by admin | Jul 24, 2020 | Chamber News
New Program Will Help Local Businesses go Digital in Response to COVID-19
Recovery Activation Program expands to Burlington
BURLINGTON, JULY 24 – COVID-19 has changed everything, requiring telecommuting, on-demand delivery and services, supply chain resiliency and virtual collaborations. Even as the province begins to reopen, the pandemic has heightened the urgency for businesses to digitize to survive.
To address this change, Toronto Region Board of Trade and World Trade Centre Toronto created the Recovery Activation Program, or RAP. RAP offers businesses the know-how, blueprint and partners to address the conditions that COVID-19 has created by implementing digital solutions to their front, middle and back-offices. It will not only equip them to come through COVID-19 intact, but to thrive.
With the support of a $7.7 million investment from the Government of Canada and Government of Ontario, RAP is now expanding to businesses of all sizes throughout the province, including Burlington. The Burlington Chamber of Commerce has been selected as an important partner to help ensure local businesses benefit from the customized services and mentorship that RAP offers. The goal is to help participants develop an effective strategy to attack their unique barriers to connectivity and support their digital restructuring.
“The Burlington Chamber of Commerce is thrilled to offer this timely and important support for our membership and the Burlington business community. As we continue moving through the staged approach to reopening, this program will allow business to strengthen their digital presence and infrastructure to support their economic recovery in the long term,” said President & CEO Carla Y. Nell.
By enabling this partnership between the Burlington Chamber of Commerce and the Toronto Region Board of Trade, the governments’ investment in RAP will also help make sure at least half of RAP’s participants are based outside of Toronto.
“The Recovery Activation Program is a direct response to what we’re hearing from our members and the business community at large: digital tools and services are crucial to success, but challenging to implement,” said Jan De Silva, President and CEO of the Toronto Region Board of Trade. “The Burlington Chamber of Commerce’s involvement in this program will result in the digital transformation of businesses outside of Toronto who will now be in a position to shore up their current business offerings, create new businesses opportunities and explore new markets.”
With recruitment currently open, the first RAP cohort will run through July 2020. Interested businesses can apply here.
ABOUT THE TORONTO REGION BOARD OF TRADE
The Toronto Region Board of Trade is one of the largest and most influential chambers of commerce in North America and is a catalyst for the region’s economic growth agenda. Backed by more than 13,500 members, we pursue policy change to drive the growth and competitiveness of the Toronto region and facilitate market opportunities with programs, partnerships and connections to help our members succeed – domestically and internationally. We want Toronto to be recognized as one of the most competitive and sought-after business regions in the world, and believe this reputation starts with our businesses. Learn more at bot.com and follow us at @TorontoRBOT.
To book an interview, please contact:
Rebecca Tsehay
Toronto Region Board of Trade
647-216-2686
RTsehay@bot.com
by admin | Jul 22, 2020 | Chamber News
Burlington Chamber of Commerce joins Canada United to support local businesses and accelerate small business recovery
Created by RBC in collaboration with the national network of Chambers of Commerce and over 50 corporate partners Burlington Chamber of Commerce to support local businesses as part of the nationwide movement
July 22, 2020 (Burlington, Ontario) – The Burlington Chamber of Commerce announced today it is joining Canada United, a national movement to support local businesses in communities across the country. As part of the movement, RBC has brought together more than 50 of Canada’s leading brands, Business Associations and the national Chamber network to rally Canadians to “show local some love” by buying, dining and shopping local.
“The Burlington Chamber of Commerce is pleased to support the Canada United movement and help bolster businesses in and around our community. Small businesses are the backbone of our local economy and key to a thriving community,” says President & CEO, Carla Y. Nell. The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for businesses in the Halton Region and across the province. We need to continue to support SMEs who create jobs, drive innovation, and generate wealth for communities across Ontario – they will play an integral role in helping the province bounce back.
Canadians are invited to join the Canada United movement by buying and dining local, including celebrating and supporting local businesses during the Canada United Weekend from August 28 to 30, 2020.
Canadians are also encouraged to watch the Canada United videos online at GoCanadaUnited.ca, like posts from @GoCanadaUnited on social media and use #CanadaUnited to demonstrate their support. For each of these actions until August 31, 2020, RBC will contribute 5 cents up to a maximum contribution amount of $2 million to the new Canada United Small Business Relief Fund, while working with government and corporate partners to source additional contributions to the fund during the course of the campaign. The Fund will provide small businesses with grants of up to $5,000 to cover expenses related to personal protective equipment (PPE) renovations to accommodate re-opening guidelines and developing or improving e-commerce capabilities.
