A strong and prosperous Canada depends on business growth, but  businesses are grappling with daunting challenges at home and abroad. To help them compete and grow, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Medicine Hat & District Chamber of Commerce released 10 Ways to Build a Canada that Wins. 10 Ways provides businesses, decision-makers and government with a series of clear priorities and objectives that, if addressed, will give Canada a competitive edge, improve productivity and grow our economy. Read More

Beginning this month, proponents on large-scale, public infrastructure projects will be required to utilize apprentices in 11 construction related trades. The new policy requires apprentices to participate on major public projects valued over $15 million, or those that will require at least two year to complete. In addition, sub-contracts of $500,000 or greater will also be required to comply with the new requirements and employ at least one apprentice. Read More

Announcements by BC's Premier and Environment Minister on January 30, 2018, caused investors and observers to question if the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project would be completed and uncertainty that the export of Canadian bitumen would continue to be viable via the BC coast. Premier Rachel Notley announced one week later that a moratorium on the import of BC wine to Alberta would begin, effective immediately. Read More

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce issued the following statement in response to the news from Statistics Canada that Canada lost 88,000 jobs in January, the steepest single-month loss since 2009: "While it would be a mistake to assume that one month's figures necessarily indicate a trend, January's dramatic decline in jobs should remind Canada's governments that investment and jobs are at risk. Read More

An important change has come to Alberta's carbon offset system. Farmers must be registered with an aggregation company prior to May 1, 2018 or they will not be able to claim credits for the 2018 year for the Conservation Cropping protocol, the main offset of use to farmers currently. Alberta Environment and Parks, who sets the rules for the offset system, is changing the carbon system to one that is pre-planned. More information can be found on page 17 in the  Standard for Greenhouse Gas Emission Offset Project Developers and by clicking  here.