In this edition:
- Rate of inflation slows to 1.7% driven by falling gasoline prices
- 10-megawatt solar project in Thorold’s south end backed by city councillors
- Niagara municipalities receive Canada Community-Building Fund
- Residential construction edges up in June
- Movie theatres still not recovered from COVID pandemic, statistics show
- Air Canada, flight attendants reach tentative deal to end strike
- Ontario expands access to silica control tool to protect workers
- De minimis’ end: How shippers are adapting for peak season and beyond
- Focus on Climate
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Rate of inflation slows to 1.7% driven by falling gasoline prices
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.7% on a year-over-year basis in July, down from a 1.9% increase in June.
Prices for gasoline led the slowdown in the all-items CPI, falling 16.1% year over year in July, following a 13.4% decline in June. Excluding gasoline, the CPI rose 2.5% in July, matching the increases in May and June. Moderating the deceleration in July were higher prices for groceries
Picture credit: Vadim / Adobe Stock
10-megawatt solar project in Thorold’s south end backed by city councillors
Alectra Energy Solutions (AES) has won Thorold city council’s support to apply to the province to develop a clean solar energy site in the city’s south end.
AES plans for the solar project to produce 10 megawatts of power annually on an otherwise unusable patch of land.
Picture credit: maroke / Adobe Stock
Niagara municipalities receive Canada Community-Building Fund
The Government of Canada is providing more than $748 million through the Canada Community-Building Fund for 652 recipients across Ontario in 2025-2026. These funds provide communities with stable and flexible funding for their infrastructure priorities across a wide range of categories.
All Niagara municipalities received funding.
Picture credit: adrian_ilie825/ Adobe Stock
Residential construction edges up in June
Investment in building construction rose $454.4 million to $22.7 billion in June. The residential sector rose 3.1%, while the non-residential sector edged down 0.5%. Year over year, investment in building construction grew 8.0% in June.
Picture credit: ImageFlow / Adobe Stock
Movie theatres still not recovered from COVID pandemic, new statistics show
Operating revenue in the motion picture theatres industry reached $1.6 billion in 2024, a 12.0% increase from 2022. Despite these gains, the industry’s national operating revenue was 13.1% below that of $1.9 billion recorded in 2018—the highest amount on record since the beginning of the data series in 2014—underscoring the prolonged impact of the pandemic on the industry.
Photo credit: SockaGPhoto / Adobe Stock
Air Canada, flight attendants reach tentative deal to end strike
A tentative agreement has been reached to end the contract dispute between Air Canada and its flight attendants, both the airline and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) announced Tuesday.
Click here to read more.
Picture credit: Towfiqu Barbhuiya / Adobe Stock
Ontario expands access to silica control tool to protect workers
The Silica Control Tool (SCT) is a user-friendly, online risk assessment tool that helps protect workers from the dangers of airborne crystalline silica exposure.
Since its launch in Ontario, the SCT has gained significant traction, with over 1,000 active account holders and nearly 500 exposure control plans (ECPs) initiated since the launch.
Picture credit: Pixel-Shot / Adobe Stock
De minimis’ end: How shippers are adapting for peak season and beyond
The fast-approaching end of the de minimis exemption could pose challenges for e-commerce supply chains’ peak season plans.
The exemption, which allows sub-$800 imports to enter the U.S. duty and tax free, will be eliminated on Aug. 29 to crack down on drug trafficking and importers avoiding tariffs, per a White House fact sheet.
Focus on Climate
First commercial carbon capture and utilization facility being built in Mississauga
Dan O’Reilly, ConstructConnect
New ground is being broken at the Ash Grove cement plant on Lakeshore Road in Mississauga, Ont. in both a literal and figurative sense.
The plant will be the site of, what the proponents describe as, Canada’s “first-of-its-kind” commercial carbon capture and utilization facility.
Construction was officially launched on July 29 in a sod-turning ceremony attended by representatives of carbon and resource utilization leader Carbon Upcycling, Ash Grove and the federal government including Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon.
The federal government has awarded $10 million, through three different programs, for the development of the Carbon 1 Mississauga project.
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.
