In this edition:
- Canada replaces GST credit with new 25% larger groceries and essentials benefit
- Port Colborne launches public engagement on New Official Plan
- Grimsby Peach King Centre expansion and renovation now complete
- New Humber Polytechnic report calls for targeted policy action on productivity challenge
- Chinese ambassador pitches new EVs as a step to new jobs, cheaper cars
- Ontario pins hopes on storage batteries to sustain struggling EV supply chain
- Industrial, commercial sectors fueled Thorold’s growth in 2025, Mayor says
- ‘No easy choices left’ for Ontario hospitals to save money, association claims
- Scotia economist labels Trump’s latest salvo against Canada ‘an empty threat’
- Focus on Finance & Economy
Did you know you can get the GNCC’s Daily Update emailed to you? Click here to sign up.
Photo credit: monticellllo / Adobe Stock
Canada replaces GST credit with new 25% larger groceries and essentials benefit
To support those most affected by the rising price of food, the government is proposing the new Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit to help more than 12 million low- and modest-income Canadians afford day-to-day essentials, starting in the spring of 2026. The government will also provide a one-time payment equivalent to a 50% increase this year.
For businesses, Ottawa is setting aside $500 million from the Strategic Response Fund to help businesses address the costs of supply chain disruptions without passing those costs on to Canadians at the checkout line.
Photo credit: Takawira / Adobe Stock
Port Colborne launches public engagement on New Official Plan
Port Colborne residents can shape the future of their community by participating in upcoming public engagement initiatives for the City’s New Official Plan. Residents are encouraged to attend upcoming Open Houses at the Vale Health & Wellness Centre.
Picture credit: Office of the Hon. Sam Oosterhoff
Grimsby Peach King Centre expansion and renovation now complete
Photo credit: romankrykh / Adobe Stock
New Humber Polytechnic report calls for targeted policy action on productivity challenge
Humber Polytechnic has released “Productivity Now,” a report on how to address the nation’s productivity emergency through its underutilized polytechnic model of education.
Authored by President and CEO Dr. Ann Marie Vaughan, “Productivity Now” argues that polytechnic education links theory to practice in ways that directly impact productivity, accelerate technology adoption and build end-to-end skills pipelines for sectors critical to Canada’s future.
Chinese ambassador pitches new EVs as a step to new jobs, cheaper cars
As critics attack Ottawa’s agreement last week to start allowing a small number of Chinese electric vehicles into Canada, China’s envoy to Ottawa says Beijing wants to partner with Canadian autoworkers to create good jobs and build cheaper cars.
“Only win-win co-operation can last,” Chinese Ambassador to Canada Wang Di told The Canadian Press last week.
Photo credit: xiaoliangge / Adobe Stock
Ontario pins hopes on storage batteries to sustain struggling EV supply chain
Ontario’s vision for an end-to-end electric vehicle supply chain, once an aggressive focus for Premier Doug Ford, has been sputtering as manufacturers delay or cancel plans, and the government is now looking to demands for batteries of a different sort to sustain it.
Click here to read more.
Photo credit: HOPA Ports
Industrial, commercial sectors fueled Thorold’s growth in 2025, Mayor says
“We all know out there, there was a slowdown in residential, in housing – everybody was down,” Thorold’s mayor said in an interview with ThoroldToday. “But our commercial/industrial was actually growing. It didn’t slow down at all.”
That, Ugulini said, resulted in 4.85 per cent economic growth last year, adding that “when we were booming on the housing side, we were around 6.5 per cent.”
Picture credit: thanksforbuying / Adobe Stock
‘No easy choices left’ for Ontario hospitals to save money, association claims
Ontario hospitals have already started making some “lower risk” cuts in the face of rising deficits, but those alone won’t alleviate hospitals’ financial strain, the head of their association says, warning there are no easy choices left.
The Ontario Hospital Association has told the provincial government in its submission ahead of the spring budget that the sector faces a structural deficit of $1 billion and needs not just more money this year but a predictable, multi-year funding plan.
Picture credit: Ali Shaker/VOA / Public Domain
Scotia economist labels Trump’s latest salvo against Canada ‘an empty threat’
U.S. President Donald Trump’s weekend threat to impose a 100 per cent tariff on Canadian exports if Canada signs a trade deal with China “would never see the light of day,” Scotiabank economist Derek Holt argues.
In a note sent to clients Monday, Holt notes that the specifics of the tariff threat are unclear, as is what constitutes a trade deal with China that would trigger the hypothetical levy. But any such manoeuvre is “an empty threat,” Holt says, for various economic and legal reasons.
Focus on Finance & Economy
What a likely Bank of Canada rate hold means for buyers, sellers and mortgages in 2026
John MacFarlane, Yahoo!Finance
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.
