Southern Ontario Spotlight - June 2021

June 5, 2021, marks the 50^th annual Canadian Environment Week, a celebration of environmental accomplishments that encourages Canadians to contribute to conserving and protecting their environment. The Government of Canada and FedDev Ontario remain committed to making strategic investments in businesses and sectors focused on sustainable and clean technology.

With its strong roots in automotive manufacturing, the Windsor-Essex region has its sights set on the emerging automobility sector, an area focused on the secure zero-emission movement of people, goods and services using advanced technology. To support this endeavour, FedDev Ontario is providing a non-repayable contribution of $7.5 million for Invest WindsorEssex (IWE) to establish Canada’s first automobility accelerator. With this funding, IWE will bring together key stakeholders and offer a wide range of training and programming, supporting the upskilling and scale-up of 1,350 entrepreneurs and firms in the automobility ecosystem. This builds on an initial $5-million FedDev Ontario investment in 2019 to help IWE establish a next-generation automobility cluster in Windsor-Essex that has resulted in over 30 partnerships to date and the creation of more than 300 jobs, as well as a WES Ecosystem Fund investment in 2020 that helped fund the Women in Mobility Detroit-Windsor partnership, an initiative aimed at supporting women working in the predominantly male mobility sector.

FedDev Ontario is also providing a repayable contribution of nearly $850,000 for Candor Industries Inc., a leading fabricator of printed circuit boards (PCBs), to scale up its operations and create 15 highly-skilled jobs. PCBs are complex electronic components that allow signals and power to be routed between devices used in everyday life, such as blood sugar monitors and Bluetooth modules in cellular phones. Candor’s leading PCB technology serves clients in a wide range of sectors, including medical tech, telecommunications, 5G markets, and aerospace. This support will allow the company to introduce new advanced manufacturing processes to its operations with the addition of state-of-the-art equipment and increase output, speed and cleanliness. Candor also plans to reduce its scrap waste and use of environmentally-harmful chemicals, and increase energy efficiency in its lamination process by 80 percent.

The Regional Relief and Recovery Fund (RRRF) has been a vital lifeline for many southern Ontario businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with FedDev Ontario investments of over $398 million to date supporting more than 25,000 southern Ontario businesses and organizations to maintain at least 50,000 jobs in the region. RRRF funding is still available and applications are being accepted through June 30, 2021. Visit FedDev Ontario’s website for information on how to apply for RRRF funding, and check back regularly as we continue to deliver funding in support of innovation, growth and job creation to help businesses and organizations recover and prepare for the future.

The tourism industry is an essential part of Canada’s economy, and has been one of the hardest hit sectors by the COVID-19 pandemic. Southern Ontario boasts a wealth of popular tourist destinations, from the wineries of Niagara and the hamlets and villages of Prince Edward County, to Tobermory’s rugged natural landscapes and the region’s vibrant Indigenous tourism operators, and the businesses and communities in these regions are dependent on millions of yearly visitors.

During National Tourism Week, FedDev Ontario announced a series of investments totaling $14.8 million to support southern Ontario’s tourism sector. Loan funds have been established in communities across the region to help tourism organizations cover costs associated with adapting and eventually reopening, such as space renovations and retrofits, implementing new health and safety protocols, purchase of equipment, fixtures and personal protective equipment, and support for technology and digitization. This includes:

• An investment of $500,000 for Peterborough & the Kawarthas Economic Development to help local businesses adapt to public health measures, and provide targeted support to Indigenous-led businesses with the assistance of First Nations collaborators. With this investment, businesses such as the Showplace Performance Centre and Escape Maze were able to add specialized cleaning equipment to safely welcome guest back, as well as purchase digital equipment to bring their core business online.
• $1.2 million for the Southwest Ontario Tourism Corporation to help local businesses support costs associated with renovations and retrofitting, as well as digital adoption. TJ Stables, an Indigenous-owned recreational equine facility, was able to purchase Tipis to offer an overnight experience, and the Iron Kettle, a Francophone-owned B&B, was able to purchase a commercial oven to keep up with increased demand for its popular bread.
• A $750,000 total investment to support the tourism industry in communities across eastern Ontario supported local attractions like 1000 Islands Tower, which used the funding to help cover safe retrofit expenses and a timed ticketed entry system for the safety of visitors and staff, and Stonehouse Vineyard, which renovated its patio space, allowing for a safer space to welcome guests. In addition, a $250,000 investment delivered by the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce and partner organizations and First Nations collaborators will provide targeted support to local Indigenous-led businesses.

Read more about some of the other investments in support of the tourism industry on our website.

Since November 2015, FedDev Ontario has invested over $165 million in nearly 500 tourism-related projects. This includes over $93 million for 322 Regional Relief and Recovery Fund projects. Budget 2021 recognized the role of RDAs in supporting this vital sector, proposing a $700-million national Tourism Relief Fund to be delivered by RDAs to help tourism businesses prepare to safely welcome guests again when the time comes.

FedDev Ontario announced an investment of over $5.8 million for Elevate, a Toronto-based not-for-profit organization focused on supporting Canada’s tech innovators. This funding enabled the launch of  Elevate Talent, a new and innovative program focused on the upskilling and placement of 5,300 job seekers from underrepresented communities including Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, 2SLGBTQ+ and Francophone professionals. The program will reskill candidates and match them with job openings in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area’s technology start-ups and creative industries.

“For too long, members of underrepresented groups have experienced unique and systemic hurdles to their career advancement. Now, after facing disproportionate impacts of the pandemic, individuals in these communities need support more than ever. With today’s investment for Elevate, our message is clear: we are here to support a strong, skilled, diverse and inclusive economy for everyone.”

 

- The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages and Minister Responsible for FedDev Ontario

Partnering and collaborating with the City of Toronto and key community leaders, the project aims to provide equal and equitable access to programming and deliver targeted training to build job-specific skills and fill important talent gaps. The Government of Canada is committed to working toward a long-term, foundational change for a more inclusive Canada, and supporting a vibrant tech and innovation sector that reflects the diverse make-up of our communities.

The CAN Health Network is a national partnership comprised of leading Canadian health organizations and companies across Canada, working together to introduce new solutions into the healthcare system. The Government of Canada recently announced a FedDev Ontario investment of $3.25 million for Trillium Health Partners, which leads the network in southern Ontario. This investment builds on a previous $3.5-million investment in 2019, and will help an additional 10 companies benefit from the Network’s streamlined approach to facilitating purchases of made-in-Canada healthcare solutions by domestic healthcare centres.

Also announced was a $2.2-million investment through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) to support the expansion of the CAN Health Network in Atlantic Canada. With this support, CAN Health Network will identify promising Atlantic companies working in healthcare innovation ecosystems with the objective of scaling these Atlantic-made solutions across Canada and abroad.

In related health technology news, FedDev Ontario funding recipient Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization (OBIO®) recently announced the results of its Early Adopter Health Network (EAHN) pilot program, which focused on advancing healthcare innovations related to COVID-19, and helping streamline the procurement process for these homegrown solutions. To read more about the program and how its four companies tailored their technologies in real time to address challenges related to the pandemic, read OBIO’s news release.