2026 Municipal Election Platform
Jobs and Investment
Niagara sits on five international border crossings that account for 14% of all Canada-U.S. trade and 130 million people are within a day’s drive. The St. Lawrence Seaway passes through Niagara, connecting the Great Lakes trade system with the Atlantic Ocean.[1] The number of businesses in Niagara has grown steadily and now numbers approximately 45,000,[2] with a workforce of more than 240,000.[3] Tourism alone contributes $1.0 billion to GDP.[4]
Niagara Economic Development reports total employment rising from 189,500 in 2020 to 221,200 in 2022.[5] Niagara Region’s dashboard shows the population at 539,180 in 2024.[6] Growth is an opportunity, but it also increases pressure on municipalities to ensure land, infrastructure, approvals, and transportation systems are ready to support employers and new investment.
Niagara has the assets to compete, but competitiveness cannot be taken for granted. While municipal governments are limited in the direct incentives they can offer to businesses, they play a role in attracting business through creating a streamlined, low-friction legislative environment in which businesses can invest and operate.
The GNCC asks candidates in the 2026 municipal elections to commit to:
- Process revisions that will lead to faster, more predictable planning and permitting timelines. Adopt automatic fee rebates and/or escalation triggers when timelines are exceeded without justifiable cause.
Why it Matters
Time certainty is a major factor in investment decisions. Where municipal planning and permitting processes are slow, inconsistent, or difficult to navigate, projects become more costly and less attractive relative to competing jurisdictions. Faster and more predictable timelines improve the local investment climate, reduce unnecessary friction, and signal that Niagara municipalities understand the importance of responsiveness in a competitive economy.
- Maintain and regularly update an inventory of designated employment lands, protect those lands from incompatible conversion, and identify the servicing and infrastructure investments needed to make them investment-ready.
Why it Matters
Employment lands are a finite and strategically important asset. Once lost to incompatible uses, they are difficult to replace, and the region’s future capacity for industrial, logistics, and commercial growth is diminished accordingly. Municipalities should therefore treat the protection and servicing of employment lands as a core element of long-term economic competitiveness and tax-base growth.
- Prioritize infrastructure investments that unlock shovel-ready industrial, commercial, and mixed-use development, and identify those projects explicitly in municipal capital plans and development strategies.
Why it Matters
Economic development depends not only on land-use permissions, but on physical readiness. In many cases, job-creating investment is delayed or foregone because the required roads, water, wastewater, or other enabling infrastructure are not yet in place. Strategic infrastructure investment can therefore play a catalytic role by converting identified opportunities into real projects, real jobs, and real tax-base expansion.
- Integrate housing choice, mobility, public realm improvements, and cultural amenities into municipal planning and economic development strategies as explicit talent attraction and retention priorities, with progress reported publicly at least once per term.
Why it Matters
Economic competitiveness depends not only on business costs and approvals, but on whether skilled workers choose to build their lives in Niagara. Housing choice, mobility, healthcare access, quality public spaces, cultural amenities, and vibrant communities all shape talent attraction and retention. Municipal governments therefore have an important role to play in supporting the conditions that help employers recruit and keep the workforce they need.
- Support and strengthen the Region’s role in physician recruitment and other partnership-based initiatives that improve Niagara’s ability to attract and retain the workforce, families, and investment the region needs.
Why it Matters
Access to healthcare is an important part of economic competitiveness and quality of life. Employers are better able to attract and retain talent when workers and their families are confident they can access essential services in the communities where they live. The Region should continue to support physician recruitment and related partnership efforts as part of a broader strategy to make Niagara a more attractive place to live, work, invest, and raise a family.
- Adopt or update downtown and main street revitalization plans with clear priorities for public realm improvements, small business support, and vacancy reduction.
Why it Matters
Commercial districts remain central to the economic and civic life of Niagara communities. Targeted revitalization and public realm improvements can increase foot traffic, support small business activity, strengthen local identity, and improve the experience of residents and visitors alike. These investments are not purely cosmetic; when well designed, they contribute directly to economic vitality and business confidence.
- Develop formal partnerships with Niagara’s post-secondary institutions to connect local employers with applied research, technology adoption, commercialization, and workforce development opportunities.
Why it Matters
Applied research can help local businesses solve practical problems, adopt new technologies, improve productivity, and bring new products or processes to market. Municipalities may not lead this work directly, but they can help foster the partnerships and innovation ecosystem that make it more accessible to Niagara employers. Stronger links between business, local government, and post-secondary institutions can support both competitiveness and long-term economic diversification.
- Review local economic development policies and planning frameworks at least once per term to ensure they support tourism, manufacturing, small business growth, and emerging sectors where Niagara has competitive advantages.
Why it Matters
Niagara’s economy is diverse, and municipal policy should reflect the sectors that already sustain employment as well as those with strong future potential. Tourism, manufacturing, entrepreneurship, and emerging sectors all depend, in different ways, on efficient approvals, supportive infrastructure, and a predictable local policy environment. Municipalities that understand and reinforce these competitive advantages will be better positioned to retain existing firms and attract new investment.
[1] Niagara Region Economic Development, https://niagaracanada.com/niagara-advantage/strategic-location/
[2] Niagara Region Economic Development, https://niagaracanada.com/data/regional-quick-facts
[3] Niagara Region Economic Development, https://niagaracanada.com/data/labour-force
[4] Niagara Region Economic Development, https://niagaracanada.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2025/02/Niagara-Tourism-Economic-Profile-Feb-2025-lowres.pdf
[5] Niagara Region Economic Development, https://niagaracanada.com/data/regional-quick-facts/
[6] Niagara Region, https://www.niagararegion.ca/community_dashboard/category.aspx?q=Economy+and+business
2026 Election Platform:
