If you attended OEMC on October 20 and/or 21, you will have received an email with the password to access the recordings of the sessions. If you did not receive the email, please contact oemc@ontarioeast.ca.

Please remember to complete the OEMC 2021 evaluations:

Please be sure to visit the OEMC Virtual Exhibit Hall by Friday, November 12, 2021. There is still time to connect with our sponsors.

Visit each booth and fill in the contact card and be entered into a draw to win a $100.00 Gift Card to a local restaurant or store in your municipality* (gift card provided by OEMC)! Each virtual booth has a contact card pop-up which can be minimized while you browse the virtual booth.

The Leeds Grenville Economic Development Office, in partnership with Michael Barrett M.P., the Hon. Steve Clark, M.P.P., the Eastern Workforce Innovation Board and the 1000 Islands, Grenville and Valley Heartland Community Futures Development Corporations, invite you to the region’s top Economic Development event of the year.

Join Leeds Grenville for a day focused on Economic Development and Leadership. The Bill Thake Award will be presented. For the second year, the summit will be held virtually. Last year more than 230 people joined in.

The time has finally come for group hugs and virtual high fives and to celebrate Ontario’s resilience! Explore the pivotal role economic developers have and will play in reimagining Ontario’s economy. Make sure that you and your community lend a voice to shape the future as we Move ON to new opportunities ahead of us.

The Ontario East Economic Development Commission is pleased to announce that Stephen Paul has joined the Board of Directors. He was appointed to fill a vacancy at the last board meeting. Stephen is a longtime supporter of Ontario East and its programs and was previously on the Board serving as President in the early 2010's.

He is the Director, Community and Development Services for Lennox and Addington County. His portfolio includes Economic Development, Tourism, Planning, Public Libraries and Museums. Prior to returning home to Lennox and Addington, Stephen worked for the City of Toronto Tourism Department as a producer of large scale events and festivals. He is also Past President of the Great Waterway Regional Tourism Organization.

Stephen is an active member of the community. He is the President of Softball Napanee and has been the Chair of numerous national sporting events that have been hosted in Lennox and Addington. Stephen is a graduate of Queen’s University.

Welcome aboard Stephen!

The Eastern Workforce Innovation Board (EWIB) is already a key partner of OE-TISP.

In particular, their October Newsletter rounded up quarterly feedback from the employment service providers in their region.

These observations articulate much of what's been swimming beneath the workforce surface for employers and job seekers, during COVID. For a validating read that helps you think of what your support response could be, read it here.

With their permission we'll be reposting their LMI feature on the OE-TISP website this month. But there are also great articles on workforce from EWIB here for you to see.

With only five months left with the 3-year Women’s Entrepreneurship Pilot Program, we can now say we are nearly there!

Our WEP marketing efforts continue to hold strong with the goal of meeting, if not exceeding, our target of 225 women entrepreneurs.

November will see internal bus ads cropping up in transit buses in 3 regions.

In recognition, our participants will be receiving promotional items to use as tangible marketing tools to spark interest and generate leads.

Presentations are being held with agencies requesting more information on the program.

We never loose sight of our existing participants. As a team, we continue to share ideas among partners on how we can further assist our existing participants.

On November 3rd, Kawartha Lakes Business & Entrepreneurship Centre hosted a Roundtable event. The topic was Hitting your Goals – Knowing What They Are and How to Reach Them.

Participants have been given an opportunity to create individual videos showcasing their businesses.

The Digital Assessment Strategy Sessions, through Spark St Lawrence College, continues to assist participants in improving their online presence.

If you know a woman who wants to join the ranks of entrepreneurship, we encourage you to direct them to https://offers.ontarioeast.ca/learn-about-wep for more information.

My Main Street is a $23.25 million investment by The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario to help drive business and restore vibrancy to local communities across southern Ontario in the aftermath of COVID-19. My Main Street has two program streams:

The My Main Street Local Business Accelerator will support the revitalization of 65 main street communities through dedicated Main Street Ambassadors, including customized market research, data analysis and non-repayable contributions for local businesses. Applications for the My Main Street Local Business Accelerator are still open and will be accepted on a continuous basis.

The My Main Street Community Activator will support up to 140 placemaking projects aimed at strengthening the connection between people and places through activities, events, community improvements and policy development. Support will be provided in the form of reimbursements against incurred costs. Applications for round one of the Community Activator are now closed. Round two applications will open on December 1st, 2021.

Learn more and apply at www.mymainstreet.ca.

Looking to fund short-term projects that focus on helping to build a resilient and strong labour force for the agriculture, agri-food and agri-products sector by assisting to identify and address challenges and opportunities related to promoting, attracting, training and retaining labour. Project partnerships of not-for-profit organizations involved in the agriculture, agri-food sectors are eligible to apply.

The application intake opened on October 21, 2021 and will remain open while funding is available.

Eastern Ontario is home to beautiful waterfronts, historic cities and towns, booming industry, and nearly 2 million residents. That 2 million now includes 5 new Canadians and 10 residents eligible for the status because of local medical tubing manufacturer, GlobalMed, and the Ontario Immigration Nominee Program (OINP).

The OINP is a pilot program launched by the provincial government to help foreign workers and international students apply for permanent residency through local work opportunities in eastern Ontario. There are 150 spaces in the program, serving the areas of Chatham-Kent, Cornwall, Quinte West, and Belleville.

Peterborough – Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and BWX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BWXT) are announcing a contract for Fuelling Machine (FM) head engineering and component supply as part of refurbishment of the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station.

The contract will be formally announced today at BWXT’s Peterborough, Ontario, facility, with Energy Minister Todd Smith, Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith, OPG President and CEO Ken Hartwick, and BWXT Nuclear Power Group President John MacQuarrie in attendance.

The $50 million (US$38.2 million) contract will be executed by BWXT Nuclear Energy Canada Inc. in Peterborough, where a team of more than 250 employees, engineers, skilled trades and other specialized personnel will design and supply complex parts and assemblies to enable refurbishment of all eight FM heads at Darlington. Engineering work on this project began in 2020, with component supply occurring from 2022 to 2026.

After 30 years of providing safe, clean, reliable power to Ontarians, Darlington is in the midst of a planned midlife overhaul. The first of four units was shut down in 2016 and returned to service in 2020. A second unit is currently being refurbished, with the four-unit project slated for completion in 2026.

Beyond extending the life of the station by 30 or more years, Darlington Refurbishment is a boon to Ontario’s economy. Approximately 96 per cent of project costs are being spent in the province – like this project currently underway in Peterborough – drawing on Ontario’s significant and skilled nuclear supply chain. More than 200 companies across Ontario are part of the refurbishment project and are helping to power the province's economy by creating jobs and delivering high quality parts and services.