In this edition:
- Canada Post contract vote: What’s at stake for delivery operations
- New partnership brings free access to NPCA conservation areas through Canada’s first nature prescription program
- ‘One big enchilada’ of a parking report wins St. Catharines city council endorsement
- Transit troubles take centre stage at Fort Erie council meeting
- PenFinancial appoints David Veres as new Chair
- Municipalities warn government over proposed Blue Box changes
- Focus on Human Resources
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Photo credit: Julia / Adobe Stock
Canada Post contract vote: What’s at stake for delivery operations
Canada Post’s delivery operations could undergo significant changes if employees vote in favor of the carrier’s contract proposals.
Two multi-year contract offers will soon be up for vote by more than 50,000 members of two Canadian Union of Postal Workers bargaining units — one covering urban workers, the other covering rural and suburban mail carriers. Dates for when the vote will take place have not yet been announced.
Picture credit: Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority
New partnership brings free access to NPCA conservation areas through Canada’s first nature prescription program
Starting July 3, patients who receive a PaRx prescription will be eligible for five free visits to select Niagara Peninsula watershed conservation areas where parking fees are charged, including Ball’s Falls, Binbrook, Chippawa Creek, and Long Beach.
The partnership between PaRx and the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) is a shared effort to make nature more accessible as part of mainstream healthcare.
Picture credit: City of St. Catharines
‘One big enchilada’ of a parking report wins St. Catharines city council endorsement
St. Catharines will be consolidating its parking enforcement contracts, investing in new technologies and reviewing the rates it charges to make parking fees a self-supporting “strategic asset.”
City councillors endorsed 17 recommendations following a parking services review conducted by LEA Consulting, presented during their Monday meeting.
Photo credit: Niagara Transit
Transit troubles take centre stage at Fort Erie council meeting
Regional transit officials faced pointed questions from Fort Erie town councillors this week over the state of specialized and micro-transit services, with local leaders raising concerns about booking delays, vehicle accessibility and gaps in service for riders with disabilities.
Picture credit: PenFinancial
PenFinancial appoints
Reg Sonnenberg has resigned from the PenFinancial Credit Union’s Board of Directors effective immediately, the credit union announced today. In a media release, PenFinancial thanked Reg for his dedicated service.
In accordance with their Corporate By-Laws, the Board has appointed David Veres as the new Chair of the Board of Directors.
Picture credit: abimagestudio / Adobe Stock
Municipalities warn government over proposed Blue Box changes
The Ford government’s proposed overhaul of Ontario’s blue box recycling program is drawing criticism from municipalities, waste experts, and industry players who warn the changes could gut waste diversion efforts and leave municipalities hanging with the bill.
Focus on Human Resources
Mind the (skills) gap
Matt Jones, MRO Magazine
In September 2024, KnowMeQ, a provider of science-validated assessments and AI tools for workplace upskilling, released the results of a skills assessment it had conducted as part of Next Generation Manufacturing Canada’s (NGen) Future Ready program. The assessment—an online test that measured various competencies of 900 employees from 115 manufacturing companies—determined that the Canadian manufacturing workforce, overall, lacks the reading, numeracy and digital competency skills needed to meet the demands of jobs in modern, industrialized economies.
“This [lack of skills] contributes to our productivity challenges,” says KnowMeQ founder and CEO Matt Foran. “We have seen very consistently, and it’s been documented in different research, that individuals in work settings in Canada, about 50 per cent of them, don’t have the level of skills to meet the core demands of the jobs. And that becomes a real impediment to that body of workers’ ability to take on greater, more complex tasks and weighs down the opportunities for greater efficiencies in productivity.”
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.
