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Even though Valentine's Day has passed us by that doesn't mean that we're done sharing some local love.

We encourage everyone to keep thinking local first. Our business community has helped support us as individuals, as teams, our organizations and our entire region...so let's return their support by keeping our purchases local.

Want to be part of our Local First campaign? See our website!

It has come to our attention that an email has been circulating offering to provide a list of registrants that have participated and attended our tradeshows in the past. Please don't respond to this email as this is a fraudulent communication.

We do not collect attendee information at our tradeshows and any information that we have on file for our exhibitors is kept in the strictest of confidence. We value the relationships that we have established with our exhibitors and would never divulge any personal information. If you have received this email please ignore the request, block and delete this communication.

The Government of Canada announced that self-employed individuals who applied for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and would have qualified based on their gross income will not be required to repay the benefit, provided they also met all other eligibility requirements. The same approach will apply whether the individual applied through the Canada Revenue Agency or Service Canada. More information.

Hundreds of thousands of workers who continue to provide critical services to Albertans during the COVID-19 pandemic will receive a one-time payment in recognition of their hard work and sacrifice. The Critical Worker Benefit is a joint federal-provincial program that will see $465 million go to approximately 380,000 Alberta public and private sector workers as $1,200 cash payments. The Critical Worker Benefit will be available to workers in the health-care, social services, education and private sectors who deliver critical services to Albertans or support food and medical supply chains. More information.

The Canadian Mental Health Association of Alberta Southeast Region (CMHA ASER) announced a new subsidy support program for family members and friends who suffered a loss due to a death by suicide. The Suicide Bereavement Counselling Subsidy Program allows individuals of any age needing support to access up to six sessions to meet with a counselling professional and counselling services would directly bill CMHA ASER. Find out more.

Reminding each other to follow public health orders can be awkward, stressful or escalate to being dangerous. The Calgary Chamber partnered with the City of Calgary to outline a few ways to frame those conversations in positive ways, and when to call for help. Check it out here.

Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) incident monitoring shows an increase in COVID19 exposure with the failure of controls in workplace common areas. Common areas include: lunchrooms/break rooms, smoking areas, hallways, washrooms, locker rooms, parking lots, time clocks, and elevators. Find out some best practices to address this risk through this resource bulletin. Read all the latest OHS eNews online.

The reveal of the proposed Waterfront District at our State of the City Address was received with enthusiasm and interest. The City of Medicine Hat has provided a Frequently Answered Questions page on their website to give a bit more information about this exciting development plan. See the FAQs located at the bottom of the Waterfront District page on the Invest Medicine Hat page.

Want to know what else happened that you need to know?

We had the benefit of being part of a number of meetings and presentations during the week of February 8-12 to continue to move our collective objectives forward.

This included a presentation on Alberta's Public Trust in Agriculture, a presentation and Q & A with Restaurants Canada, a meeting and Q & A with Premier Kenney, a mid-cities Chamber meeting to discuss opportunities, challenges and solutions to common problems, a Tete-a-Tete with the Canadian Society of Association Executives to test out new platforms and find out about new strategies and ideas, a meeting with our large industrial manufacturers, a conversation with the Medicine Hat College about their upcoming start-up and scale-up courses, a discussion with Alberta Environment and Parks, along with the Regional Vitality Action Planning Summit to round out the week.

Read our blog to see how we're putting our advocacy into action.