In this edition:
- Ontario VQA sales up 67% year-over-year
- Loblaw closing second of three ultra-discount No Name stores
- Ontario releases draft criteria for Special Economic Zones
- NOTL reports “strong progress” on strategic plan
- Ontario awards $60,000 Inclusive Community Grant to the Town of Pelham
- LeBlanc hoping for progress on sectoral deals before CUSMA review begins
- Amazon to hire more than 7,000 employees in Canada in seasonal roles
- Bank of Canada may abandon core inflation as ‘preferred’ measure, deputy governor says
- Canada’s government is downsizing faster than the U.S., but big projects (and deficits) loom
- Focus on Technology
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Picture credit: jobi_pro / Adobe Stock
Ontario VQA sales up 67% year-over-year
New data from the LCBO shows a significant boost of 67% year-over-year growth for Ontario VQA wines. That, coupled with a 23% increase for all Ontario-made products, reflects not only the shifting customer buying habits, but also the strength and quality of Ontario- and Canadian-made products, according to the LCBO.
Photo credit: Loblaw Companies Limited / YouTube screenshot
Loblaw closing second of three ultra-discount No Name stores
Just over a year after they opened, Loblaw Cos. Ltd. is closing a second location of the three No Name stores it was piloting as a bet on ultra-discount.
The grocer says it will close its LaSalle, Ont., No Name store near Windsor on Oct. 25, after already shuttering its St. Catharines store in July.
Photo credit: YouraPechkin / Adobe Stock
Ontario releases draft criteria for Special Economic Zones
First introduced under the Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act in response to U.S. tariffs, the Special Economic Zones Act supports the advancement of job-creating investments and projects that hold critical and strategic importance to Ontario’s economic security.
Picture credit: Destination Ontario
NOTL reports “strong progress” on strategic plan
Niagara-on-the-Lake Coundil received an update on its 2022–2027 Strategic Plan showing that 70% of all indicators of success are now Complete, On Target, or Above Target.
The next Strategic Plan progress report, covering results for the full 2025 calendar year, will be presented to Council in January 2026.
Picture credit: Viacheslav Yakobchuk / Adobe Stock
Ontario awards $60,000 Inclusive Community Grant to the Town of Pelham
Sam Oosterhoff, MPP for Niagara West, announced yesterday that $60,000 in provincial funding would be made available through an Inclusive Community Grant for the Town of Pelham. Inclusive Community Grant support local projects that help improve accessibility and support people of all ages and abilities across Ontario.
Photo credit: Victor Moussa / Adobe Stock
LeBlanc hoping for progress on sectoral deals before CUSMA review begins
On Oct. 2, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said that Ottawa hopes to “make progress before” the formal Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement review begins next year, and “nobody has yet suggested” Ottawa should fold the sector-specific talks into the broader review.
He said Canada is still in discussions on dropping sector-specific tariffs that are putting pressure on Canadian industries and he does not see “a dead end in those conversations.”
Picture credit: wolterke / Adobe Stock
Amazon to hire more than 7,000 employees in Canada in seasonal roles
Amazon says it is ramping up for the holidays with plans to hire more than 7,000 employees in seasonal roles across the company’s operations network in Canada while increasing the average hourly wage for eligible employees to $24.50 – a 4.3% increase over 2024 wages. It will also add to its leading workplace benefits package by introducing the Employee Prime Benefit to eligible frontline employees in Canada by the end of 2025.
Picture credit: Jeff Whyte / Bank of Canada
Bank of Canada may abandon core inflation as ‘preferred’ measure, deputy governor says
Bank of Canada deputy governor Rhys Mendes said the central bank is considering abandoning the practice of referring to measures of core inflation as its “preferred” measures, as the central bank prepares to review its monetary policy framework next year.
Photo credit: Wangkun Jia / Adobe Stock
Canada’s government is downsizing faster than the U.S., but big projects (and deficits) loom
Canada’s federal government has made deeper job cuts in 2025 than the U.S., a development National Bank of Canada calls “unintuitive/underappreciated” in light of the heavily reported efficiency efforts of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency.
Focus on Technology
How Gen AI is transforming the food and beverage workforce
Yannick Haeck, MRO
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.
