Chamber Updates & Local News

New report from the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council projects job vacancies will surpass 100,000 by 2030 At a time when Canadian agriculture continues to struggle with a chronic worker shortage, new data from the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC) has found that by the year 2030, there will be more than 100,000 vacant…

Social media is a great channel for communication and relationships between businesses and their customers. To do a good job, you need to be connected to the trends in this universe and develop work that represents your company to your customers. Here we highlight 5 trends for social media from Hootsuite’s Social Media Trends 2024…

By Nick Chater | Jan 25, 2024 Three simple brain biases can help us understand what’s behind so many errors in judgment Text originally published at: Smith Business Insight Queens The human brain is an incredibly sophisticated biological system for continuously processing new information and determining what to do. But while it generally works amazingly well, our brains are…

By Rebecca Harris | Jan 3, 2024 Endless interruptions, a lack of focus time and all those emails keep us from getting stuff done at work Text originally published at: Smith Business Insight Queens While working in management consulting, Ann Gomez noticed some people who handled heavy workloads and had great personal lives. They socialized! They slept! Others struggled to…

Continued Advocacy and Support for Small Businesses Post-CEBA Deadline Dear OCC Members, I am writing to you today with deep concern after hearing from members about small businesses that missed the final Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) deadline. As President and CEO, I want to assure you that the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) has…

The Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce a new partnership with Kingston Transit in which it will offer all members and their 18,000 employees’ access to the Employer Transpass Program. The Chamber will formalize the partnership with the Kingston Transit on January 25. Through this partnership, members will be able to offer…

The Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce is pleased to unveil their 4th Quarter 2023 Kingston City Council Report Card.  The document is the result of work by the Chamber’s member-led advocacy committee and Chamber staff. “We are pleased to provide the fourth installment for the 2023 calendar year which is a short summary of business-related…

The Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 5%, and the implications are sending ripples through our economic landscape. In his recent commentary, Andrew DiCapua, our Senior Economist, breaks down the key takeaways and what they mean for businesses. As we approach 2024, there’s talk of interest rate cuts, but caution is still advised.…

The outlook for Canadian businesses hit a two-year low in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to Statistics Canada’s latest Canadian Survey on Business Conditions (CSBC), underlining a prevailing sense of pessimism in the industry. To better understand the findings of the survey, our Business Data Lab has released an in-depth analysis of the nearly…

Unpacking Robert F. Kennedy’s famous speech on Martin Luther King’s assassination By: Julie Barling I was still a high school student in South Africa in 1966 when Robert F. Kennedy’s brief visit to South Africa electrified the anti-apartheid movement and terrified the apartheid government. RFK, then a United States senator, was hardly known as a gifted…