Peter Heenan, PC (February 19, 1875 – May 12, 1948) was a Canadian union leader and politician, and also served as a cabinet minister at the federal and provincial levels.

[2] An attack of yellow fever forced Heenan to move to Canada in 1902, where he first worked on a Western ranch, and then as a locomotive engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway on the run between Winnipeg and Kenora.

Heenan was charged with promoting Hepburn's policies on natural resource development, including the aggressive position with respect to timber licenses in Northern Ontario that were being held by companies that would not (or could not) cut wood on them.

In that regard, in 1936 the Forest Resources Regulation Act was passed that granted the government broad powers for mandating minimum production quotas, maximum limits in line with good forestry practice, reducing licensed acreages where they were in excess of requirements, and increasing stumpage fees on companies "operating or carrying on business in a manner detrimental to the public interest.

In 1941, he announced that one-seventh of all Crown land, amounting to 2,000,000 acres (8,100 km2), was being made available for lease to individuals, sportsmen's clubs and commercial camp owners.

[10] The 1938 collapse of the Lake Sulphite Pulp Company's operation at Red Rock[11] led to Opposition charges of ineptness in the policies of the Department of Lands and Forests.