In this edition:
- Prime Minister announces new Lieutenant Governor for Ontario
- Canadian universities collectively report $1.5bn budget surplus despite pandemic
- Instacart slashes shopper minimum order pay rates from $7 to $4
- Your latest questions about Bill C-18 and the blocking of Canadian news answered
- Orangeville father and son collaborate on Niagara region wine guide
- Beautification makes for good first impressions for business
- Reading Recommendations: Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
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Prime Minister announces new Lieutenant Governor for Ontario
The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced the appointment of Edith Dumont as the new Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
A passionate educator, Ms. Dumont is a special education teacher, a school principal, and an executive. She was the first woman to lead the Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario. Most recently, she served as Vice-President of Partnerships, Communities, and International Relations at the Université de l’Ontario français, in Toronto.
When she assumes office, Ms. Dumont will be the first Franco-Ontarian Lieutenant Governor in the province’s history.
Canadian universities collectively report $1.5bn budget surplus despite pandemic
In 2021/2022, despite the ongoing challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, universities collectively reported a $1.5 billion budget surplus. This was slightly lower than the $1.7 billion annual average recorded in the five years (2015/2016 to 2019/2020) preceding the pandemic. All dollar figures in this release are expressed in 2022 constant dollars to factor in inflation and enable comparisons across time.
The 2021/2022 fiscal year was marked by the gradual return of students, faculty and staff members to campuses, which positively impacted universities’ product and service-based revenues such as residences, parking fees and facility rentals. Universities also faced challenges with decreased revenue from government funding and investment income.
Instacart slashes shopper minimum order pay rates from $7 to $4
Instacart is dropping its minimum order base pay rates for shoppers from $7 to $4, leaving many workers up in arms about the pay cut, reports Business Insider. In fact, shoppers told Insider that they would “rather quit and work for McDonald’s or DoorDash” after the company lowered their minimum order pay.
Some of the workers say they’re considering switching over to restaurant order deliveries (which don’t require shopping), while others are considering alternatives like full-time jobs.
Your latest questions about Bill C-18 and the blocking of Canadian news answered
It’s August 2023. Do you know where your Canadian news is?
All Facebook and Instagram users in Canada won’t be able to access news on those platforms soon, after parent company Meta said it would shut out news in the country over the next few weeks.
The social media giant has been signalling the move since the Liberal government passed its Online News Act, Bill C-18, in June. Google may follow suit.
Orangeville father and son collaborate on Niagara region wine guide
An Orangeville father and his son have just released a photo-rich Niagara region winery compilation called “Niagara: A Wine Lover’s Guide”.
Written by Thistle and Rose pub co-owner Bill Perrie, along with his son, Andrew Perrie, this 159-page compendium of over 75 wineries in Niagara-on-the-Lake and the surrounding Niagara countryside was a year-long family project and an authentic exercise in father and son relationship building.
“I have a very proud feeling about this book we’ve written together,” said Bill. “Andrew and I are both passionate about wine and to collaborate on this project together was something I’ll never forget. This project helped to strengthen the bond we already had.”
Beautification makes for good first impressions for business
Some businesses sink enormous amounts of money into marketing their business, but Alan Filer has a grassroots way of raising the profile of his financial planning business: tapping into the beauty of Mother Nature.
When the world was plunged into the pandemic in 2020, the founder of Lifetime Financial Planning Group (LFPG) on Portage Road in Niagara Falls embarked on a beautification process that has caught the eye of the Niagara Falls Horticultural Society, which hopes other businesses in the city follow suit.
“This was all weeds and a few red bushes,” Filer said of the property surrounding his building.
He found motivation to change all that in the summer of 2020 after the pandemic hit and all those lockdowns and restrictions and bans on gatherings dragged on for months at a time.
Did you know?
60% of the world’s steel is recycled.
Focus on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Québec’s cultural awareness training makes flawed assumptions that do not prioritize the safety of Indigenous people
Québec’s Minister Responsible for Relations with the First Nations and the Inuit, Ian Lafrenière, recently introduced Bill 32, which aims to “establish the cultural safety approach within the health and social services network.”
The intent of the bill is for health and social service networks in Québec to adopt a cultural safety approach towards Indigenous people, taking into account cultural and historical realities.
In November 2020, in the aftermath of the death of Joyce Echaquan at the Centre hospitalier de Lanaudière in Joliette, the Québec government introduced 90-minute mandatory Indigenous cultural awareness training for all employees of the province’s ministry of health and social services.
However, since the training program was launched, Indigenous leaders and health professionals have said it fails to improve cultural safety and poses safety risks to Indigenous Peoples.
Mary Simon Is Leading Indigenous Peoples to New Heights
In May 2021, ground-penetrating radar detected more than 200 potential unmarked graves of children in an apple orchard beside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. The discovery exposed the crimes underlying a nation built on land taken from Indigenous peoples—systemic abuse, assault, rape, even murder—and reinforced the need for a national reckoning. Makeshift memorials sprung up across the country. People took to the streets. Institutions named after the architects of cultural genocide changed their nomenclature. Statues fell. Churches were vandalized. Some even burned. And as more First Nations initiated their own investigations, the potential number of child-sized graves climbed into the thousands.
Less than two months after the discovery at Kamloops, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Inuk leader and former Canadian diplomat Mary Jeannie May Simon to offer her a job. Canada has had four women (two of them refugees) and dozens of white men serve as governor general for a term that usually lasts five years. But there had never been an Indigenous person appointed. (New Zealand, another former settler colony of the British empire, has had three Māori governors general.)
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.
Ontario Craft Cider Association launches new industry growth strategy
