In this edition:
- Ontario invests $90M in shipbuilding, including Port Colborne facility
- HOPA Ports earns top environmental rating from Green Marine
- U.S. approves ‘emergency rescue’ plan to import Marineland’s whales and dolphins
- Grant to help Inclusion West Niagara open 2nd social enterprise to lower barriers to employment
- Niagara Parks launches accessibility consultation
- Diageo signs deal to sell Ontario bottling plant
- Asking rents in Canada fall more than 4% from last year, according to report
- More than half of Canadians highly concerned about climate change
- Retail sales rise as fuel and fresh food costs climb
- Focus on Small Business
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Featured content by Upper Edge Consulting
Picture credit: Phimwilai / Adobe Stock
Grant searching shouldn’t be this hard
I’ve been a grant writer for over 15 years, in both the U.S. and Canada. That means thousands of hours spent combing through grant listings — doing the delicate dance of not leaving money on the table, but not wasting time chasing opportunities that were never a great fit.
We’re fixing that.
Upper Edge Consulting and our new company, StackTech Solutions, are rolling out SearchStack — an AI-powered, human-verified grant research tool. Instead of handing you hundreds of matches to sort through yourself, we deliver a curated shortlist: 10-15 grants that are genuinely strong fits. AI does the first pass, then an experienced grant professional reviews every result before it reaches you.
This is so new it’s not even on our website yet. If you’d like to be one of the first to save time and find more funding, email me at diana@upperedge.ca and we’ll include you in the launch announcement.
Picture credit: Welland Canal Corridor
Ontario invests $90M in shipbuilding, including Port Colborne facility
Ontario is investing more than $90 million through the Ontario Shipbuilding Grant Program to expand the province’s shipbuilding capacity, including more than $8 million for Allied Marine and Industrial in Port Colborne. The funding will support skills training, infrastructure improvements, machinery and equipment as Ontario looks to capture more work tied to Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy and growing defence spending.
Picture credit: HOPA
HOPA Ports earns top environmental rating from Green Marine
HOPA Ports has received a Level 5 rating, the highest possible score, in the Aquatic Ecosystems category through the Green Marine environmental certification program. The recognition reflects HOPA’s work to protect and enhance aquatic habitats across its port network, including operations connected to Niagara’s marine and trade infrastructure.
Photo credit: Marineland
U.S. approves ‘emergency rescue’ plan to import Marineland’s whales and dolphins
U.S. authorities have approved an “emergency rescue” operation to import Canada’s last captive whales and dolphins, a consortium of marine parks said Wednesday.
Picture credit: Drobot Dean / Adobe Stock
Grant to help Inclusion West Niagara open 2nd social enterprise to lower barriers to employment
As the local job market continues to ebb and flow, Inclusion West Niagara is planning to keep up an enterprise to help its clients with developmental disabilities gain employment.
The organization is looking to open a second social enterprise — a community-based business that sells goods or services to achieve social, cultural and/or environmental goals rather than to increase profit.
Picture credit: Niagara Parks
Niagara Parks launches accessibility consultation
Niagara Parks is asking the public for feedback as it develops its 2027–2031 Multi-Year Accessibility Plan, which will guide work to improve access and remove barriers across its attractions, public spaces, operations and visitor experiences. The new plan will succeed the 2022–2026 accessibility plan and continue more than a decade of accessibility planning at one of Niagara’s most important tourism organizations.
Picture credit: City of Port Colborne
Seaway cargo volumes down, but vessel traffic rises
St. Lawrence Seaway cargo traffic reached 12.0 million tonnes year-to-date in June 2026, down 5.3% from the same point last year, with grain, coal, iron ore and general cargo all posting declines. Vessel transits, however, rose 1.6% to 1,355, suggesting continued movement through the corridor despite softer cargo volumes.
Liquid bulk was the one cargo category to increase, edging up 0.8% year-to-date, while dry bulk was nearly flat, down 0.6%.
Picture credit: SockaGPhoto / Adobe Stock
Diageo signs deal to sell Ontario bottling plant
The company behind Crown Royal whisky says it has agreed to sell its bottling plant in southern Ontario.
A spokesperson for Diageo says in a statement that while the agreement for the Amherstburg facility has been signed, details about its buyer won’t be shared.
Picture credit: Andrii Yalanskyi / Adobe Stock
Asking rents in Canada fall more than 4% from last year, according to report
Asking rents in Canada continued to sink lower last month compared with a year ago, with a new report pegging the average cost at $2,033 for June.
That’s down 4.3 per cent from June 2025, marking the 21st consecutive month of year-over-year declines, according to the latest monthly analysis from Rentals.ca and Urbanation, which is based on asking rents across the former’s listings network.
Picture credit: wavebreak3 / Adobe Stock
More than half of Canadians highly concerned about climate change
More than half of Canadians were very or extremely concerned about climate change in 2025, while 30% reported feeling stressed about it at least once a month, according to a new Statistics Canada study. Concern was higher among Canadians aged 65 and older, women and university graduates, while climate-related stress was more common among women, university graduates and urban residents.
The study also found that people with higher concern and more frequent stress were more likely to report actions such as reducing food waste and energy use.
Picture credit: Yingyaipumi / Adobe Stock
Retail sales rise as fuel and fresh food costs climb
Canadian retail sales reached $73.5 billion in April, up 3.2% from the same month last year, with increases reported in 12 of 18 commodity classes. The largest dollar increase came from automotive and household fuels, where sales rose 27.9%, while food and beverage sales were up 2.5% on higher fresh food sales, including a 7.9% increase for fresh meat and poultry.
Motor vehicle sales moved in the opposite direction, falling 2.9% year over year, with declines in both new and used vehicles. Statistics Canada’s advance estimate suggests unadjusted total retail sales rose 3.8% in May, though the figure is preliminary and will be revised.
Focus on Small Business
The best marketing channels for SMEs in 2026
Zelina Frigan, BDC
Making sure customers can find your business online is not as straightforward as it used to be. That’s one of the takeaways of a recent survey we conducted with Canadian business owners and consumers to compare where businesses invest in marketing and where customers actually look.
We found that people now discover products, services and suppliers in a more fragmented, more digital and more demanding way. Customers are increasingly cross-checking information across multiple channels, including search engines, social platforms, reviews, recommendations and now, AI tools, before they make a decision.
So how can this apply to your marketing strategy?
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.
