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.

In January 2023, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), funded by Health Canada, published Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health. This replaced the previous Low‑Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines (LRDGs) and emphasized that no amount of alcohol is entirely safe. This had a damaging effect on wine sales, but seemed to single alcohol consumption out above other and riskier recreational activities.