Your Weekly Tune Up
New campaign to bring skilled workers to Alberta
Alberta is the best place in Canada to live, work, and raise a family, and a new campaign to attract talented professionals will tell that story.
The Alberta is Calling campaign launched in the Toronto and Vancouver markets today aims to attract skilled, educated and motivated talent to consider moving their careers and future to Alberta. It will highlight the many cost-of-living, career, and lifestyle advantages of life in Alberta including:
- Highest average wages and lowest taxes in the country
- Home ownership in a major city for a fraction of the cost
- Shorter average commute times
- Career opportunities in emerging and growing industries
- Easy access to world-famous mountain parks for year-round hiking, skiing, biking and over 300 days of sunshine per year.
The campaign website can be viewed at albertaiscalling.ca.
Free Training for early childhood educators
To make mental health supports more accessible for kids, the governments of Alberta and Canada are helping early childhood educators access free training. The Alberta Home Visitation Network Association will use $1.5 million in federal funding for in-person and virtual workshops to provide opportunities to early childhood educators working in licenced child-care centres to enhance their knowledge of the social and emotional needs of children up to 12 years old. The workshops will include an introduction to infant and early childhood mental health that focuses on the importance of understanding behaviours and cultural self-awareness. Training for educators working with children aged 6 to 12 will also include mental health first aid for helping kids in crisis, and youth mental health supports.
Consumer Price Index, July 2022: Canada’s Inflation Finally Turns a Corner With Falling Gas Prices, But Core Pressures Remain
"Canada’s headline inflation finally showed signs of cooling, with total CPI slowing to 7.6% year-over-year in July. Gas prices continued to be a main driver — this month on the downside — but broader-based “core” inflation measures continued to rise, which means the Bank of Canada will continue to raise interest rates." - Stephen Tapp, Chief Economist
More generally, in the months ahead, momentum in inflation should decelerate further due to falling energy prices, but also slower global growth, a deflating domestic housing market and positive “base effects” (i.e., comparing 2022 inflation readings with price levels that rebounded in the Spring of 2021.) Read more
Fuelling Our Community
Grand Opening of the South Country Co-op Pickleball Courts
The Medicine Hat & District Chamber of Commerce staff and board members attended the grand opening of the South Country Co-op Pickleball Courts at the Big Marble Go Centre last week.
The event was well attended, with Minister of Municipal Affairs Rick McIver, MP Glen Motz, Mayor Linnsie Clark, and Councillor Shila Sharps showing their support. There were also a number of club members present to celebrate the success.
“This is a state-of-the-art facility and has been recognized by players around the country as being exceptionally well designed,” said Ken MacPhail, president of the Medicine Hat Pickleball Club. “We’re excited to see what’s next for this new amenity.”
Read more at medicinehat.ca
The Power of Community
The Diversity Award is sponsored by CORE Association
We are very proud to feature the Diversity Award sponsor of the 2022 Business Awards - A New Era of Roaring Success: CORE Association. CORE has been sponsoring the Diversity award for many years now and is the perfect fit for the category. As a staple for our community CORE has been incremental for helping individuals. We can not think of anyone better to recognize a business in our community that stands for diversity and inclusivity.
Interested in helping us celebrate a New Era of Success? Become a sponsor. Contact Us 403-527-5214
Enriching Your Business
See all our Value Added Benefits!
Fill Up On Funding
Applications Open for Social Purpose Organizations
Applications are open for Social Purpose Organizations looking to apply for funding under the Investment Readiness Program (IRP)! The IRP is a $50 million program over 2 years that will be delivered through its funding partners, to help advance social innovation and social finance in Canada.
Open applications include:
- The National Associaltion of Friendship Centre's IRP applications are open until September 9th for Urban Indigenous social purpose organizations.
- Buy Social Canada has established the Seal the Deal Fund to provide non-repayable grants to support consulting, engagement or capital purchases that will directly connect or conclude a supplier relationship with a social procurement opportunity.
Women Entrepreneurs and Business Owners Eligible for up to $50,000 Loans
Last week, the Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, announced that Women’s Enterprise Organizations of Canada (WEOC) will be providing loans of up to $50,000 to women entrepreneurs and business owners this fall through the Women Entrepreneurship Loan Fund.
WEOC will deliver the Women Entrepreneurship Loan Fund through its regional loan fund partners. They will work with women entrepreneurs at every stage of the application process and deliver top-quality wraparound business support, including helping applicants with the development of viable business plans and providing advisory services, training and loan aftercare.
Advocacy in Action
Inflation, aging population contributing to labour market shortage
“We are hearing on a regular basis from employers the challenge that they’re having in recruiting talent," Lisa Kowalchuk, our Executive Director, said in an interview last week with Chat TV. Watch or read the full interview online.
Since we have been hearing about this so much in the community, we've undertaken an number of efforts to address the issue. We are part of an Alberta Talent Development Task Force through the Alberta Chambers and we also discussed the issue in recent meetings with the Alberta Beef Producers, Canadian Cattle Association, and the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Association.
We will be focusing on our own local labour agenda this fall and we encourage businesses who are interested in contributing to this conversation, to contact us at industry@medicinehatchamber.com or call our office at 403-527-5214.
Looking for Feedback: E-Permitting
The Medicine Hat Chamber of Commerce has been working on developing a policy that addresses some of the barriers to business development, and contributes to creating a more business-friendly regulatory environment within the City of Medicine Hat. Part of our process includes a more targeting approach to finding issues within the e-permitting platform.
We have heard that the e-permitting platform is not as effective as it could be, but we would like to gather more concrete examples of the types of issues businesses are facing with the e-permitting platform. If you can please provide any feedback you have on e-permitting here: https://forms.office.com/r/gdtdew41wN.
Please be as specific as possible with what you have experienced or any recommendations. The more specific, the easier it is to pinpoint the issues and help provide direction to the City to resolve those challenges.
Next Level Events
2022 Business Awards – A New Era of Roaring Success
“A New Era of Roaring Success” was chosen as this year’s theme to signify the ‘Roaring 20’s’ of this century. Similarly, to the 1920’s, our 2020’s are the beginning of a united force in supporting and strengthening our local economic prosperity. As we navigate the ‘Roaring 20’s’ of this century we celebrate our businesses, past and present, that have weathered the challenges and have emerged with new ideas, innovative practices, and even stronger connections.
This year the Chamber will be hosting the Business Awards at the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre, Friday, October 14th, 2022. The event will start around 5:30 pm where individuals can network, enjoy 1920’s Jazz, Cocktails, and Appetizers. Guests will then proceed to the Main Theatre room at 6:30 pm where the Award Ceremony will premier. Tickets are officially on sale; tickets will be priced at $97 per person (Membership discounts will be given via discount code). Save October 14th in your calendars and join us as we celebrate a New Era of Roaring Success within our businesses and the community.
Ribfest 2022 Heading Downtown
Travois Ale Works has announced Ribfest will takeover Towne Square from Aug. 26-28, poised to come back in an enhanced format after being restricted to a drive-thru format the past two years.
“RibFest is a great community event for the whole family,” says Chris Perret, a local Rotarian and co-owner of Travois Ale Works. “We look forward to welcoming everyone downtown for a weekend of delicious food, beverages, and local bands and businesses.”
The event will feature four professional ribbers, local food trucks, bouncy castles, beer gardens hosted by Grit City Distillery and Travois Ale Works, live music and local market vendors.
Useful Links
Find more updates on our social media
