The Ontario government is preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow by investing $242 million to upgrade learning facilities at publicly funded colleges and universities across the province. As part of the government’s plan to protect Ontario, this investment will strengthen the province’s pipeline of highly skilled workers by ensuring students have access to the latest equipment and state-of-the-art learning spaces to learn the skills they need for good-paying jobs after graduation.

Ontario is marking one year of progress on its $2.1 billion Primary Care Action Plan, which is already delivering results and connecting more people to convenient care as part of the government’s plan to protect Ontario’s health-care system. Since the initiative began, Ontario has already attached over 275,000 new patients to a primary care provider, putting the province on track to meet or exceed its target of connecting 300,000 new people to care in 2025-26 and every Ontarian to a primary care provider by 2029.

The Ontario government is marking a major milestone in its commitment to bring back the Northlander with the arrival of the first of three new Northlander trainsets in Ontario. The Northlander will span 740 kilometres with 16 stops between Timmins and Toronto, with a connection to Cochrane, and is part of the government’s work to protect Ontario’s economy by connecting northern communities, creating good-paying jobs, supporting local industries and driving economic growth across the north.

The Ontario government is starting 2026 with a focus on driving growth and creating jobs by approving the Independent Electricity System Operator’s (IESO) recommendation to build a new underwater electricity transmission line from near the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station to the downtown core and eastern portion of the City of Toronto.

The Ontario government is delivering on its plan to protect the province’s long-term care system by investing more than $26 million in programs that will train nearly 3,000 new long-term care staff, support professional development and enhance the care residents receive, while giving students the opportunity to study and work in their home communities.

As part of the government’s plan to protect Ontario and strengthen its economic resilience, on January 1, the province is bringing into force historic labour mobility and free-trade regulations that break down interprovincial barriers for workers and businesses and help employers access the skilled Canadian workers they need sooner. These historic changes are part of the government’s plan to support Ontario and Canadian workers and build a unified Canadian workforce that can stand up to U.S. tariffs and economic uncertainty.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an agreement to work together to advance the development of affordable, reliable and clean nuclear power. As part of this agreement, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and the New York Power Authority (NYPA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will leverage Ontario’s global nuclear leadership to advance the development and deployment of nuclear technologies, including large-scale reactors and small modular reactors (SMRs), to meet the growing electricity demand and protect long-term energy security.

Ontario and Canada have signed a historic cooperation agreement that will significantly streamline environmental approvals for major infrastructure and resource projects through a new ‘one project, one process, one decision’ model that is now in effect. The agreement will remove duplicative and overlapping federal impact assessments from Ontario’s world-leading environmental assessment process to build infrastructure faster and unlock resource development across the province, helping to build a more competitive, resilient and self-reliant Canadian economy.

Today, the Ontario government, in partnership with the City of Toronto, federal MPs and hundreds of supporters from the financial services, accounting, telecommunications, transportation, manufacturing, legal, tech, defence and academic and research sectors, announced its support for Toronto’s bid to headquarter the newly established Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB). As a global financial services hub, the country’s economic engine and a centre of technology, research and international business, Toronto brings together the conditions a major global institution needs to operate successfully: stable capital markets, sophisticated investors, a deep talent base, reliable global transportation links, extensive consular services and a predictable, rules-based environment within a G7, NATO-allied country.

As part of the government’s plan to protect Ontario and unleash its full economic potential, the province is taking the next steps to implement mutual recognition of goods and services from other reciprocating Canadian jurisdictions by publishing a draft regulation under the Ontario Free Trade and Mobility Act, 2025 (OFTMA). Building on Ontario’s national leadership in supporting free trade and labour mobility across Canada, the mutual recognition of goods and services will play a substantial role in supporting economic integration across Canada and removing internal trade barriers that cost the economy up to $200 billion every year.