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Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce

Daily Update: September 16th, 2021

Site Selection Magazine, a publication serving businesses looking to expand operations, named Niagara as one Canada’s Top 20 Best Locations.

Niagara makes Site Selection Magazine’s cut for Canada’s Top 20 Best Locations

Niagara is getting noticed as a prime location for companies across the world to start and grow their businesses. In its September 2021 issue, Site Selection Magazine, a publication serving business leaders looking to expand their operations, included Niagara as one Canada’s Top 20 Best Locations.
The magazine noted several of Niagara’s unique features that make it a standout location for business expansion, including:
  • Home of Ontario’s first designated Foreign Trade Zone
  • 1.86 million people within a 50km commuting radius
  • Unmatched access to international airports, shipping lanes and border crossings
  • Two leading post-secondary institutions, in Brock University and Niagara College
  • Strong emerging sectors including computer systems design, architecture and engineering

Click here for more information.


Niagara-on-the-Lake will step up enforcement for short-term rentals

The Town is reminding Short Term Rental owners and operators that all Short Term Rental properties in Niagara-on-the-Lake must be licensed to operate. For more information about the Town’s licensing process and requirements, please visit notl.com/content/short-term-rentals. By-law Officers are actively enforcing the Town’s Short Term Rental By-law, including the use of unlicensed properties. Since the implementation of AMPS, or the Administrative Monetary Penalty System (AMPS), twelve (12) tickets have been issued to Short Term Rental operators.

Click here for more information (PDF link).


Niagara College Commercial Cannabis Production program granted Health Canada license to produce hemp

Niagara College’s Commercial Cannabis Production program is growing its comprehensive curriculum after acquiring a licence from Health Canada to cultivate industrial hemp.

A virtual jack of all trades among field and greenhouse crops, industrial hemp is a specific type of Cannabis sativa L. plant grown for a variety of uses, including home insulation, textiles, paper, biofuel, cannabidiol (CBD) for medical uses, and even food. Industrial hemp differs from cannabis produced for recreational purposes because it’s non-intoxicating, containing 0.3 per cent or less tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Click here for more information.


The Election Section

Reading Recommendations

Why natural gas prices have surged to some of their highest levels in years

CBC News

Natural gas prices have climbed to some of their highest levels in years, with the increases expected to ripple into people’s gas bills as winter fast approaches.

A marriage of factors in North America and Europe — from summer storms to an overseas supply crunch — have contributed to sharp rise in the price of the fossil fuel.


Inside an Ontario ICU where the COVID-19 patients are largely young, and all unvaccinated

CTV News

The truth of the fourth wave of COVID-19 in Canada is starkly clear inside the intensive care unit at Hamilton General, where the majority of the COVID-19 patients struggling on life support are young — and unvaccinated.

The team at Hamilton General invited CTV News inside the tense ICU in the hopes of giving Canadians a look at the reality they go through every week as Delta cases climb.

“I think it’s important for Canadians to see that this is real,” Dr. Sunjay Sharma, medical director of critical care, told CTV News. “None of these people thought two months ago they would end up here. And now they’re here. And some of them won’t survive.”

Click here for more information on COVID-19 vaccines.


Niagara COVID-19 statistics tracker

These data show the status of the COVID-19 pandemic in Niagara. The Province of Ontario is now using a provincewide approach to reopening, and these data no longer have any influence on Niagara’s restrictions. Lower numbers are better in all metrics.

December 18December 25January 1January 8January 15January 22January 29
Reproductive number1.41.81.41.11.00.70.9
New cases per 100,000101.2267.3469.8575.8507.1295.5250.6
New cases per day (not including outbreaks)60.7178.7311.7376.9325.4182.7145.7
Percent of hospital beds occupied97%95.2%98.2%103.2%104.5%103.6%106%
Percent of intensive care beds occupied78.8%77.3%87.9%87.9%90.9%89.4%93.9%
Percentage of positive tests6.1%15.6%28.1%28.6%26.6%21.2%16.2%

Last updated: September 4, 2021

Click here for definitions of terms used in this table.

On September 15, there were 12 patients admitted to Niagara Health with COVID-19, of which 11 were unvaccinated, 0 were partially vaccinated, and 1 was fully vaccinated. There were 4 patients with COVID-19 in a Niagara Health Intensive Care Unit.

Over the last 28 days, a Niagara resident vaccinated with 1 dose was 4.2 times more likely to contract COVID-19, and an unvaccinated person was 7.5 times more likely.

Data are drawn from Niagara Region Public Health and Niagara Health.


Niagara COVID vaccination tracker

Niagara’s most up-to-date vaccination numbers are presented below, along with comparison data from Ontario, Canada, and G7 countries.

Percentage of population with one dosePercentage of population fully vaccinated
Niagara82.7%78.2%
Ontario84.6%79.1%
Canada84.7%78.6%
United States75%64%
United Kingdom78%72%
Germany76%74%
France80%77%
Italy83%76%
Japan80%79%
World63%53%

Total doses administered in Niagara: 682,181

New daily doses administered to Niagara residents: 1,138

Last updated: September 14, 2021

Data are drawn from Niagara Region, the Government of Ontario, and Oxford University’s Our World in Data project.


Free rapid COVID-19 testing kits are now available to businesses. Visit gncc.ca/workplace-self-screening-kits to learn more and reserve kits for your organization.

Information on government grants, resources, and programs, policies, forms, and posters for download and use, are available here. The GNCC is here to support you. Contact us with any questions you have.

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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