In this edition:
- Government of Canada plans increased immigration with focus on filling labour market gaps
- DSBN and Niagara Catholic taking wait-and-see approach to Friday’s CUPE protest
- Temporary winter shelters open in St. Catharines and Niagara Falls
- Brock University officially welcomes new president
- Port Colborne annual community grant program accepting applications
- Heddle Shipyards awarded vessel life extension of CCGS Terry Fox
Government of Canada plans increased immigration with focus on filling labour market gaps
Today the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, released Canada’s 2023–2025 Immigration Levels Plan. The plan embraces immigration as a strategy to help businesses find workers and to attract the skills required in key sectors, including health care, skilled trades, manufacturing and technology.
Last year Canada welcomed over 405,000 newcomers – the most we’ve ever welcomed in a single year. The government has set targets of 465,000 permanent residents in 2023, 485,000 in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025. The plan also brings an increased focus on attracting newcomers to different regions of the country, including small towns and rural communities.
DSBN and Niagara Catholic taking wait-and-see approach to Friday’s CUPE protest
Niagara’s two largest school boards are taking a wait and see approach after CUPE education workers announced today they would not be going to work on Friday – despite provincial legislation being introduced.
Niagara Catholic and District School Board of Niagara have sent out a letter to parents saying they would be waiting to see what transpires in the next few days before making a decision on whether schools will be open on Friday.
The Csc MonAvenir Board says it will not open schools if education workers are not there.
Temporary winter shelters open in St. Catharines and Niagara Falls
Two temporary winter shelters are set to open tonight in Niagara.
Start Me Up Niagara will be running the two facilities for the next few months out of Westminster United Church in St. Catharines and the Coronation Centre in Niagara Falls. They will start this week at Silver Spire United Church in St. Catharines, before moving over to Westminster.
Laura Dumas, Executive Director of Start me Up Niagara, said that “right now we have 50 beds in St. Catharines [and] we will have 40 beds in Niagara Falls, which is an increase of 15 beds in Niagara Falls.”
Brock University officially welcomes new president
After weeks of getting to know Brock informally, Lesley Rigg officially started as University President and Vice-Chancellor on Tuesday, Nov. 1.
Rigg will spend the coming days meeting with a wide range of campus and Niagara community members as she formally transitions into her new role.
A forest ecologist and biogeographer, Rigg previously served as Vice-President, Research at Western University and has more than 25 years of academic and research experience at institutions in Canada, the United States and Australia.
Port Colborne annual community grant program accepting applications
The City of Port Colborne’s community grant program is now accepting the first-round of applications from non-profit organizations until Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023.
Non-profit organizations, charitable organizations, and service clubs serving the needs of the residents of Port Colborne are welcome to apply for a discretionary grant based on the provisions included in the city’s grant policy.
Heddle Shipyards awarded vessel life extension of CCGS Terry Fox
Heddle Shipyards has been awarded a $135.5 million dollar contract for the Vessel Life Extension (VLE) of the Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Terry Fox – securing the future of the Port Weller Dry Docks for the next generation of Ontario shipbuilders. The nearly three-year project will involve an extensive engineering, planning and procurement phase, with shipyard work scheduled to begin in December 2023. This multi-year project will create and sustain over 200 hundred jobs at the Port Weller Dry Docks through the summer of 2025 when the CCGS Terry Fox is scheduled for redelivery.
Niagara Economic Summit
Ester Gerassime to deliver update on Canadian economy at Summit
Ontario’s economy is the largest in Canada, generating more than a third of national GDP and is home to almost 50% of all employees in high tech, financial services and other knowledge-intensive industries. The health of the provincial economy is key not only to the national economy, but to the local economy here in Niagara.
At the Summit, hear Ontario Chamber of Commerce Economic Analyst Ester Gerassime on the state of the province and the near-term future. Ester is responsible for performing quantitative analysis and economic research on various policy issues, and brings a data-driven approach to her work. In addition to her work for the Ontario Economic Report, she chairs the Infrastructure Policy Council and supports the organization’s advocacy work on infrastructure, transit and transportation, supply chains, and broadband connectivity.
Contact us to submit your questions for Ester.
Click here for tickets to this year’s Niagara Economic Summit.
Focus on Finance & Economy
Credit card debt at record high amid stubbornly hot inflation, survey says
A new survey says Canadians are leaning more heavily on credit cards amid persistent inflation and rising interest rates.
Equifax Canada’s consumer survey released Tuesday found the average credit card balance held by Canadians was at a record high of $2,121 by the end of September.
Equifax says average non-mortgage debt was $21,188, returning to levels not seen since the first quarter of 2020.
Canadians are feeling less secure in their financial outlook than last year, and more than half are worried about paying regular bills like rent, utilities or insurance — especially adults aged 65 and older.
More than half of Canadians surveyed said they have a lot of anxiety about their personal debt levels.
‘It is unacceptable’: investors react to Toronto Exchange outage
A 40-minute outage across three stock exchanges stalled equity trading in Canada, leaving some investors frustrated and others refusing to place orders even after it reopened.
Trading was halted on the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture and Alpha markets around 10:30 a.m. New York time and resumed at 11:10 a.m. All three exchanges are owned by TMX Group Ltd., which stopped trading due to a connection problem that affected order entries.
“I feel like I’m trading on a third world exchange,” said Eric Nuttall, partner and senior portfolio manager at Ninepoint Partners. “I have multiple orders for $20 million to $40 million that I cannot execute. It is unacceptable,” he added during the trading halt.
Through the Daily Updates, the GNCC aims to deliver important business news in a timely manner. We disseminate all news and information we feel will be important to businesses. Inclusion in the Daily Update is not an endorsement by the GNCC.
