Kenora District

Kenora District (Canada 2006 Census population 64,419) is a district and census division in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. It was created in 1907 from parts of Rainy River District. It is, geographically, the largest division in that province; at 407,192.66 km² it comprises almost 38 percent of the province's land area. It is larger than Paraguay and approximately the size of California.

Kenora District also has the lowest population density of any of Ontario's census divisions, although it ranks 38th out of 50 by population.

The district seat is the City of Kenora.

The northern part, north of the Albany River and known sometimes as the Patricia Portion, became part of Ontario in 1912. It was originally designated as the separate Patricia District, but was added to the Kenora District in 1927.

Politics

As with the other districts of Northern Ontario, Kenora District has no equivalent to the county or regional municipality level of government that exists in Southern Ontario. All government services in the district are instead provided by the local municipalities, by local services boards in some unincorporated communities, or directly by the provincial government.

Geography

The climate is very harsh because of the influence of the cold waters of Hudson and James Bays: most of the region is taiga characterized by discontinuous permafrost, but on the extreme northern coast there are – remarkably for a latitude of only 54°N – patches of true Arctic tundra and continuous permafrost. This is the southernmost point reached by the circumpolar line of continuous permafrost on any continent.

The Kenora District contains the Sturgeon Lake Caldera, which is one of the world's best preserved Neoarchean caldera complexes and is some 2.7 billion years old.^[3]

Economy

Most of the population of the district is concentrated in the extreme south where some agriculture is possible: the main crop is barley. In the north, mining is extremely extensive: northern Kenora district contains among the largest and highest-grade reserves of uranium in the world, and is also one of the world's major producers of nickel. Traditional native activities such as hunting and fishing dominate the northern half of the district outside of the few mining settlements.

A major mining exploration project is currently underway in the Ring of Fire region, centred on the district's isolated McFaulds Lake.

Transportation

Permanent roads (Highway 599) only reach about halfway to the northernmost point of Kenora district, with the provincial highway network ending at Pickle Lake, although some more northerly communities have access to a seasonal ice/winter road network, via the Northern Ontario Resource Trail. Year-round air and summertime river transport are the only means of reaching the most remote parts of the district. The major railroad lines between Toronto and British Columbia passes through the south of the district.

Patricia Portion

The Patricia Portion is an informal name for the part of the Kenora District lying north of the Albany River, which was transferred from the Northwest Territories to Ontario on May 15, 1912 in the Ontario Boundaries Extension Act, 1912. This area was originally a separate division named Patricia District, but became part of Kenora District in 1927.

With the exception of a few communities along the northernmost ends of Highway 599 and the Highway 105/Highway 125 corridor, the Patricia Portion consists almost entirely of remote First Nations communities which are only accessible by float plane or winter road. Accordingly, the name "Patricia Portion" is still sometimes used to distinguish the area from the more populated southern portion of the district.

Subdivisions

Cities

• Dryden
• Kenora

Towns

• Red Lake
• Sioux Lookout

Townships

• Ear Falls
• Ignace
• Machin
• Pickle Lake
• Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls

First Nations reserves

First Nations settlements

• Frenchman's Head
• Kejick Bay
• Lansdowne House
• MacDowell Lake
• Muskrat Dam
• Peawanuck
• Slate Falls
• Summer Beaver
• Webequie
• Whitefish Bay

Unorganized areas

• Kenora, Unorganized

See also

• List of Ontario Census Divisions

References