In this edition:
- Niagara’s population breaks through half-million barrier
- Mark Carney sworn in as Prime Minister
- NC Teaching Distillery taps into spirit of success with national medals
- Port Colborne to celebrate opening of Welland Canal with Top Hat Ceremony
- Manufacturing, wholesale trade post gains in January
- Sales for American products ‘rapidly dropping’
- Counter-tariffs to put some Canadian industries ‘between a rock and a hard place’
- Hudson’s Bay Company nearly $1B in debt, filings paint dire financial portrait
- Focus on International Trade
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Picture credit: Dmytro / Adobe Stock
Niagara’s population breaks through half-million barrier
The Niagara region has topped the half-million mark in population, driven in large part by international immigration, said Statistics Canada officials.
The region’s population, according to the federal agency, was 502,823 as of July 1, 2024, an increase from 2023 when it was 487,323 and 46,789 more than in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic at 456,034.
The Right Honourable Mark Carney is sworn in as Prime Minister | Picture credit: Mark Carney
Mark Carney sworn in as Prime Minister
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Head Distiller David Dickson holds up three bottles of spirits from the NC Teaching Distillery that won medals at the 2025 Canadian Artisan Spirit Competition. | Picture credit: Niagara College
NC Teaching Distillery taps into spirit of success with national medals
Last year’s student projects are this year’s national award-winners at Niagara College’s Teaching Distillery.
Three spirits that were crafted as final projects from Artisan Distilling students in 2024, have recently won medals from the Canadian Artisan Spirit Competition (CASC) – with one of them also capturing top honours in its category.
Picture credit: City of Port Colborne
Port Colborne to celebrate opening of Welland Canal with Top Hat Ceremony
The City of Port Colborne will mark the opening of the Welland Canal’s 2025 shipping season with a familiar spring tradition.
On Saturday, March 22, the City’s Top Hat Ceremony will return to Lock 8 Gateway Park, when Mayor William Steele will welcome the captain of the first downbound vessel and present them with a top hat to mark the occasion.
Photo credit: 安琦 王 / Adobe Stock
Manufacturing, wholesale trade post gains in January
Wholesale sales (excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain) also rose by 1.2% to $85.1 billion in January.
Statistics Canada noted that in 2024, Canadian manufacturers sold about half of their products to foreign customers, with roughly 80% of those exports going to the United States.
Picture credit: Prashanth Bala / Adobe Stock
Sales for American products ‘rapidly dropping,’ says CEO of Sobeys parent company
Canadians are abandoning American products at Empire Company Ltd.‘s stores as sales for U.S. goods “rapidly” drop, the company’s CEO said.
“American products we are selling as a present percentage of our total sales are rapidly dropping,” said president and chief executive officer Michael Medline.
Picture credit: ehrlif / Adobe Stock
Counter-tariffs to put some Canadian industries ‘between a rock and a hard place’
Some Canadian industries will be “caught between a rock and a hard place” in the trade war with the U.S., a Desjardins economist says, as American tariffs and Canadian countermeasures hit both their demand and supply.
Picture credit: Canmenwalker / CC BY 4.0
Hudson’s Bay Company nearly $1B in debt, with court filings painting dire financial portrait
Hudson’s Bay Company is nearly a billion dollars in debt, according to court filings that paint a dire portrait of the struggling Canadian department store chain’s finances.
The documents were submitted as part of its creditor protection filing last week.
Focus on International Trade
Is South America the answer to Canada’s trade diversification dilemma?
The rise of American protectionism is forcing Canada to look further afield for trade partners, with some pointing south — much farther south — to one potential option.
“With the U.S. an increasingly erratic partner, Canada needs commercial partners outside of North America, and Mercosur is the largest trade block with which Canada does not have a trade agreement,” said Rambod Behboodi, an international trade lawyer at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.
Mercosur — an abbreviation of the Spanish Mercado Común del Sur, meaning southern common market — was founded in 1991 when Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay signed the Treaty of Asunción. The pact effectively removed customs duties between the countries and placed a common external tariff (CET) on specific imports from outside the bloc (the CET currently averages 11.5 per cent), while establishing a common trade policy with outside countries.
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.
