ABSTRACT
On 27 January 2009 the federal government announced the creation of two new regional development agencies, FedDev Ontario in Southern Ontario and CanNor in the Canadian Territories (Department of Finance 2009). This effectively means that every postal code in Canada has access to a regional development agency (Savoie 2009). However, this has raised important questions about regional development and whether resources should be focused on the more dynamic and growing regions of the country or dedicated to managing spatial disparities and the needs of less favoured regions. This chapter will briefly outline the history of regional development and regional development agencies (RDAs) as a response to territorial politics and economic inequalities in Canada. It then traces the changing nature of policies and strategies using the Federal Economic Development Organization for Northern Ontario (FedNor) as a case study. The chapter concludes with a discussion of recent changes to regional development and what these changes mean for less favoured regions (LFRs) in Canada.
