ABSTRACT
Small resource towns in the north grapple with cycles of economic boom and bust and the impact of a rising proportion of senior citizens on municipal services. In the recreation and cottage country of southcentral and eastern Ontario the seasonal demands of summer and winter vacationists and health and social services for retirees are major issues. For Huron County, typical of southern Ontario’s agricultural region, transportation for the handicapped and elderly is a major concern. Across the vast far north of the province, communities are lacking reasonable access to or local provision of virtually the entire range of physical and human services. Elsewhere in rural Ontario, physical services such as electricity, housing, and roads have improved substantially since the 1940s, although many small settlements remain below minimum population thresholds set for public provision of piped water and sewage disposal. The population of rural Ontario has been declining, both in real numbers and as a proportion of the province’s total population.
