In support of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s federal budget recommendations, the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce is pushing for pandemic relief.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will deliver the 2022 federal budget on April 7.
“Businesses across Greater Sudbury are continuing to feel the effect of the pandemic,” Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce board chair Neil Milner said in a media release.
“Budget 2022 must lay the groundwork for a strong, inclusive recovery with policies that support the sectors and demographics hardest hit by the pandemic, building the infrastructure and workforce of the future and modernizing regulation to ensure Canada can attract investment and nurture entrepreneurship.”
The Ontario Chamber of Commerce submitted their report to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday.
Some key highlights the local Chamber of Commerce cite in their release include:
- Promote Canada’s energy sector on the global stage and recognize nuclear power as a clean and necessary energy resource in the fight against climate change.
- Expand immigration and express entry of skilled workers to address labour shortages.
- Increase the Canada Health Transfer Payment to meet the current and future pressures facing Ontario’s health care system.
- Modernize transportation infrastructure to address bottlenecks along supply chains and facilitate the decarbonization of the transportation sector.
- Reform the federal tax system to attract foreign direct investment, drive domestic business growth and innovation.
- Develop a sustainable path to reduce the federal debt-to-GDP ratio and wind down other pandemic-related supports to ensure long-term fiscal balance and the capacity to address future economic shocks.
A significant part of the challenge moving forward is tackling labour shortages, which the Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s 2022 Ontario Economic Report cites as affecting 62 per cent of sectors.
To help resolve this, Ontario Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Rocco Rosi is urging the government to “resolve long-standing structural issues, including barriers to interprovincial trade and skilled labour shortages, to drive entrepreneurship, investment and long-term economic growth.”
