Refer a new member, get a gift card of up to $50 to spend at a local restaurant! Attend our BAB at the Ticats game on August 17. Read this week's Community News updates.
The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce has launched its new Member Referral Program. Refer a new member to our Chamber, and receive a gift card of up to $50 to spend at a local restaurant!
Contact our Membership Manager, Sherri Rinaldi, to learn more.
Wage Subsidies to Hire Post-Secondary Talent Through the Talent Opportunities Program
Are you an employer hiring post-secondary students on work-integrated learning (WIL) placements, such as cooperative education and internships? If so, you may be eligible for a wage subsidy of up to $7,000 per student through the Talent Opportunities Program (TOP)!
TOP is an initiative of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce designed to help employers located anywhere in Canada hire college and university students on WIL placements.
The application portal is open for the Fall 2023 term (September – December 2023). Please note that there is a limited pool of funding.
Employers hiring eligible students may receive a wage subsidy up to 50% of the wages (to a maximum of $5,000) for each ‘net new’ placement or 70% of the wages (to a maximum of $7,000) for each ‘net new’ placement for the following under-represented groups: Indigenous people, person with disabilities, newcomer to Canada, first year student, visible minority and/or women in STEM.
Workforce Planning Hamilton: Halfway Through 2023 Report
Hamilton’s economy in 2023 has shown a resilient labour market in a post-pandemic world. Workforce Planning Hamilton’s 2023 mid-year report elaborates on the labour force characteristics of Hamilton’s population, with a deep dive into Hamilton’s youth labour force and immigrant labour force.
Looking for Marketing Assistance for your Business? The Agency Applications Are Now Open!
The call for submissions is now open for businesses, NFPs, and corporations to apply to The Agency, a program by the Mohawk Centre for Entrepreneurship.
The Agency is an experiential learning program that supports businesses with their digital media and communication needs. Students work in teams to provide clients with creative promotional video, strategic marketing plans, and innovative logo design.
The Agency works with students in Advertising, Public Relations, Television Media, Marketing, Graphic Design, Radio, Business Analysis, Marketing Research, Photography, and Journalism.
The deadline to submit applications is Friday August 18th. Approved projects will begin September 2023. Apply online here.
Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the 2024 Federal Budget
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance is inviting Canadians to participate in its annual pre-budget consultations process. The Committee intends to table a report on these consultations in the House of Commons prior its adjournment in December 2023.
The deadline for submitting written briefs through the Committee’s website is no later than Friday, August 4, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. Written briefs must be no longer than 2,000 words and should adhere to the following template.
Enhancing Health and Safety Awareness in Small Businesses
The Occupational Health and Safety Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development is dedicated to promoting safe and healthy workplaces across the province. Businesses with less than 50 workers face unique challenges when it comes to ensuring the well-being of their employees. To support workplace health and safety, the ministry has developed a range of resources on occupational health and safety to assist small businesses in enhancing their health and safety practices and complying with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and regulations.
Small businesses can take advantage of the following resources on our website:
Free Handbook on Climate Change and its Impact on the Workplace
To help workplaces prepare for potential challenges and impacts climate change can have on their workers and the work they do, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) has published a free Climate Change: Workplace Impacts handbook.
The handbook offers workplaces guidance on how to:
take action to identify, assess, control and monitor climate-related hazards,
take climate-related events into account when establishing policies and programs to address their impact on occupational health and safety,
consider the impacts of climate change when completing workplace hazard identification and risk assessments, and
approach and address climate-related workplace hazards.
The handbook may be helpful to anyone involved in the development and implementation of workplace policies and programs, including employers, managers and supervisors, human resources professionals, and health and safety committee members and representatives. Anyone interested in learning about climate change from a workplace perspective may also find it useful.
Export Development Canada Expands Investment Matching Program
Export Development Canada (EDC) has announced an expansion of its Investment Matching Program to better support growing Canadian small and medium-sized exporting companies.
The program, available through qualified venture capital or private equity investor(s) has expanded from matching up to $5 million in capital to $25 million.
To be considered for the program, companies must have international expansion as a key corporate priority, must have a new term sheet created with an aligned, qualified Canadian or international institutional venture capital or private equity investor, and have revenues of at least $500,000.
How Can Canada Reduce Plastic Food Packaging? Have Your Say Now
As part of its commitment to move toward zero plastic waste, the Government of Canada is proposing to develop a Pollution Prevention Planning Notice (P2 Notice) for plastic packaging that comes into direct contact with food, also referred to as primary food plastic packaging. The P2 Notice would require Canada’s largest grocery retailers to prepare and implement a pollution prevention plan to meet targets to reduce, reuse, and redesign primary food plastic packaging, including recycled content targets. This builds on efforts and commitments by grocers and food brands to reduce plastic waste and shift away from single-use and difficult-to-recycle plastics toward a circular economy.
This P2 Notice would contribute to the Government of Canada’s agenda to address plastic waste and prevent pollution by:
Getting rid of unnecessary or problematic plastic packaging.
Replacing single-use plastic packaging with reuse-refill systems.
Making sure any plastic packaging used is designed to be safely reused, recycled, or composted.
The P2 Notice would also include targets to increase the sale of products within reuse-refill systems, concentrated products, and products free of plastic packaging. Together, the P2 Notice and the proposed Recycled Content and Labelling for Plastic Products Regulations, which are targeted for publication before the end of 2023, would reduce the overall threat of harm posed by plastic items in the environment.
Until August 30, 2023, grocery retailers, stakeholders, interested partners, and Canadians are invited to comment on the consultation document for the development of the P2 Notice. Comments received will help develop a Proposed Notice to be published later this year.
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