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Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce

Home / Daily Update  /  Daily Update: September 12, 2025

Daily Update: September 12, 2025

September 12, 2025 | Daily Update

In this edition:

  • St. Catharines and Pelham launch Culture Days programs
  • Neighbourhood Association Program empowers Welland residents to shape their communities
  • Ministers ask senior officials to review procurement contracts, find savings
  • New $3 million federal program aims to reduce barriers to entry in key sectors
  • High-speed rail construction could begin in four years
  • Total value of issued building permits in Niagara up 130% year-over-year
  • Canada Post workers to stop delivering flyers as part of new strike activity
  • Internal government documents reveal grim housing climate in Canada
  • Focus on Finance & Economy

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Picture credit: City of St. Catharines

Arts and culture will take centre stage for three weeks this fall as the City of St. Catharines celebrates Culture Days.

A diverse range of interactive live performances, events and workshops are planned from Sept. 19 to Oct. 12, 2025. The Culture Days festival is held annually across Canada for people of all ages.

The Town of Pelham is also participating in Culture Days, with several opportunities for residents through a variety of workshops, presentations and exhibits.

An aerial panorama of Welland, Ontario, Canada in winter

Photo credit: Harold Stiver / Adobe Stock

Neighbourhood Association Program empowers Welland residents to shape their communities

The City of Welland is inviting residents to take an active role in shaping the places they call home through its Neighbourhood Association Program. The program’s policy was approved by City Council in June 2025, and it offers tools, resources, and support to help residents establish neighbourhood associations.

Click here to read more.

The Houses of Parliament in Ottawa

Photo credit: Wangkun Jia / Adobe Stock

Ministers ask senior officials to review procurement contracts, find savings

Canada’s ministers of finance and procurement have given officials in charge of most federal contracting 45 days to come up with a plan to review all existing and planned federal contracts to find ways to save money.

Click here to read more.

Photo credit: .shock / Adobe Stock

New $3 million federal program aims to reduce barriers to entry in key sectors

Workplace Opportunities: Removing Barriers to Equity is a grants and contributions program that provides $3 million per fiscal year to projects aimed at improving representation of designated groups—women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities—in areas of low representation through partnerships and industry-tailored strategies. It is designed to support employers subject to the Employment Equity Act in reducing barriers to equity in their workplace.

Click here to read more.

A Japanese Shinkansen train passes through a station at high speed

Picture credit: THINK b / Adobe Stock

High-speed rail construction could begin in four years

The federal government wants construction on a planned high-speed rail line between Toronto and Quebec City to begin within four years.

On Sep. 11, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the government’s new major projects office will work to speed up engineering and regulatory work on the Alto high-speed rail line.

Click here to read more.

A bricklayer builds a wall from concrete blocks

Picture credit: nipol / Adobe Stock

Total value of issued building permits in Niagara up 130% year-over-year

The total value of issued building permits in St. Catharines-Niagara for July 2025 was $338.2 million – an increase of 130.4% over the $146.8 million issued last year. This went against national trends, in which the value of issued permits fell 8.2% year-over-year.

Click here to read more.

A Canada Post mailbox

Photo credit: Julia / Adobe Stock

Canada Post workers to stop delivering flyers as part of new strike activity

Canadians will stop receiving flyers in the mail beginning Monday, Sept. 15.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which represents more than 50,000 postal workers, announced the move Friday as part of escalating strike activity against Canada Post, with whom they are attempting to negotiate a new contract.

Click here to read more.

Photo credit: 2B / Adobe Stock

Internal government documents reveal grim housing climate in Canada

As Ottawa gears up to launch a new agency to build homes faster, internal government documents describe how dire the housing situation has become in Canada.

Briefing materials prepared for incoming Housing Minister Gregor Robertson this past May were released this week, which acknowledge that costly housing is hurting the economy and making it difficult for people to find places to live.

Click here to read more.

Focus on Finance & Economy

You’re thumbing your way through your social media feed when you see an outfit that jumps off the screen. You select your size, click buy and just like that, your new threads are on the way. Easy-peasy.

This seamless experience is made possible by embedded finance, and it’s just one of the ways that technology is changing how people buy things. These days, you can buy a coffee, split a restaurant tab with your friends, or send money to your relatives on the other side of the world—all with just a few clicks on a cell phone.

Financial technology—or fintech for short—can have many benefits. It can make financial services cheaper, more convenient and easier to access. An app or a website is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So, you can use financial services when you need them. And without the need to maintain a storefront, many fintech firms have lower operating costs than traditional financial institutions. So, they can choose to charge lower fees for their services.

Thousands of fintech companies already provide financial services in Canada, and there’s still room to grow. In many other countries, fintech is even more widely used.

Click here to read more.

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.

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