In this edition:
- Battery processing facility opens in Thorold South
- Prime Minister Trudeau announces largest transit investment in Canadian history
- Minister of Housing Sean Fraser announces new intake for Green and Inclusive Community Buildings Program
- Dropping the word ‘region’ as too negative, Niagara Transit getting a fresh new look
- UNESCO Geopark evaluators arrive in Niagara
- Income gap widens to highest rate since 2008
- Alectra opens community support portal, over$1M in funding available
- A supermarket trip may soon look different, thanks to electronic shelf labels
- Focus on Retail
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Photo credit: HOPA Ports
Battery processing facility opens in Thorold South
Call2Recycle Canada, the Canadian leader in battery collection and recycling, and EVSX, a wholly-owned battery recycling subsidiary of St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp., announce the operational launch of EVSX’s new battery processing plant in Thorold, Ontario. This state-of-the-art facility will recycle the increasing volumes of alkaline and carbon zinc batteries collected through Call2Recycle’s extensive battery recycling program in Ontario and other provinces.
Photo credit: World Economic Forum / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Prime Minister Trudeau announces largest transit investment in Canadian history
The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced the launch of the Canada Public Transit Fund, a new $30 billion investment over the first ten years to expand public transit and make it more accessible across the country. This is the largest public transit investment in Canadian history.
This permanent ongoing program will invest an average of $3 billion per year to help cities and communities deliver better public transit systems for Canadians.
Photo credit: Collision Conference / CC BY 2.0
Minister of Housing Sean Fraser announces new intake for Green and Inclusive Community Buildings Program
Today, the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, announced the dates for a new intake for applications through the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings Program.
This will be the third intake under the Program, which sees the federal government invest in retrofits, repairs, and upgrades to existing community buildings – making them greener and more accessible – as well as the construction of new publicly accessible ones in underserved communities.
Photo credit: Niagara Transit
Dropping the word ‘region’ as too negative, Niagara Transit getting a fresh new look
After months of consultation with the union, public advisory committees, and senior leadership team — along with pop-up events and a public survey — consultants developing Niagara Region Transit’s new branding ran into their harshest critics Tuesday: transit commission board members.
A new logo attracted the most attention.
Photo credit: Niagara Geopark
UNESCO Geopark evaluators arrive in Niagara
On Sunday night, Perry Hartwick and Darren Platakis, board members for the registered educational charity, welcomed UNESCO evaluators Jakob Walløe Hansen and Sarah Gatley at Toronto’s Pearson Airport. Hansen flew in from Denmark while Gatley arrived from Ireland.
Their role over three busy days – Monday through Thursday – is to collect enough information to pass on to a UNESCO council that will decide whether or not the collection of 20-plus geosites in the region will find its way onto UNESCO’s global network.
Photo credit: Hyejin Kang / Adobe Stock
Income gap widens to highest rate since 2008
Income inequality increased in the first quarter of 2024 as the gap in the share of disposable income between households in the top 40% and the bottom 40% of the income distribution was the largest since 2008.
The lowest income households (bottom 20% of the income distribution) had above-average gains in disposable income in the first quarter of 2024 relative to a year earlier. Strong wage gains for the lowest income households (+24.6%) more than offset increases in interest payments on mortgages and credit cards (+20.8%), which are netted out of investment earnings as part of disposable income.
Photo credit: Alectra
Alectra opens community support portal, over$1M in funding available
Today, Alectra announced the opening of its AlectraCARES Community Support Program portal for 2025 funding applications. Alectra donates more than $1 million every year to support charitable, non-profit and not-for-profit organizations to help build sustainable communities across its service territory.
Deserving charitable organizations can apply at https://alectracares.smapply.io. The application deadline for funding is Friday, September 13, 2024.
Did you know?
Focus on Retail
A supermarket trip may soon look different, thanks to electronic shelf labels
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.
