In this edition:
- Shaw warns delays could derail Royal George rebuild
- Parliament Oak hotel development charges request rankles regional councillors
- City of Niagara Falls unveils new logo and branding
- 2.19% town tax increase proposed for Niagara-on-the-Lake residents
- Hydro One seeks approval to build the Welland Thorold Power Line
- Could Niagara Falls pilot project offering jobs to help get single parents off Ontario Works be expanded across region?
- Emissions up in GTHA as reliance on gas power deepens
- Carney Liberals narrowly survive crucial budget vote, preventing winter election
- Sweden’s trade delegation to lobby for a slice of defence spending
- Cloudflare resolves outage that impacted thousands, ChatGPT, X and more
- New home construction dropped 17% in October, says CMHC
- Focus on International Trade
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Picture credit: Shaw Festival
Shaw warns delays could derail Royal George rebuild
The Shaw Festival says it may abandon the Royal George Theatre rebuild — or sell the Queen Street–Victoria Street property — if Niagara-on-the-Lake council does not approve the required planning amendments at Tuesday’s meeting.
The letter was submitted after council’s Nov. 11 decision to delay approval and have staff investigate concerns about the project’s size, height, parking and accessibility. Staff recommended full approval at that meeting.
Picture credit: Peter J. Lesdow
Parliament Oak hotel development charges request rankles regional councillors
A recommendation to waive almost $1 million in development charges for a hotel development at the former Parliament Oak School site in Niagara-on-the-Lake has ruffled Niagara Region’s corporate services committee.
Debate on the matter ended with a majority of committee members voting to override regional staff’s position on collecting development charges from the developer, Two Sisters Resorts Corp., for the second level of an underground parking garage.
Picture credit: City of Niagara Falls
City of Niagara Falls unveils new logo and branding
After months of collaboration between City staff, Council members, and a dedicated creative agency, the City of Niagara Falls has announced its revitalized brand identity.
The new brand is mirrored in the At Your Service Niagara Falls logo and branding introduced last week with the opening of two new customer service centres. A redesigned and rebranded City of Niagara Falls website will be launched early in the new year.
Photo credit: Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake
2.19% town tax increase proposed for Niagara-on-the-Lake residents
A motion that would have increased the town’s parking rate, but would have raised more than $150,000 in 2026, has been rejected by Niagara-on-the-Lake town councillors.
During the same meeting, councillors voted to increase the proposed 2026 average tax increase by 2.19 per cent from the 1.81 per cent proposed in the lord mayor’s budget.
Picture credit: trongnguyen / Adobe Stock
Hydro One seeks approval to build the Welland Thorold Power Line
On Monday, Hydro One Networks Inc. (Hydro One) announced it has filed an application with the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) to construct a new double-circuit 230-kilovolt transmission line between Abitibi Consolidated Junction, within an existing Hydro One transmission corridor in Thorold and Crowland Transformer Station (TS) in Welland. In addition to the line work, Hydro One will also expand Crowland TS.
The approximately $311 million investment in the region is expected to be complete by 2029 to bolster capacity and improve the reliability and security of the electricity grid.
Picture credit: City of Niagara Falls
Could Niagara Falls pilot project offering jobs to help get single parents off Ontario Works be expanded across region?
Niagara Falls’ top boss hopes other local communities and businesses consider adopting its pilot project that provides municipal jobs to single parents on Ontario Works.
Niagara Falls began its 12-month Level Up program last year, which led to two people being hired — one in the city’s planning department and the other as a facilities maintainer in the recreation and culture department.
Picture credit: Jose Luis Stephens / Adobe Stock
Emissions up in GTHA as reliance on gas power deepens
The increased use of natural gas to power the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area is “undermining” efforts to cut into carbon emissions, according to a new report looking at the area’s planet-warming pollution.
The Atmospheric Fund, a regional climate agency, says emissions were up by one per cent in 2024. That marked slower growth than in previous years, but was well off the 11 per cent annual cuts the report says would be required to hit the region’s 2030 climate targets.
Picture credit: Rixie / Adobe Stock
Carney Liberals narrowly survive crucial budget vote, preventing winter election
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government narrowly survived a crucial budget vote Monday evening, one that could have sent Canadians to the polls this winter but instead propped up the minority Liberal government.
Members of Parliament ended weeks of drama and speculation about the Carney government’s fate by voting 170 to 168 on a confidence motion that expressed support for the fall federal budget.
Picture credit: Ryan / Adobe Stock
Sweden’s trade delegation to lobby for a slice of defence spending
The Swedish royal family is paying a rare, three-day state visit to Canada this week, bringing with them a delegation of top government ministers and representatives from dozens of Swedish companies.
The high-profile visit comes as the Swedish defence firm Saab considers whether it should start assembling its Gripen fighter jets in Canada as demand for the warplanes ramps up. The Gripen is vying against the Lockheed Martin F-35, 88 of which Canada had originally planned to order.
Picture credit: MichaelVi / Adobe Stock
Cloudflare resolves outage that impacted thousands, ChatGPT, X and more
A widely used Internet infrastructure company said that it has resolved an issue that led to outages impacting users of everything from ChatGPT and the online game, “League of Legends,” to the New Jersey Transit system early Tuesday.
At 12:44 p.m. EST, Cloudflare said its engineers no longer saw some of the issues plaguing its customers, but that they were continuing to monitor for any further problems.
Photo credit: karamysh / Adobe Stock
New home construction dropped 17% in October, says CMHC
The annual pace of housing starts, also known as new home construction, fell 17 per cent in October compared with September, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Tuesday.
The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 232,765 units in October, down from 279,174 in September.
Focus on International Trade
Why China’s EV imports are a security threat to Canada
Larysa Harapyn / Financial Post
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.