Small Canadian businesses across the country will be able to apply for up to $5,000 in grant funding. The program intends to support small Canadian businesses of all kinds from across the country. The Canada United Small Business Relief Fund will be administered by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the national Chamber network. Small business owners who are interested in the program can visit GoCanadaUnited.ca to learn more about grant application details, including eligibility criteria, and to apply.
“We are excited to welcome the Burlington Chamber of Commerce to Canada United to help local businesses and Canada’s economy come back strong,” said Neil McLaughlin, Group Head, Personal & Commercial Banking, Royal Bank of Canada. “Canada United has created to kick-start an economic rebound by rallying consumers to give local businesses the support they need to re-open during these uncertain times. By bringing together government, business associations and corporate Canada, we are looking to start a movement to get Canadians to buy local and support businesses across the country. We are genuinely excited by the energy all of our partners are bringing to this effort.”
“If there has been one silver lining in all the tragedy and sacrifices of the current crisis, it has been the spirit of collaboration and unity of purpose that has been evident between levels of government, across provinces and across sectors,” said Rocco Rossi, President and CEO, Ontario Chamber of Commerce.
“We are calling on that same unity of purpose with Canada United. Small, local businesses are the heart of our communities, our Main Streets and our economy. Together, it is time to show local some love.”
About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading performance. Our success comes from the 84,000+ employees who bring our vision, values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and communities prosper. As Canada’s biggest bank, and one of the largest in the world based on market capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our 17 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 34 other countries. Learn more at rbc.com.
We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. See how at rbc.com/community-social-impact.
Media Contact
Lindsay Stevenson
Burlington Chamber of Commerce
289-208-2844
lindsay@burlingtonchamber.com
by admin | Jun 29, 2020 | Chamber News
(Burlington) – June 29, 2020 – The Canadian Chamber of Commerce announced 62 $10,000 grant recipients from its Canadian Business Resilience Network Small Business Relief Fund today, including Supreme Cheerleading Inc., located in Burlington, Ontario.
“We are delighted to see a hard-working and dedicated Chamber member receive this $10,000 grant from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Salesforce. Owners Tracey Page and Vicki Seguire are active members of the Burlington community and among our membership. Supreme Cheerleading Inc. have adapted to the challenges that have been brought on by COVID-19 by offering virtual training options for their Supreme Cheerleaders at the onset of the outbreak. We are excited to see how they will continue to innovate over the next few months and beyond the pandemic.” said President & CEO, Carla Y. Nell.
More than 1100 small businesses across Canada applied for the 62 grants available. The lucky recipients were those that best demonstrated their financial strain, how the business will use the grant to change or innovate, how the change or innovation will sustain the business’s recovery and allow it to prosper, and how the grant will support the role each business plays in their community.
The fund was managed by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and made possible through the generosity of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM). The funding was designed to help small businesses across the country stay afloat and support their recovery efforts, paying salaries, retrofitting their workplaces and acquiring technology to adapt their business model. Salesforce has also provided grants to small businesses in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, in addition to providing other resources.
“Reviewing the applications was both heartbreaking and inspiring, We saw how seriously small businesses across Canada have been hurt by the pandemic, but we also saw how determined these entrepreneurs are to preserve their employees’ jobs and to serve their customers and their communities. Today is a happy waypoint, not an endpoint, and we won’t stop finding new ways to help Canada’s businesses reopen and recover. We’ll be with them every step of the way,” said Perrin Beatty, President and CEO, Canadian Chamber.
“It has been incredible to see the resilience coming from Canada’s small business owners over the last few months. We know it hasn’t been easy,” said Margaret Stuart, Canada Country Manager, Salesforce. “The applicants have further demonstrated what we at Salesforce already knew to be true – that Canada is rich with innovation and entrepreneurial talent. We’re hopeful that these grants will provide essential support to small business owners as they return to work.”
A complete list of the winners can be found here.
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For more information, please contact:
Phil Taylor
Canadian Chamber of Commerce
ptaylor@chamber.ca
Lindsay Stevenson
Burlington Chamber of Commerce
lindsay@burlingtonchamber.com
by admin | Jun 16, 2020 | Chamber News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA RELEASE
JUNE 16, 2020
OCC and Chamber Network report outlines need for strong data governance in modern, post-pandemic economy
(BURLINGTON, JUNE 16) – Today, the Burlington Chamber of Commerce and Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) released their latest report, In Data We Trust: Unlocking the Value of Data in Ontario. With the COVID-19 crisis rapidly transforming the modern economy, the report outlines the need for Ontario to unlock opportunities and manage the threats of its increasingly data-driven economy.
