NL Leads Canada's Economic Growth as Ontario Lags Behind

Newfoundland and Labrador is expected to lead Canada's economic growth for the second year in a row, driven by higher crude prices and offshore oil projects, according to a new report. The province's economy will expand 3.7 per cent in 2026, although longer-term growth may be constrained by demographic pressures, Signal49 Research predicts.

Ontario, on the other hand, is expected to post the weakest growth of all Canadian provinces this year with an economy expanding just 0.2 per cent. The research think tank points out that Ontario and Quebec have been hit hardest by U.S. tariffs due to their heavy manufacturing sectors.

Richard Forbes, lead economist at Signal49 Research, notes that the conflict in the Middle East, demographic pressures, and ongoing tariff uncertainty have had reverberating impacts across the country but have been felt unevenly.