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Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce

Home / Daily Update  /  Daily Update: April 8, 2026

Daily Update: April 8, 2026

April 8, 2026 | Daily Update

In this edition:

  • RFP now open for retail spaces in South Niagara Hospital
  • Learning lab empowers Niagara College CICE students thanks to Ontario Paper Thorold Foundation gift
  • City of Niagara Falls among recipients of $11.7M federal EV investment
  • Ontario expanding WSIB coverage to more frontline care workers
  • Niagara Region given national financial reporting award for twenty-first consecutive year
  • Environmental groups launch constitutional challenge over Ontario’s special economic zones
  • Oil and fuel prices to remain high throughout the year, Deloitte says
  • Focus on Dining Trends

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Picture credit: Niagara Health

RFP now open for retail spaces in South Niagara Hospital

The Request for Proposals (RFP) is now open for the retail pharmacy and allied clinical retail spaces at the future 1.3-million-square-foot hospital, which is scheduled for opening in 2028. These spaces are intended to provide a welcoming, convenient and service-focused environment for patients, visitors, physicians and staff.

The RFP is now open and available on Bonfirehub.com until May 14.

Click here to read more.

Picture credit: Niagara College

Learning lab empowers Niagara College CICE students thanks to Ontario Paper Thorold Foundation gift

Students from Niagara College’s Community Integration through Co-operative Education (CICE) program are honing their skills in a bright new space designed for their unique needs.

The CICE Experiential Learning Lab provides a comfortable environment where students can enhance their academic, social and employability skills – the three pillars of the CICE program – helping students foster greater independence in college, work, and social networks.

Click here to read more.

Picture credit: Yeongsik Im / Adobe Stock

City of Niagara Falls among recipients of $11.7M federal EV investment

Today, Karim Bardeesy, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry, on behalf of the Honourable Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, announced $11.7 million for 15 EV charging infrastructure and education projects across Canada.

Among the recipients was the City of Niagara Falls, which will receive $465,000 to install a total of thirteen chargers.

Click here to read more.

Picture credit: Seventyfour / Adobe Stock

Ontario expanding WSIB coverage to more frontline care workers

The Ontario government is taking action to strengthen workplace safety protections for 29,000 additional frontline care workers by extending mandatory Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) coverage to all privately operated residential care facilities, retirement homes and group homes.

The legislation, if passed, would provide workers in all privately operated residential care facilities the same protections as workers doing the same job in a publicly operated facility.

Click here to read more.

Photo credit: Brad Demers / Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce

Niagara Region given national financial reporting award for twenty-first consecutive year

Another year of transparent financial reporting and strong teamwork earns Niagara Region a national finance award. The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) has given Niagara Region a Canadian Award for Financial Reporting.

This marks the twenty-first consecutive year that Niagara Region has won this award.

Click here to read more.

The Legislative Assembly of Ontario building at Queen's Park

Picture credit: JHVEPhoto / Adobe Stock

Environmental groups launch constitutional challenge over Ontario’s special economic zones

Several environmental groups have launched a constitutional challenge seeking to kill an Ontario law that allows cabinet to suspend other laws.

Wildlands League, Environmental Defence Canada, Friends of the Earth Canada and Democracy Watch allege Ontario’s special economic zone law wrongly abdicates power from the legislature and gives it to cabinet, thereby violating the Constitution.

Click here to read more.

Aerial view of Petrochemical oil refinery along the Athabasca River near the Oilsands mining area Fort McMurray travel Alberta Canada

Picture credit: Spotmatik / Adobe Stock

Oil and fuel prices to remain high throughout the year, Deloitte says

The ongoing war between Iran and the U.S. is expected to keep oil prices high for the remainder of the year, including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices too.

However, benchmark prices were trending downward Wednesday morning on news that the U.S. and Iran have reached a two-week ceasefire agreement.

Click here to read more.

Focus on Dining Trends

Many of those leading the Canadian grocery and restaurant sectors already have a firm grip on the fact that GLP-1 medications are taking a big bite out of food consumption, but there are others who still don’t understand just how serious the situation is.

“The number of people on these drugs is so significant that it is impossible for the food industry to ignore,” says Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, and co-host of The Food Professor Podcast. “It’s a really fascinating phenomenon. We are looking at one in five people taking these medications. And if your spouse or someone else you live with is taking them, your own diet will change. You’ll be less likely to indulge in sugary and high-fat snacks, alcohol and so on, if your spouse isn’t indulging with you.”

The Pareto rule for frequently purchased products indicates that 20-30 per cent of North American adults (so-called super-consumers) account for the consumption of 70-80 per cent of ice cream, coffee, soda, cigarettes, etc. For candy, it’s been estimated that 34 per cent of consumption is from only nine per cent of adults. Now, many of these ‘Pareto’ consumers are taking, or likely will very soon start taking, GLP-1 medications, which Dr. Marion Nestle, professor emeritus at New York University, described in the New York Times as “an existential threat to the food industry.”

Click here to read more.

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.

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