Register Your Team for the 2019 Welland Dragon Boat Festival

In 2002, community partners presented the first Welland Dragon Boat Festival. Twenty-four teams and 600 competitors took part in the inaugural event. Dragon Boat racing is among the fastest growing water sports in the world. Put a team together with your office — all you need is a sense of fun & adventure, and a minimum of 16 paddlers.

Dragon Boating is user friendly and practically anyone, young or old, at any fitness level can quickly adapt to and develop a passion for this sport. Personal satisfaction, team development and friendship are just a few of the key words attributed to this sport by some of its participants.

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PenFinancial Credit Union First Niagara-Based Company To Become A Certified B Corporation®

PenFinancial Credit Union made a major announcement at its Annual General Membership Meeting on Tuesday, April 9th, revealing their accreditation as part of the Certified B Corporation® movement.

“We’ve joined a global movement that pledges to use business as a force for good, reinforcing our Truly Local Commitment to Niagara,” said Ken Janzen, CEO of PenFinancial. “By becoming a Certified B Corporation®, we’re not just telling Niagara, we’re telling the world that we care about how we do business. We’re now able to benchmark and further guide how we weave our Truly Local Commitment through every part of our business.”

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Ladies’ Night Out Fun-Raiser Returns for 12th Year

Get your tickets now for the 12th Annual Ladies’ Night Out Fun-Raiser in support of the Welland Heritage Council and Multicultural Centre. This event sells out every year, so get your tickets now!

The evening features music by The Johnny Chimpo Band, vendors, a family-style dinner, door prizes, raffles, a silent auction, a cash bar, and more. The evening’s fun takes place at the Croatian National Home, 6 Broadway Avenue, in Welland on May 2; doors open at 6p.m.

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Segal Family Donates to Niagara College’s New International Centre

At its Seafood Gala in the evening of April 5, Niagara College announced that the family of Keith and Sharon Segal had donated more than $1 million to support international education at the College. In recognition of the Segal family’s generous gift, the college will name the new facility at its Glendale Campus the Segal Family International Centre.

The generous $1,050,000 donation — half of which will support the development of, and equipment and furnishings for, the new International Centre — was announced by College president Dan Patterson to an audience of almost 700 business, education and community leaders at the Seafood Gala, which is the college’s signature fundraising event.

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Humane Society Executive Director Kevin Strooband Receives National Award

The executive director of Lincoln County Human Society has been recognized for his work in animal welfare programming. Humane Canada has awarded Kevin Strooband with a leadership, co-operation and innovation award.

In a news release, Humane Canada said Strooband’s leadership led to Ontario’s first full-service, accredited veterinary clinic run by a humane society. The clinic, which began as a part-time clinic in 2011, has performed 30,000 spay and neuter surgeries on dogs and cats.

Read more in the St. Catharines Standard

Do Fewer Politicians Make A Better Government?

Niagara’s 126 elected officials is a “ridiculous” number of politicians, according to Premier Doug Ford, but Brock University political science professor and researcher David Siegel says the size of councils shouldn’t be what drives government reform.

“When you look back at the Mike Harris restructuring (of municipal governments) one of the problems was they didn’t really know what problem they were trying to address,” said Siegel. “So what you ended up with was a system that really wasn’t any better or more efficient than what you had before.” Siegel will present his brief Under the Knife & Under the Gun: An Overview of Regional Government in Niagara on April 16 at 9:30 a.m. at the Pond Inlet at Brock University.

Read more in the Welland Tribune

Niagara Hosting Lacrosse’s Return to Canada Summer Games

Lacrosse will make its first appearance in more than 30 years at the Canada Summer Games — in Niagara in 2021. However, the tradition goes back much further. Kirsty Duncan, federal minister of science and sport, made the announcement at the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame, which has its home at St. Catharines Museum and Lock 3 Viewing Complex.

“We know that including lacrosse in the Canada Games will grow the game,” Duncan said. “It will allow our players to showcase their talents, test their abilities against the best players in the country and will help build the fan base.”

Read more in the Niagara Falls Review

Grape Growers Chair Re-elected

Grape Growers of Ontario has announced Matthias Oppenlaender was re-elected chair of its board of directors on Wednesday for a three-year term. Oppenlaender, a grape grower in Niagara-on-the-Lake and Grape King in 2006, was first elected as chair in 2016.

