Originally published December 8, 2018 in eNews
\nBy Gary Valcour<\/p>\n
We did not know the\u00a0hour or the day, but\u00a0we don\u2019t think anyone\u00a0paying attention over\u00a0the past decade or more\u00a0should not be surprised\u00a0at the General Motors\u00a0announcement this past\u00a0Monday. Any enterprise\u00a0that shrinks its workforce\u00a0by 90% is giving a clear\u00a0indication of the direction\u00a0it\u2019s going. While we feel\u00a0badly for those directly\u00a0and indirectly affected\u00a0we must learn from the\u00a0experience and redouble\u00a0our efforts to encourage\u00a0all levels of government\u00a0to adopt policies and\u00a0regulations that will\u00a0support entrepreneurs\u00a0and investment in\u00a0economic development.\u00a0And we must do all\u00a0we can as a Chamber\u00a0movement to support\u00a0our members and all\u00a0businesses that struggle\u00a0to survive in the growing\u00a0morass of regulations\u00a0and polices that drive\u00a0businesses to friendlier\u00a0jurisdictions.<\/p>\n
While the GM\u00a0announcement was\u00a0certainly the biggest\u00a0news, there are many\u00a0other issues and\u00a0developments facing\u00a0local businesses. We\u00a0continue to press for the\u00a0immediate release\u00a0of the 407 Employment\u00a0lands; an issue that\u00a0takes on even greater\u00a0immediacy in light of\u00a0GM\u2019s decision. We have\u00a0been tenacious in asking\u00a0our local and regional\u00a0councils to do all they can\u00a0and have recently had the\u00a0opportunity to make the\u00a0case to the Premier and\u00a0a number of local MPPs.\u00a0We can only hope that we\u00a0see some action on this\u00a0front and that, if the lands\u00a0are released, we don\u2019t\u00a0just see another rash of\u00a0residential dwellings.<\/p>\n
Another important\u00a0and ongoing issue is\u00a0transportation in all its\u00a0guises. In particular, the\u00a0push by the Toronto Board\u00a0of Trade to implement a\u00a0Supermetrolinx program\u00a0has gathered some\u00a0unfortunate momentum.\u00a0As we have reported\u00a0before, the original\u00a0proposal was made\u00a0without consulting any\u00a0of our eight regional\u00a0chambers and boards\u00a0of trade. While our joint\u00a0chambers group has now\u00a0had an opportunity to\u00a0make our position known,\u00a0the juggernaut continues\u00a0to roll. Most of you will\u00a0have seen the recent\u00a0announcement from\u00a0Queens\u2019 Park that the\u00a0TTC will be \u201cuploaded\u201d to\u00a0the Province. This could\u00a0be the thin edge of the\u00a0bigger proposal to see\u00a0all public transit dollars\u00a0siphoned off to the\u00a0Supermetrolinx model.\u00a0That model which\u00a0is, not surprisingly,\u00a0supported by most\u00a0of the regions and\u00a0Chambers\/BOTs west\u00a0of the city including\u00a0Hamilton and Kitchener\u00a0Waterloo, would be a\u00a0potential death knell\u00a0for GO development\u00a0in Durham. With our\u00a0associates in the joint\u00a0chambers group we\u00a0continue to monitor these\u00a0developments and we\u2019ve\u00a0had discussions with our\u00a0MPP, our Mayor elect\u00a0and our Regional Chair\u00a0elect. We were surprised\u00a0to learn that neither of our\u00a0municipal leaders were\u00a0aware of this proposal,\u00a0especially since we have\u00a0representatives of both\u00a0levels of government on\u00a0our Government Relations\u00a0committee where this\u00a0has been on the agenda\u00a0for months. The good\u00a0news is that they are now\u00a0aware and appear most\u00a0willing to work with us\u00a0in addressing this very\u00a0critical infrastructure\u00a0issue.<\/p>\n
In other news, we are\u00a0pleased to see that the\u00a0legislation to reverse\u00a0much of the impact of\u00a0Bill 148 has been passed\u00a0and received Royal\u00a0Assent. One of our Board\u00a0members, Stephanie\u00a0Miner, has produced an\u00a0excellent summary of\u00a0the changes which is\u00a0available on our website.<\/p>\n
UOIT reports that\u00a0their new President is\u00a0working diligently on his\u00a0four priorities as well as\u00a0the announced launch\u00a0of a new program\u00a0\u201cWomen in STEM\u201d.\u00a0The University is\u00a0also hiring some\u00a0new senior leadership. In\u00a0other higher education\u00a0news, Trent reported\u00a0on the expansion of its\u00a0Oshawa Campus.<\/p>\n
By the time you read\u00a0this, our new City Council\u00a0will have been sworn\u00a0in. The Chamber is\u00a0committed to fulfilling\u00a0its role as the voice of\u00a0business; that means\u00a0we are your voice and\u00a0we need to hear from\u00a0you and to help keep\u00a0you informed so that\u00a0we can ensure our\u00a0elected representatives\u00a0understand the critical\u00a0importance of business\u00a0to the well-being of our\u00a0city and region and all its\u00a0citizens.<\/p>\n
As always, we welcome\u00a0your thoughts on any of\u00a0these issues and your\u00a0suggestions for other\u00a0matters to be considered\u00a0and educational events\u00a0you might like to attend.<\/p>\n
Our next GR committee\u00a0meeting is scheduled\u00a0for December 13, 2018\u00a0at 8:00 a.m. in the\u00a0Chamber Board Room.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Originally published December 8, 2018 in eNews By Gary Valcour We did not know the\u00a0hour or the day, but\u00a0we don\u2019t think anyone\u00a0paying attention over\u00a0the past decade or more\u00a0should not be surprised\u00a0at the General Motors\u00a0announcement this past\u00a0Monday. Any enterprise\u00a0that shrinks its workforce\u00a0by 90% is giving a clear\u00a0indication of the direction\u00a0it\u2019s going. While we feel\u00a0badly for those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4420"}],"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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10981,"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4420\/revisions\/10981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}