“Long before COVID-19, it was evident that data has quickly become one of the most valuable resources in our economy, revolutionizing traditional business models across finance, health care, manufacturing, and many other sectors,” said Rocco Rossi, President and CEO of the OCC. “The reality is that almost everything we do as consumers relies on and is made possible to some extent by data analytics and related technologies, from fraud detection to supply chain optimization. In many ways, the pandemic has accelerated this transformation, as the need for digitization and the integration of health data have become more critical than ever.”
In Data We Trust reflects on the value of data innovation, explores lessons from COVID-19, and outlines organizational best practices and policy recommendations focused on privacy, cybersecurity, data sharing, and artificial intelligence (AI).
“Digital contact tracing, adoption of AI technologies, and expansion of 5G networks: all of these will benefit our society, and will require mobilizing data in responsible and innovative ways,” explains report author Claudia Dessanti, Senior Policy Analyst at the OCC.
Key takeaways include:
- Privacy frameworks should protect individual rights while encouraging data-driven innovation. Ontario and Canada should reinforce their principles-based approach with strong industry standards. Businesses and other organizations have an important role to play to ensure their own privacy practices enhance public trust.
- Cybersecurity breaches are affecting organizations of all kinds. More can be done to build capacity and limit future attacks with stronger adoption of industry standards, information sharing, and best practices around risk assessments, staff training, technology adoption, and insurance.
- Data sharing is an opportunity to improve efficiencies and spur innovation across the economy. Organizations should collaborate on shared standards and infrastructure to enable data sharing across all sectors, including health care, without compromising privacy. Meanwhile, governments should improve the use of their open data programs.
- AI is a competitive advantage that Ontario should leverage. Going forward, the province should prioritize expansion of regional broadband infrastructure, translate AI research expertise into widespread adoption of the technology, prepare the workforce for an AI-driven economy, and mitigate ethical risks related to AI use.
“The data revolution does come with certain risks, including the erosion of personal privacy, data security breaches, labour market disruption, ethical challenges, and increasing regional inequality,” says Carla Y. Nell, President & CEO. “That is why the Burlington Chamber of Commerce is committed to working with our community to create an environment that encourages data-driven innovation while protecting against these very real challenges.”
In Data We Trust was informed by a Data Working Group composed of leading experts from a range of sectors across the province.
Read the report.
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About the Ontario Chamber of Commerce
For more than a century, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) has been the independent, non-partisan, indispensable partner of Ontario business. The OCC’s mission is to support economic growth in Ontario by defending business priorities at Queen’s Park on behalf of its network’s diverse 60,000 members.
For more information, please contact:
Michelle Eaton
Vice President, Public Affairs
Ontario Chamber of Commerce
michelleeaton@occ.ca or 647-261-4594
by admin | Jun 11, 2020 | Chamber News
JUNE 11, 2020 – BURLINGTON – HALTECH REGIONAL INNOVATION CENTRE
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on businesses of all sizes across the country. In particular, retail-oriented main street businesses have suffered, with stores closed and in-person commerce halted. To regain revenues, many businesses are transitioning from traditional storefronts to online stores to serve more clients and capitalize on new markets.
With Ontario’s economy reopening, the federal and provincial governments have joined together to help small businesses go digital — both to recover and to generate revenue — through a pan-Ontario collaborative project.
Building on Toronto’s foundational investments into Digital Main Street and, most recently, ShopHERE, the federal and provincial governments today announced a $57-million investment that will extend the support to businesses across Ontario. Digital Main Street is a program that helps small main street businesses better promote themselves online and adopt digital tools and technology.
This investment includes $12.2 million from the Government of Canada, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), targeting support to retail, hospitality and service businesses in Southwestern Ontario. The funds will be used to create digital service teams to help small businesses establish their online presence, implement e-commerce tools and develop digital transformation and digital marketing plans.
The partnership brings together Communitech, Haltech Regional Innovation Centre (Halton), Innovation Guelph (Guelph), Innovation Factory (Hamilton), Innovate Niagara (Niagara), TechAlliance (London) and WETech (Windosor Essex) to deliver a new Futureproofing Businesses program as part of the Digital Main Street Platform. The partners will work to ensure local businesses have access to all Digital Main Street resources — helping them pivot their operations to digital business models in order to regain lost revenue and become more resilient and competitive as the economy recovers.
To carry out this effort in Halton Region, Haltech Regional Innovation Centre is proud to partner with the Region of Halton’s Small Business Centre, Economic Development teams, the Chambers of Commerce and local Business Improvement Areas’s to help small businesses have the resources and support they need to adopt digital technologies to compete now and in the future. “Our effort has been working with innovation businesses to help accelerate their growth and navigate the challenges. Recently, the focus has been on helping them pivot and find the path from survive to thrive during and after the pandemic. We are excited to now be working with FedDev and our Halton partners to add increased support for small businesses in adopting the power of technology,” said Shann McGrail, Executive Director of Haltech.
