THUNDER BAY — With the provincial election finished, and no changes to Thunder Bay's political landscape, it's all about moving onward with priorities for the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce.
Charla Robinson, chamber president, said on the priority list is their consistent push around workforce through changes to the Ontario Nominee Immigration Program (ONIP), which has allotted 22,000 immigration spots for Ontario. Robinson is advocating for 3,000 of that Ontario portion for Northern Ontario communities.
"We're going to continue to push for Northern Ontario through the ONIP, because that's so important for our community," she said. "We'll also continue to be talking about things like safe highways and the whole two-plus-one highway concept that we brought forward last year and is still relevant."
Robinson explained that the chamber is encouraging the provincial government in its highway development to recognize that single-lane highways aren't working. She said building a four-lane highway with two lanes on each side can be expensive.
"There's a highway model that was developed in Europe, which is a three-lane road where the third lane in the middle is a passing lane that changes every so many kilometres," she said. Maybe it's a more effective use of finances to result in a greater increase in safety and security on the highway and it's something we will certainly be talking to the new minister of Transport about when they get appointed."
With the tariff situation, there has been much more interest in the provinces about breaking down inter-provincial trade barriers.
"Sometimes you can take some opportunity out of changing dynamics, so that's definitely one of the things that we'll be talking about a lot more," she said. "The ongoing uncertainty of whether or not (tariffs) are happening next week, or in April, has everybody putting on the brakes because nobody knows what to do."
She added that Canadians are in a "wait and see mode" and that's definitely having a "chilling effect" on business confidence.
"For the businesses that are potentially impacted, some of them have been trying to order extra (U.S.) products that they can ship early because next month they might have this tariff to deal with," Robinson said.
Other businesses are taking advantage of the threat and promoting early spring sales "before the tariffs" come in.
"It's good to see those businesses that are using that in their promotion to remind people that they should buy this today, because in a week, we're not sure what that price might be," she said.
Meanwhile, Robinson says the chamber is waiting to see who will be in the cabinet as new ministers are appointed and settle in.
"The next thing is sending letters to the new cabinet ministers in some of these portfolios to bring them up to speed on some of the priority issues," she said. "We will also continue to work with both of our local MPPs, who we've built positive and productive relationships with as they continue in those roles."
The Chronicle-Journal / Local Journalism Initiative
