High interest rates, housing costs and inflation continue to cause gloom in Ontario’s economic outlook, according to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s eighth annual Ontario Economic Report.
Daniel Tisch, president and chief executive officer of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, said rising costs of living and doing business have driven business confidence in the economy to plunge from 29 per cent at the height of the pandemic to just 13 per cent two years later.
“There are bright spots, particularly in growth sectors such as mining, thanks to strategic investments, population growth and improved labour market resilience,” she told The Chronicle-Journal.
“In 2024 and beyond, productivity must be our priority.”
Charla Robinson, president of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce, said the report contains regional and sector-specific data on business confidence and growth, public policy priorities, regional forecasts, and timely business issues such as supply chains, employee well-being, diversity, equity and inclusion, economic reconciliation, and climate change.
“The report talks about the economy and business confidence while looking back to how people were feeling last fall and what they’re expecting in the year ahead,” she said. “What we saw this year is that Ontario-wide, it’s the lowest level of confidence ever, that we’ve seen in the eight years that this report has been done.”
She said although we’re down to just 13 per cent in business confidence, the bright side is Northern Ontario is quite a bit higher at around 22 per cent.
“That’s still quite low but it’s a pretty significant difference between the rest of the province,” she said, adding that the reason for that is because Northern Ontario has had a lot of attention on mining opportunities, especially with the government’s focus on electric vehicles, lithium and critical minerals.
Robinson says the information and data provided in the report really speaks to the need for the government to work towards driving productivity and growth in the province with a focus on how to improve that confidence level.
“Some of the things that we heard in the report include businesses are looking for lower taxes and more small businesses are looking for help to support and promote buy-local initiatives to try to get people to shop in local retailers versus online,” she said.
“From industries, such as the mining sector, they’re saying we need to make sure that our regulatory environment will allow this mining activity to happen, and that we’re not going to get snagged up in red tape for years that would then delay the ability to take advantage of that opportunity.”
She added that the government definitely has a role to play in all of those things.
“Workforce is another piece. We know labour shortages are a real challenge, so how can the government support more workforce development programming,” she said.
“Affordable housing is another piece that we’ve been talking about for some time along with the government’s role in trying to get more houses built so that we can attract new people to our communities, have a place for them to live and work in our community.”
Robinson said business groups continue to advocate and push the government to continue to make more investments and to put more focus on driving growth and productivity, which would help to spur more confidence in the business community.
