The City of Niagara Falls has proposed amendments to its Community Improvement Plan (CIP) to encourage new housing supply through targeted financial incentives. The proposed measures include support for accessory dwelling units (ADUs), non-profit and co-operative housing, purpose-built rental housing, and other forms of development that can help address local housing needs.

Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act, 2026, would update federal rules governing how law enforcement and national security agencies access digital information during investigations. The bill contains measures intended to provide lawful access for legitimate investigations. In practical terms, critics warn that such access points could function as “backdoors”: vulnerabilities created for lawful use that could also be discovered, exploited, or repurposed by hackers, organized crime, hostile states, or other malicious actors.

The GNCC shares the concerns raised by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce that parts of Bill C-22 could weaken cybersecurity safeguards, undermine encryption, increase data-retention risks, and create uncertainty for businesses operating in Canada’s digital economy.

While both federal and provincial governments continue to chip away at Canada’s internal trade barriers, Canadian firms still face a morass of regulations which often makes trading within Canada more difficult than trading with foreign countries. Without access to a centralized, easy-to-use data portal, this issue will continue for years. 

Niagara is often seen as “over-governed,” with a higher-than-usual number of elected officials per capita and a two-tier municipal system with thirteen separate municipalities in the region. This often creates red tape and regulatory overlap, increasing the bureaucratic burden for businesses. 

Bill C-23 will remove heritage status from a large number of historic buildings in St. Catharines, including 100 in the downtown core. A blanket heritage conservation district has been proposed as a replacement, but the GNCC opposes this measure owing to increased costs and regulatory burdens. 

Many services in Ontario are delivered by municipal governments, despite being provincial responsibilities elsewhere in the country. With declining revenues and increasing costs, municipalities can’t meet this demand, which means property taxes are going up and services are declining. 

Municipal governments are facing growing demand for new infrastructure, a growing backlog of infrastructure in need of maintenance, but have less money with which to fund them. Almost all municipal services are legally mandated by the provincial government, so cutting them isn’t an option. 

The City of St. Catharines has amended its Community Improvement Plan (CIP) to allow it to revoke projects that have not entered into an agreement after one year. However, delays in construction are frequently outside the control of developers, meaning that builders may lose incentives they were granted through no fault of their own.

The City of St. Catharines has surplus municipal lands (decommissioned schools, vacated municipal offices, former libraries and fire halls, etc.) which could be used as sites for housing. However, acquiring those properties for development would involve a substantial amount of red tape. A Municipal Development Corporation (MDC) would streamline the process considerably.