Immigration, highway safety remain priorities after election

Thunder Bay - Their current focus is on continuously attracting labor through amendments to the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (ONIP), which has allocated 22,000 immigration spots for Ontario. Robinson advocates for allocating 3,000 of Ontario's spots to Northern Ontario communities.

"We will continue to push for the development of Northern Ontario through ONIP, because it is very important to our communities," she said. "We will also continue to discuss issues such as safe highways, and the entire two-plus-one highway concept we proposed last year, which is still relevant."

Robinson explained that the Chamber of Commerce encourages the provincial government to recognize that single-lane highways are not viable in highway construction. She said that building a four-lane highway with two lanes on each side is costly.

"Europe has developed a highway model with three lanes, where the middle third lane is a passing lane that changes every few kilometers," she said. "Perhaps this is a more efficient use of funds, thereby further improving highway safety. We will definitely discuss this with the new Minister of Transportation once they take office."

In the face of tariff situations, provinces have shown much greater interest in breaking down interprovincial trade barriers.

"Sometimes you can find opportunities in changing circumstances, so this is definitely one of the things we will discuss more," she said. "It is still uncertain whether tariffs will be imposed next week or in April, which has put everyone in a holding pattern because no one knows what to do."

She added that Canadians are in a "wait-and-see mode," which will certainly have a "chilling effect" on business confidence.

Robinson said: "For businesses that may be affected, some of them have been trying to order extra (American) products so they can ship early, because next month they may have to deal with this tariff."

Other businesses are using the threat to promote early spring sales "before tariffs are imposed."

She said: "It is great to see these merchants using such promotional tactics in their sales to remind people to buy today, because a week later we are not sure what the prices will be."

Meanwhile, Robinson said the Chamber is waiting for the appointment and swearing-in of new ministers to see who will be in the cabinet.

"The next step is to send letters to the new cabinet ministers in these positions to inform them of some priority issues," she said. "We will also continue to work with our two local MPPs, with whom we have built positive and productive relationships as they continue in their roles."

Source:  https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-news/immigration-highway-safety-remain-post-election-priorities-chamber-10312619