{"id":11544,"date":"2024-03-14T16:51:13","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T20:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/?p=11544"},"modified":"2024-03-14T18:21:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T22:21:59","slug":"chamber-productivity-must-be-front-and-centre-in-ontarios-2024-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/advocacy\/chamber-productivity-must-be-front-and-centre-in-ontarios-2024-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Chamber: Productivity Must Be Front and Centre in Ontario\u2019s 2024 Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><em>Oshawa Chamber and Ontario Chamber Release 2024 Provincial Budget Recommendations<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><strong>March 14th, 2024 Oshawa, ON- \u00a0<\/strong>Ontario\u2019s economic prosperity is threatened by inflation, infrastructure backlogs, regulatory barriers, skills gaps, and fears of a slowing economy. To address these challenges, the Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce and Ontario Chamber of Commerce\u2019s (OCC)\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/occ.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024-Provincial-Budget-Submission.pdf\">2024 Provincial Budget Submission<\/a>\u00a0provides recommendations focused on closing Ontario\u2019s productivity gap through a principled growth strategy.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1430\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1430\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1430 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/SteveConaby-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"photo portrait of Steve Conaby\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1430\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oshawa Chamber 2024 President, Steve Conaby<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWith cost pressure from inflation, higher interest rates and lower consumer confidence businesses across Durham Region continue to feel the effects of the current economic conditions.\u201d said Oshawa Chamber President, Steve Conaby. \u201cBudget 2024 must lay the groundwork for strong economic growth, building the infrastructure and workforce of the future, and modernizing regulation to ensure Ontario can attract investment and nurture entrepreneurship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some key recommendations include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Empowering Ontario\u2019s workforce and addressing labour shortages <\/strong>by supporting a financially sustainable post-secondary education sector, advancing upskilling and reskilling initiatives, and scaling evidence-based interventions to support the participation of equity-deserving groups in the labour market.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cultivating business competitiveness and sustainable growth<\/strong> by improving access to private capital and credit for small businesses, removing barriers to interprovincial and international trade, and supporting key sectors such as clean energy, cannabis, and tourism.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Investing in resilient, healthy communities<\/strong> by tackling primary care and broader health human resource crises, combating growing rates of mental health and addiction challenges, and expediting the implementation of Ontario\u2019s life sciences strategy.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Building strong foundations through infrastructure<\/strong> by leveraging partnerships to build and preserve affordable housing along the continuum, investing in energy generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure, and continuing to accelerate broadband rollout across the province<strong>. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cIn 2024 and beyond, productivity must be Ontario\u2019s priority,\u201d said Daniel Tisch, President and CEO of the OCC. \u201cCapital will flow where productive capacity is highest, and we want it to flow to Ontario. That\u2019s why the budget must focus on policies that support immediate growth while investing in an educated workforce, long-term infrastructure, and healthy, sustainable communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Recommendations outlined in the OCC\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/occ.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024-Provincial-Budget-Submission.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">budget submission<\/a> were developed in consultation with businesses of all sizes, labour unions, postsecondary institutions, non-profit organizations, industry associations and close to 150 chambers of commerce and boards of trade.<\/p>\n<p>For more information about the Oshawa Chamber of Commerce, please visit <a href=\"https:\/\/members.oshawachamber.com\/calendar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.OshawaChamber.com<\/a>. To learn more about the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, please visit <a href=\"https:\/\/occ.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.OCC.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oshawa Chamber and Ontario Chamber Release 2024 Provincial Budget Recommendations March 14th, 2024 Oshawa, ON- \u00a0Ontario\u2019s economic prosperity is threatened by inflation, infrastructure backlogs, regulatory barriers, skills gaps, and fears of a slowing economy. To address these challenges, the Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce and Ontario Chamber of Commerce\u2019s (OCC)\u00a02024 Provincial Budget Submission\u00a0provides recommendations focused [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,19,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11544"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11549,"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11544\/revisions\/11549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}