The Ontario East Economic Development Commission held its Annual General Meeting (via Zoom) on February 4, 2021 and is pleased to announce the following appointments to the Board of Directors: TJ Flynn (Northumberland County) Bob Peters (City of Cornwall) and Suzanne McCrimmon (Peterborough & the Kawarthas Economic Development).

Executive Officers elected for 2021-22 are Chris King (Quinte Economic Development Commission) President, Tracey Snow (Lennox & Addington County) Vice President, TJ Flynn, Treasurer, Shelley Hirstwood, Past-President (Kingston Economic Development), Jay Amer, Executive Director/Secretary. The Board thanked Heather Salovaara (City of Pembroke) who has completed her term on the Board.

The following directors continue on the Board - Carole Lavigne (United Counties of Prescott-Russell), Bonnie Ruddock (Region 9 Regional Tourism Organization), Kelley Lemenchick (Renfrew County CFDC) and Connor Renouf (Town of Perth).

Government liaison members are Lynne Groulx, Ministry of Economic Development Trade & Job Creation, Trevor Crowe, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and Ann-Marie Kelleher, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.

The Ontario East Economic Development Commission (Ontario East) was created 30 years ago with a mandate to develop, implement and administer strategies to attract new economic investment, facilitate business growth and to support economic development in eastern Ontario. Ontario East is composed of professional economic developers and associated organizations and businesses representing cities, towns and regions in eastern Ontario, from Kawartha Lakes in the west, along the Lake Ontario shore to the Quebec border and north to Haliburton and Algonquin Park.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created immense opportunity and pressures for local food systems. It showed how critical these systems are, as well as exposing weaknesses that make them vulnerable. The goal of these sessions is to explore the hard-won lessons learned from a global pandemic that can help local food businesses and organizations strengthen as a result.

Keynote speaker Dr. Evan Fraser will kick off the series. Dr. Fraser is a professor of geography and the Director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph. A passionate communicator, he has written for the Globe and Mail, the Guardian.com, CNN.com, ForeignAffairs.com, the Walrus and the Ottawa Citizen, and has authored popular non-fiction books about food and food security; most recently Uncertain Harvest, published in 2020.

In February, Ontario East Economic Development Commission launched a

new website for the Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (WEP) and introduced a Social Media Campaign as we continue to promote the WEP program to women located in the five pilot regions (Northumberland, Leeds & Grenville, Prescott-Russell, Kawartha Lakes & Durham).

More than 100 women have already taken advantage of this free virtual business training program. Our regional partners continue to support them virtually to build successful businesses through regular networking and roundtable events as well as tapping into a unique "Matching" component of the program; Participants are matched with a participant in another region that operates a similar business. Through Zoom or a phone call, they connect with each other and discuss challenges as well as successes. The feedback from those matched has been very positive.

On March 4, 2021 women entrepreneurs can invest in themselves by attending the StrikeUP Digital Conference for Women Entrepreneurs with a lineup of dynamic women speakers and panelists. For more information visit https://www.strikeup.ca/.

The Ontario East Women’s Entrepreneurship Program continues to not only

support the women already enrolled in the program but to seek out those still wanting to find assistance in starting their business.

The Government of Canada is committed to advancing gender equality and women’s

economic empowerment and to supporting women entrepreneurs through

the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES) announced in 2018.

As part of OE-TISP's focus on Career Pathway planning, the WDB Community Hub and the CFWD Community Hub were created in a collaboration between The Workforce Development Board (WDB) and the Centre for Workforce Development (CFWD) and Edge Factor. The Hubs are a place where parents, students, teachers and job seekers can learn about local career pathways through exploration and inspiration. These two Community Hubs provide complimentary access to local labour market information, community business directories, local virtual workplace experience videos for schools and businesses.

The project aims to help build a workforce pipeline with skilled, dependable employees for local in-demand industries such as health care, construction, manufacturing and tourism. The project began in August 2020 and the Community Hubs were launched October 2020. You can watch the complete video series on the WDB and CFWD Community Hubs in the Local Virtual Workplace Experience Videos section here and here! WDB and CFWD are always adding fresh content to the Hubs, and more Local Virtual Workplace Experience Videos are coming soon!

Toronto — Applications are now open for the Ontario government's new two-year $115 million Skills Development Fund. The fund, which will support workers and apprentices, is specifically designed to address the challenges brought on by COVID-19 and help reduce obstacles to hiring, training and retaining while preparing workers for the province's economic recovery.

"When faced with unprecedented challenges we need innovative solutions, that's why we developed this new Skills Development Fund. It will lead to fresh and creative ideas to help get people back on the job and kick-start our communities," said Monte McNaughton, Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development. "My message to workers is clear - there is hope and opportunity around the corner. I'm calling on everyone - businesses, union leaders and training providers - to submit your ideas and participate in our economic recovery."

The Skills Development Fund will accept applications from a wide range of employment and training organizations in Ontario, and the focus will be on:

Ontario East's New Mailing Address

Ontario East Economic Development Commission

623 Fortune Crescent

Suite 100

Kingston ON K7P 0L5