“Our success as an organization is reflected through the on-going dedication of the board of directors,” Oppenlaender said in Grape Growers news release on April 11. “Our focus in 2019 is to continue to work with our partners and government to ensure we secure and strengthen the future of 100 per cent Ontario-grown wines as part of the province’s modernization of retail wine sales.”

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Spring into the Fourth Annual BioBlitz on Saturday

Staff, students and community residents are welcome to participate in Niagara College’s fourth annual Spring BioBlitz. Organized by Niagara College’s Office of Sustainability, the event will be held on Saturday, April 13 from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the College’s Niagara-on-the-Lake Campus. NC Sustainability has organized a variety of activities brand new to the spring BioBlitz including guided hikes by Biophilic World Hiking Tours, cricket flour cookie sampling and a visit from Scales Nature Park.

A BioBlitz is a community approach to identifying plant and animal species on a property, over a specified period of time. The goal is to collect species information to better understand all of the organisms living on campus and to monitor how biodiversity is changing over time.

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Regulatory Reform: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Following last month’s federal budget, Finance Minister Bill Morneau defended Canada’s corporate tax regime and cited regulatory issues as a priority for dealing with Canada’s competitiveness problems. The Minister was half-right. While there is no credible defence for our hopelessly outdated tax system, he was correct that Canada’s regulatory systems have put Canada at a competitive disadvantage.

As the Canadian Chamber of Commerce outlined in a report a few months ago, Canada absolutely needs a comprehensive review of our uncompetitive, cumbersome and inefficient tax system. Given the Minister’s post-budget assertion, it is an opportune time to take a quick walk through the good, the bad and the ugly of federal efforts to address Canada’s regulatory competitiveness problem.

Read more in 5 Minutes for Business

Ontario Business Advocate Committed to Improving Transportation

On April 10, Rocco Rossi, President and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce released the following statement in response to Premier Ford’s $28.5 billion expansion to the GTA transit network. “Today’s announcement is a step towards repairing the transportation system in the GTA as transportation is the backbone of our economy, and critical to the competitiveness of our business community.”

“As stated in our report, Moving Forward: Towards a Strategic Approach to Ontario’s Transportation Needs (Part I), more remains to be done to ensure all corners of the province have access to reliable transportation options. As details of this plan are released, we hope to see the province prioritize investments with the greatest potential to provide a strong return on investment.”

Read more from the OCC

How Bureaucracy Blocks Canadians from Building Essential Infrastructure

Canada continues to enjoy some strong economic fundamentals, including resilient banking and manufacturing sectors, a growing network of trade agreements and a diverse and highly educated workforce. But a recent report from Deloitte and the Business Council of Canada reveals our sliding global competitiveness is testing business leaders’ confidence.

Canada’s economy grew by just 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2018 — the poorest quarterly performance in two and a half years. One wound is frustratingly self-inflicted: critical infrastructure projects languish amid cumbersome federal, provincial and municipal review and approval processes. These delays risk crippling crucial Canadian trade corridors.

Read more from the Financial Post

If you’re thinking of adding group benefits to your company, there are a lot of good reasons to put your Chamber membership to work for you. Not the least is exclusivity: only members have access to the Chambers of Commerce Group Insurance Plan®.

To contact your local insurance rep, call Jim Garrett or Cindy Haines at 905-468-8575

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MEMBER 2 MEMBER SAVINGS PROGRAM

Many other Chamber of Commerce members feature discounts and special offers — tailored specifically for other GNCC members. Check out the full Member 2 Member database. If you’d like to add an offer for your company, sign in to your account. You can add and update your offer any time you wish.

BUSINESS SAVINGS PROGRAMS

The GNCC offers many business resources that are regionally, provincially or nationally endorsed – programs offered to Chamber Members through the OCC (Ontario Chamber of Commerce) or the CCC (Canadian Chamber of Commerce). Affinity programs include the Chamber Group Insurance, FedEx savings, Gales Gas discounts, Desjardins payroll service, Chase Paymentech and FirstData merchant services, etc. For more information click HERE.

If your organization is interested in partnering with the GNCC on an affinity program, please feel free to reach out to Mishka Balsom, CEO, at mishka@gncc.ca.

GNCC REFERRAL PROGRAM

From the beginning, the GNCC has grown because of your word-of-mouth support.

This Referral Program is our way of saying thanks.

Get your choice of a $25 Starbucks Gift Card for every new member you refer and who joins the Chamber -OR- $50 in GNCC Cash for every new member you refer and joins the Chamber towards GNCC ads, sponsorship or event tickets.

More program information HERE.