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Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce

Daily Update: February 8

In this edition:

  • Bell Media planning cuts following BCE layoffs, sale of 45 radio stations
  • Jagmeet Singh threatens end of pact with Liberals over pharmacare
  • Start Me Up moves into new home after leaving behind Gale Crescent
  • Toque Tuesday Mayor’s Pancake Breakfast in St. Catharines raises $6,000
  • Business funding on climate action needs to ‘rise exponentially’: RBC report
  • Meta may not bring some products to Canada unless proposed AI law changed
  • Focus on Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Bell Media planning cuts to CTV, BNN Bloomberg following BCE layoffs, sale of 45 radio stations

Bell Media is ending multiple television newscasts and making other programming cuts after its parent company announced widespread layoffs and the sale of 45 of its 103 regional radio stations.

News stations such as CTV and BNN Bloomberg would be affected immediately, according to an internal memo sent to Bell Media employees on Thursday.

It is also selling off 45 of its 103 regional radio stations. The affected stations are in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, including Niagara station 610 CKTB.

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If the government doesn’t make good on pharmacare legislation by March, that would kill the Liberal-NDP political pact, New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh said Wednesday.

But he made it clear that any collapse in the deal, which is meant to hold off a federal election until next year, would be the Liberals’ fault.

Singh has been talking tough this week about the looming deadline to table a bill, and met with the prime minister Monday to lay out his expectations.

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Start Me Up moves into new home after leaving behind Gale Crescent

Start Me Up Niagara (SMUN) recently moved from its home of more than 14 years at 17 Gale Cres. due to accessibility issues.

The move came a month after SMUN had originally planned to leave the old site but was stymied due to permitting issues to complete construction at 211 Church St.

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Toque Tuesday Mayor’s Pancake Breakfast in St. Catharines raises $6,000 and counting

Organizers of an annual fundraising breakfast in St. Catharines served a lot of pancakes Tuesday, as more than 250 guests showed up to eat.

But the effort was well worth it as it raised more than $6,000 for homelessness relief efforts locally and nationally.

“It’s a tricky thing to continue making breakfast for that number of people,” said Jess Doan, communications and events co-ordinator for Community Care of St. Catharines and Thorold, one of the recipients of the proceeds.

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Business funding on climate action needs to ‘rise exponentially’: RBC report

A report from RBC says business funding for climate action needs to “rise exponentially” for the country to be on course for net-zero emissions by 2050.

The RBC Climate Action Institute report says while money coming from public and private sources has grown by almost 50 per cent since 2021 to $22 billion, funding needs to reach $60 billion a year for the rest of the decade to hit emission reduction targets.

The report says public markets, private equity and venture capital will need to “step up” and push more money into green investments, as they made up only eight per cent of the capital flows into climate efforts since 2021.


Meta may not bring some products to Canada unless proposed AI law changed, Parliament told

Officials from four of the biggest tech companies in the world — Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta — largely offered polite criticism of the country’s proposed artificial intelligence law to Canadian parliamentarians for over an hour at a hearing Wednesday.

Several agreed the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) legislation should be passed quickly, but with certain provisions more clearly defined, and allowing more rules to be set in regulations than in the law so it will be flexible.

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Did you know?

Microsoft is now the most valuable company in the world again, having passed Apple in January.


Focus on Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

How entrepreneurship education can be more inclusive

Organizations with resources to support entrepreneurs often overlook their own organizational roles in amplifying stereotypes of entrepreneurs as primarily masculine, white and technology-focused.

Globally, women are less likely to benefit from entrepreneurship education and training, particularly in programs supporting high-growth enterprises. When entrepreneurship programs do consider inclusion, most focus on gender without considering age, ethnicity, race or other identity factors.

From an economic development perspective, the effectiveness and inclusivity of entrepreneurship programs is important as new businesses account for most net job creation.

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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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