As one of the leading innovation hubs in Southwestern Ontario, Haltech will work together with its partners to help enterprises from all walks of life to adapt their companies as they focus on recovery. The program will also create job opportunities for students. Over the summer and fall terms, students will gain valuable work experience creating online storefronts, developing digital marketing plans and supporting small businesses as they leverage e-commerce and other digital platforms.
For more information or to apply, visit the Digital Main Street website.
Federal and Provincial Quotes
“As local economies across Ontario reopen, we’re focused on ensuring that our main streets don’t just survive but thrive. These businesses are the backbone of our economy, a source of local jobs – and local pride. Thanks to this major investment, they’ll be able to expand their offerings and seize the many opportunities presented by online commerce. Our message to “Ontario’s small businesses and those whose livelihoods rely on them is clear: we’re working with you to help our economy come back stronger than ever.”
- The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
“In southern Ontario, the stores along downtown streets are critical to a city’s identity. FedDev Ontario and its partners will offer the support these businesses rebuild and retool in the digital world, while providing valuable work experience to students that may have been displaced from other opportunities by the pandemic.”
-Kate Young, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages (FedDev Ontario)
“Ontario’s small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and their economic recovery is critical to Ontario’s recovery. The COVID-19 pandemic saw thousands of small businesses across the province close their doors and halt business as many had no ability to shift sales or services online. I am very pleased, that together with Minister Joly and our federal partners, we are providing small businesses with the tools they need to not only adapt to the challenges of today, but to re-establish, recover and flourish throughout this phased reopening and into the future.”
–The Honourable Prabmeet Sarkaria, Ontario Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction
Local Stakeholder Support and Quotes:
Region:
“Halton Region’s Small Business Centre has continued to work with community partners to support local businesses impacted by COVID-19. As the Province starts to reopen and small businesses continue to adjust to new ways of doing business, this funding will provide valuable assistance for those looking to boost their digital presence and support employers as they plan their recovery.”-Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr
Mayors:
“This global pandemic has been difficult on everyone, including our local shops. We’ve all had to find more digital and virtual ways to do the things we’ve been used to doing to carry on. This joint federal and provincial governments’ commitment to help our struggling small businesses thrive digitally is great news and another example of all levels of government working together to help those residents and businesses who need it.” – Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward
“The last few months have put a tremendous strain on the business sector across Ontario. In Milton, our small business owners and retailers have shown their resiliency. The ShopHERE program is one of ways the Town is supporting our business community in Milton. The investment today ensures that even more independent businesses in our community will receive the help they need to move their products and services online.” Milton Mayor Gordon Krantz
Chambers of Commerce:
“The impacts of the global pandemic are being felt by local small businesses and will be felt long after the state of emergency has ended. The Burlington Chamber of Commerce is pleased to partner to offer this timely support to equip small businesses with the necessary tools and resources to adapt to the changing landscape that COVID-19 has brought on. This much needed support is a significant step to prepare our economy for recovery and to ensure the viability of business into the future,” –Carla Y. Nell, President & CEO, Burlington Chamber of Commerce
“Early in the pandemic, many small businesses were thrust into the world of e-commerce, some by choice and some for sheer survival. As we emerge from the shutdown, these same businesses want to now take the time to create a more effective and sophisticated online presence. Digital Main Street will be an invaluable resource” – Scott McCammon, Executive Director, Milton Chamber of Commerce
“The Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce is pleased to see the additional funding for Futureproofing Businesses program targeting our hardest hit sectors: retail, hospitality and services and we look forward to working with Haltech to connect our community to these resources.” – Kathleen Dills, General Manager, Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce
Quick Facts
- The Digital Main Street Platform is funded by both the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario.
- Support through the Digital Main Street Platform will be offered in three tiers customized to the level of support required by each company to develop or strengthen their online presence. More information on the levels of support is available in the Backgrounder.
- The strategic partners involved in this project have a broad reach to tens of thousands of the region’s businesses from all walks of life. They offer a wealth of expertise ranging from business improvement, technology, innovation, marketing and economic development. Therefore, they are best-suited to deliver this widespread support and make the greatest possible impact across the region. Read more about this pivotal project.
About Haltech:
Haltech is a not for profit Regional Innovation Centre funded by the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development Job Creation and Trade. Haltech provides entrepreneurial education, advisory services and strategic connections to technology start up and scale up companies in Halton Region to help them accelerate growth and bring innovations to market. Since it’s inception, Haltech has worked with over 800 technology and innovation companies. In its last fiscal year, clients of Haltech generated over $63 million dollars of revenue, created 428 jobs, and raised $21.5m in capital.
Contact
Shann McGrail – Executive Director, Haltech
Shann.mcgrail@haltech.ca
905 302 3519
