Manitoulin District is a district in Northeastern Ontario within the Canadian province of Ontario. It was created in 1888 from part of the Algoma District. The district seat is in Gore Bay.
It comprises Manitoulin Island primarily, as well as a number of smaller islands surrounding it, such as Barrie, Cockburn, and Great La Cloche islands. Previously it included the municipality of Killarney on the mainland, until this was transferred to Sudbury District in the late 1990s. Subsequently, more mainland portions were added to Killarney and these, together with Unorganized Mainland Manitoulin District, were also transferred to Sudbury District in 2006, about in all.
Geography The district has an area of , making it the smallest district in Ontario. It is in the northern part of Lake Huron, separated from the mainland by the North Channel to the north and by the Georgian Bay to the east.
Islands included within the district are:
Barrie Island Bedford Island Burnt Islands (Big and Northwest) Clapperton Island Club Island Cockburn Island Duck Islands (Great, Middle, Outer, and Western) East Rous Island Fitzwilliam Island Goat Island Great La Cloche Island Greene Island Henry Island Heywood Island Manitoulin Island Rabbit Island Strawberry Island Thibault Island Vidal Island Wall Island Yeo Island
Subdivisions
Towns: Gore Bay Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands
Townships: Assiginack Billings Burpee and Mills Central Manitoulin Cockburn Island Gordon/Barrie Island Tehkummah
Unorganized areas: Manitoulin, Unorganized, Mainland (dissolved in 2006) Manitoulin, Unorganized, West Part, includes these two geographic townships (each served by its own, separate local services board): Dawson Robinson
First Nations Reserves: M'Chigeeng (West Bay) Sheguiandah Sheshegwaning Aundeck Omni Kaning Whitefish River Wikwemikong Zhiibaahaasing (Cockburn Island)
Communities
Advance Bass Creek Bidwell Big Lake Bowser's Corner Britainville Burnt Island Burpee Clover Valley Cold Springs Cook's Dock Dinner Point Depot Dryden's Corner Eads Bush Eagles Nest Elizabeth Bay Evansville Fernlee Foxey Gibraltar Green Bay Grimsthorpe Hilly Grove Honora Ice Lake Kagawong Little Current Long Bay Manitowaning Meldrum Bay Michael's Bay Mindemoya Monument Corner Old Spring Bay Perivale Pleasant Valley Poplar Providence Bay Rockville Sandfield Sheguiandah Silver Water The Slash Snowville South Baymouth Spring Bay Squirrel Town Tobacco Lake Tolsmaville Turner Vanzant's Point
Demographics As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Manitoulin District had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
Services Like the other districts of Northern Ontario, the Manitoulin District does not have a county or regional municipality tier of government. All services in the district are provided either by the individual municipalities or directly by the provincial government. Services are provided jointly with the Sudbury District from its district seat in Espanola.
Transportation King's Highways: #6
Secondary Highways: #540 #540A #540B #542 #542A #551
Media The district is served by two weekly community newspapers, the Manitoulin Expositor in Little Current and the Manitoulin West Recorder in Gore Bay; the papers are sister publications both owned and operated by the McCutcheon family.
The district is served by the commercial radio stations CFRM-FM and CHAW-FM, the First Nations community radio station CHYF-FM, and the Elliot Lake-based commercial radio station CKNR-FM. It is otherwise primarily served by media from Sudbury, including the Sudbury Star and CTV Northern Ontario.
See also List of townships in Ontario Manitoulin Streams Improvement Association - A not-for-profit group that rehabilitates streams, rivers, and creeks on Manitoulin Island.
References
External links
Manitoulin-Sudbury District Services Board