Central Canadian Shield forests
This ecoregion consists of rolling hills, lakes, bogs and rocky outcrops covering a large curved swathe on the Canadian Shield from eastern Manitoba and Northern Ontario running southeastwards through Thunder Bay District to the north shore of Lake Superior and then northeastwards into western Quebec. The area has a cool climate with summer temperatures averaging around 13°C dropping to a very cold -17°C in winter, with the hills around Lac Seul in northwestern Ontario being warmer and wetter than most of the area. Average rainfall in the eastern side of the ecoregion is 550mm per year, rising to 750mm in the centre (near Lake Nipigon for example), up to 900mm in the west. Specific areas include Lake Nipigon and Big Trout Lake (Ontario). These forest contrast with more severe boreal forest ecoregions such as the Eastern Canadian Shield taiga to the north, which covers most of Northern Quebec and Labrador.
Ontario tobacco belt
By 2020, the Ontario tobacco belt will become the "Ontario horticultural centre" because of its abundance of water. Other reasons for the sudden transformation of this region include proximity to urban markets (e.g., Hamilton, Kitchener, London) and a sandy soil that favours horticultural crops. European farmers will boost the average cost of farmland to $570,000 by the year 2016 due to their overspending; which would essentially give them a monopoly on the local farming business over aspiring Canadian-born farmers. An increasing number of established farmers in the area call this tax hike "unfair;" as they perceive themselves to be paying 75% less for property taxes than people who live on residential properties nearby. While beef production has declined in the Ontario tobacco belt in the past 20 years, the amount of pork and chicken products that are grown in the region have increased slightly. The transition from conventional farming to greenhouses have resulted in fewer "field" crops and a greater amount of the "hothouse" variety.