Ontario. Northern Affairs Branch

• Northern Affairs Branch

The Northern Affairs Branch was created within the newly created Department of Mines and Northern Affairs in 1970. When the Department of Mines and Northern Affairs became part of the Ministry of Natural Resources in 1972, the Northern Affairs Branch became one of the five branches which reported through the Finance and Administration Division. It maintained this reporting relationship until 1977, when it was briefly part of the new Ministry of Northern Affairs before being eliminated as superfluous within the mandate of that Ministry.

The branch was divided into Northeastern Region (headquartered in Sudbury and Timmins) and a Northwestern Region (headquarted in Thunder Bay), with head offices in Toronto. Each region had a regional supervisor who was responsible for supervising Northern Affairs Officers located in individual communities. There were approximately 25 of these Officers.

The Northern Affairs branch was responsible for representing the interests of those Ontarians living north of the French River to other government agencies, and in making government services available to northern communities.

The branch was further responsible for improving government communication with individuals and organizations in Northern Ontario, through the use of newspapers, radio and television channels.

RAD: Rules for Archival Description, 2nd edn (2008)

2026-11-16: migrated to AtoM

Ontario Government Telephone Directories 1970-1977

Ministry of Northern Affairs video, "Northern Development Officers- '20 Years Of Service'"; 1990, RG 68-11-0-353

Archivist(s):
Levi