries.
 
Another attempt:


Mid-North: Haliburton, Muskoka, Nipissing, Parry Sound, Renfrew

Capital Region: Ottawa, Prescott and Russell

St. Lawrence-Great Waterway: Frontenac, Hastings, Lanark, Leeds and Grenville, Lennox and Addington, Prince Edward, Stormont Dundas and Glengarry

Kawarthas: Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, Peterborough

South Central: GTA + Dufferin, Simcoe

Niagara Peninsula: Brant, Haldimand-Norfolk, Hamilton, Niagara

Mid-western: Bruce, Grey, Huron, Perth, Waterloo, Wellington

Southwestern: Chatham-Kent, Elgin, Essex, Lambton, Middlesex, Oxford

(Another region could include the Georgian Triangle taking in Bruce, Grey and Simcoe)

Northern Ontario:

Northeastern: Algoma, Cochrane, Greater Sudbury, Manitoulin, Timiskaming

Northwestern: Kenora, Rainy River, Thunder Bay
 
What geographical, environmental, cultural, social, or economic features would you guys say are the most prominent distinguishing features of Ontario's regions?

For example, to me notably Southwestern Ontario is associated with manufacturing, somewhat "rust belt" features, proximity to the American border, Northern Ontario with boreal forest, the Canadian Shield, a resource-based economy, etc., the Georgian Triangle with tourism (eg. the Flowerpot Island, Tobermory, Bruce Trail), the Kawarthas, Muskoka and much of what has been called Central Ontario with cottage country, the Niagara region with international tourism to see the falls, the vineyards and wine.
There's also demographic trends among regions (eg. Eastern Ontario associated with Scottish settlement, Francophones etc., Northern Ontario having First Nations, Francophones, GTA with diverse visible minorities, Southwestern Ontario with (maybe?) Americans).
 
CodeMonkey said:
As for MTC...I really don't know why they group Toronto with Mississauga and Brampton together as one? At the same time not only excluded, but group York and Durham as another region on its own is kind of weird. o
Click to expand...

I just realized after writing this post that you had brought up the same point earlier. I wonder if it's because Mississauga has the airport? But then, why would Peel region as a general tourist area be closer to the other regions to Toronto than the other GTA regions (eg. York region has Wonderland, which is seen as a pretty "Torontonian" tourist thing)?

wild goose chase said:
I wonder why they used Toronto plus only Brampton and Mississauga as the "GTA", while making a separate region comprising Durham, York, Caledon and Dufferin.
Click to expand...
 
I don't feel like starting a new thread, but have a question - how much snow fell yeterday/today. It seems like a basic question, but I couldn't find it on the Weather Network website or Environment Canada. Is it me who's a bad Googler, or are these weather websites that bad?
 
I think the concept of 'region' or whatever term is being used is dependent on who has identified it and what its purpose is. The delivery of services or distribution of resources varies between both ministries within the Ontario government and federal departments and agencies (affecting Ontario) depending on what they are each trying to achieve. The various political divisions (i.e. townships, counties, regions, districts) have changed somewhat of the years, significantly by the Harris government in the '90s, but the boundaries of the changes were usually left intact so as not to completely mess up the established land surveys; so parts of a county or region might have changed 'ownership', they generally did so along preexisting township lines. There are exceptions - I know in Simcoe County, township restructuring did move boundaries to eliminate splitting of communities lying along main roads, but they had to re-identify the affected properties to maintain the linkage to the previous surveys.

I find regional identification in Ontario to be rather casual, often arbitrary and somewhat bureaucratic, largely because the county or 'upper tier' level of government to be nowhere near as mature as, for example, the US, where just about everything is county-based. We have counties, regions, districts and district municipalities that kinda sorts do similar things. I also find it somewhat confusing - and must completely confound outsiders. For example, the Town of Oakville - largely urban and 200K population and not a 'town' by any reasonable observation; vs. the City of Kawartha Lakes, largely rural and 75K and nowhere near what is considered a 'city' (and I thought was a dumb name anyway).
 
lenaitch said:
I find regional identification in Ontario to be rather casual, often arbitrary and somewhat bureaucratic, largely because the county or 'upper tier' level of government to be nowhere near as mature as, for example, the US, where just about everything is county-based. We have counties, regions, districts and district municipalities that kinda sorts do similar things. I also find it somewhat confusing - and must completely confound outsiders. For example, the Town of Oakville - largely urban and 200K population and not a 'town' by any reasonable observation; vs. the City of Kawartha Lakes, largely rural and 75K and nowhere near what is considered a 'city' (and I thought was a dumb name anyway).
Click to expand...
When Markham was promoted from town to city in 2012, it had over 300k people.
 
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