In this edition:
- Home sales showing signs of recovery: Real Estate Association
- Vineland-based Tawse Winery takes bronze in WSIB Health and Safety Awards
- St. Catharines receives $5.6 million in upgrades from Alectra Utilities
- Meridian recognized by Forbes as one of Canada’s Best Employers in 2024
- Grimsby town council whittles down tax increase
- St. Catharines reports positive year-end update on grants and funding for 2023
- Tower crane touches the sky from South Niagara Hospital site
- NDP to move bill calling for ban of coal exports as Canadian output booms
- Government of Canada proposes doubling rural Carbon Rebate top-up
- Focus on Climate
Home sales showing signs of recovery: Real Estate Association
Following a weak second half of 2023, home sales over the last two months are showing signs of recovery, according to the latest data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).
Home sales activity recorded over Canadian MLS® Systems rose 3.7% between December 2023 and January 2024, building on the 7.9% month-over-month increase recorded the month prior. While activity is now back on par with 2023’s relatively stronger months recorded over the spring and summer, it begins 2024 about 9% below the 10-year average.
Vineland-based Tawse Winery takes bronze in WSIB Small Business Health and Safety Leadership Awards
Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) has announced the winners of its annual Small Business Health and Safety Leadership Awards. The awards recognize and celebrate small businesses that demonstrate exemplary health and safety practices and go the extra mile to keep their employees and customers safe, it said.
Tawse Winery, a Vineland family-owned winery and distillery, refreshed their health and safety program and created new policies, ensuring employees are set up to succeed by clearly defining health and safety roles and responsibilities and creating a culture of accountability.
Launched in 2017, the WSIB’s Small Business Health and Safety Leadership Awards recognize the health and safety achievements of small businesses in Ontario. Any Ontario small business with fewer than 50 employees is eligible to apply. A total of 197 businesses applied for the awards in 2023. Winners receive a cash prize.
St. Catharines receives $5.6 million in upgrades from Alectra Utilities to improve infrastructure and reliability
In 2023, Alectra invested $5.6 million to construct and renew infrastructure, which will improve power reliability across the City of St. Catharines. This significant investment is part of Alectra’s ongoing commitment to modernize the city’s power grid and enhance reliability as the demand for electricity continues to rise.
With parts of St. Catharines’ system reaching the end of its life cycle, renewing the deteriorating infrastructure is imperative to maintain reliability. This series of infrastructure upgrades will stabilize the existing system and reduce outage impacts in the community.
Meridian Credit Union recognized by Forbes as one of Canada’s Best Employers in 2024
Meridian is proud to be recognized by Forbes as one of Canada’s Best Employers for 2024. Forbes partnered with market research company Statista to compile the annual list, surveying more than 40,000 people working for Canadian companies and institutions with at least 500 employees.
“As part of our Meridian for Good strategy, we are committed to building and growing an inclusive and diverse team that is equipped to achieve their best life,” said Patty Johns, Meridian’s Chief People and Culture Officer, “this means taking the time to understand what is important to our employees, investing in them, and being there for them.”
Grimsby town council whittles down tax increase
Grimsby homeowners are looking at a 4.01 per cent increase on their combined municipal property tax bill this year.
During Monday’s budget committee of the whole meeting, town councillors spent more than three hours discussing and trimming 2024 operating and capital budgets, eventually reducing the local levy increase to 4.95 per cent from from 5.2 per cent.
Blended with Niagara Region and school board taxes, the average increase for a home valued at $442,000 in 2016 will be about $222 (the town portion of the increase is $67).
St. Catharines reports positive year-end update on grants and funding for 2023
The City of St. Catharines reports the successful evaluation, application, and receipt of grants and funding totaling $30,356,614 for 2023.
These funds have played a pivotal role in advancing various projects and initiatives aimed at enhancing the City’s infrastructure, services, and quality of life for residents.
Grant opportunities, comprising federal, provincial, and private funding sources, have been meticulously pursued by the City’s Grant Committee, which meets regularly to strategize and collaborate on potential opportunities. In 2023 alone, City staff applied for nearly $112 million worth of funding; a proactive approach to securing financial support for key initiatives.
Tower crane touches the sky from South Niagara Hospital site
It arrived in pieces on multiple tractor-trailer rigs and required a few days to assemble, but there is now a tower crane on the South Niagara Hospital site. Standing 52 metres tall, it is the first of four cranes to be installed over the next few months, and used in building the 1.3-million-square-foot hospital.
The building itself has a footprint of only 23,225 square metres, a design feature that will help with walkability, accessibility and wayfinding, but it will stand an impressive 12-storeys. At 61 metres, the South Niagara Hospital will be one of the taller buildings in Niagara Falls, visible from kilometres away.
NDP to move bill calling for ban of coal exports as Canadian output booms
Canadian exports of the kind of coal used to make electricity hit an eight-year high in 2022, even as the Liberals have promised to work on banning exports completely by the end of the decade.
The Liberals made the promise during the 2021 election and it was listed in Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s mandate letter that December.
In the year that followed, Canada exported more than eight million tonnes of domestically produced thermal coal, a 60 per cent increase over 2021 and more than eight times what was exported in 2018.
Government of Canada proposes doubling rural Carbon Rebate top-up
Today, the federal government announced the Canada Carbon Rebate amounts for 2024-25. In addition to the base Canada Carbon Rebate amounts, starting this year, the federal government is proposing, through legislative amendments in Bill C-59, to double the rural top-up to 20 per cent, in recognition of rural Canadians’ higher energy needs and more limited access to cleaner transportation options.
The Canada Carbon Rebate (previously known as the Climate Action Incentive Payment) returns fuel charge proceeds to Canadians through direct deposit or cheque, every three months, ensuring most households get more money back, with lower-income households benefiting the most.
Did you know?
Focus on Climate
Climate change is hitting Ontario’s farms hard. Why won’t the government talk about it?
By the 2050s, Ontario farmers may no longer be able to grow certain varieties of apples or wine grapes, “regardless of how quickly greenhouse gas emissions are reduced.” By the 2080s, prolonged heat waves could kill a quarter of the province’s cows and pigs.
Those bleak predictions are some of the dozens of risks of global heating listed in a recent province-wide study the Doug Ford government has so far avoided sharing with Ontarians.
The 534-page report, called the Provincial Climate Change Impact Assessment, uses the government’s own data to show that Ontarians’ food, homes and health are at very high risk of harm within the next few decades — particularly if responding and adapting to a rapidly-changing climate doesn’t happen immediately.
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.
