Voice of Business: The Voice of Businesses Across the Country
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Chambers of commerce are your local voice of business. We meet with businesses, non-profits, charities, governments, and local stakeholders to identify barriers to economic growth and opportunities and push for that change.
While the issues vary between chambers and the communities they serve, they are far more similar than different. As a result, we work well together to take local grassroots ideas and issues and amplify them as an advocacy effort to municipalities, the provincial and federal governments, as well as other industry associations.
Most of the 1,000 members of the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce do not have the resources to employ professional policy analysts and economists to research and draft effective policy proposals nor do they have the resources to hire government relations specialists and lobbyists to bring it to the attention of decision-makers.
That’s where the chamber network comes in. Across Canada there are more than 400 chambers and boards of trade working with 200,000 businesses to amplify the local issues that affect business across the country.
Recently, chambers from across Ontario met for our annual convention and policy debate. We discussed, debated, and ultimately approved 28 new policy resolutions on behalf of businesses across the province, including three submitted by our chamber. This brings our total to 103 policy resolutions in our 2024-2027 compendium. We have recommendations spanning everything from student housing to training people to work on electric vehicles to investments in life sciences. These policy resolutions are all topics we feel are relevant to businesses across Ontario. They are now a focal point for advocacy not just for the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, but all of us local chambers.
Here are the summaries of our additions to this year’s policy compendium:
Enforcing fair property tax ratios
Issue
Businesses in Ontario pay much higher property tax rates than residents, despite using fewer services. The Ontario Municipal Act requires municipalities to tax commercial and industrial properties at a ratio of 0.6 to 1.1, but many municipalities have no plans to comply.
Recommendations
That the Ontario Chamber of Commerce urge the Government of Ontario to:
Enforce existing property taxation ratios set out in the Ontario Municipal Act Reg. 386/98: Tax Matters – Allowable Ranges for Tax Ratios by withholding provincial support — including access to provincial funding streams — to municipalities that:
are not taxing commercial and industrial properties at the required rates or
are not actively transitioning to the required rates based on a plan that specifies gradual decreases on a timeline approved by the Province.
Making Ontario more competitive for permanent residency
Issue
Ontario is less competitive than other provinces when approving permanent residency for new Canadians. This impacts our ability to attract talent at a time when we desperately need to increase our workforce.
Recommendations
That the Ontario Chamber of Commerce urge the Government of Ontario to:
Make Ontario more competitive for securing permanent residency by:
Tailoring the Ontario Immigration Nominee Program to target candidates who fall outside the federal criteria with an emphasis on those already working in Ontario, including establishing a program for those with long-term work experience in Ontario as a pathway to residency.
Reducing employment criteria barriers, including:
a. Providing clarity on what NOC codes will be invited in the future or eliminating the requirement to select a specific job or occupation from a list altogether.
b. Lowering the revenue requirement and requirements for a specific number of employees for businesses to allow for smaller businesses to sponsor permanent residents.
Opening up the Student Job Offer Stream program to students in one-year programs.
4Improving the functionality of the OINP website, providing a more up-to-date and user-friendly experience.
Maximizing Growth in Built Areas
Issue
Historic downtowns in cities across Ontario are full of underused mixed-use buildings. These multi-storey buildings have commercial space on the bottom and un- or under-used residential space in the upper floors. Inquiring about updating to once again have people living in these buildings can trigger expensive inspection processes on buildings that were built long before building, fire, and accessibility codes. Those that do try to develop these spaces are often met with unrealistic costs to meet heritage preservation and accessibility regulations, leaving empty housing in the heart of our towns and cities.
Recommendations
The Ontario Chamber of Commerce urges the Government of Ontario to:
Designate the Downtown Revitalization Program be used for a pilot project that allows private building owners and municipal officials to study and assess, using an independent consultant and without punitive action, the needs of a building or series of buildings in a downtown core.
Implement a policy for municipalities that will allow for the redevelopment of upper floors of aging mixed-use downtown buildings for use as residences that takes a fiscally responsible approach to heritage preservation and accessibility standards.
