Today, the provincial government is set to release the 2024 Ontario Budget. CTV London visited the London Chamber of Commerce yesterday to talk to Graham Henderson about what the Chamber would like to see when the numbers are presented. 

The London Chamber of Commerce is proud to have collaborated with other industry leaders in order to advocate for a change to the annual alcohol excise tax. This tax on alcohol production increases automatically every year and is tied to inflation, with a potential 4.7% increase to the tax on April 1st of this year. Thanks in part to the Chamber’s advocacy efforts in Ottawa in November of this year, the Government of Canada announced that the tax has been capped at a 2% increase for 2024 and 2025. This means that the tax increase has been reduced by more than half which represents savings for both individuals and businesses. The average craft brewery in Canada will save up to $86,952 through tax relief across 2024 and 2025.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce has released their annual report on the state of the Net-Zero initiative in Canada. This report is designed to address issues brought about by climate change and how Canada’s workforce must adapt to reach our net-zero emission targets. Canada’s current targets are to reduce emissions by 40-45% by 2030 and to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Reaching these targets will not only help to ensure that we reduce our impact on the environment, it will also open up a whole new green economy capable of generating jobs for more Canadians. There are currently 430,500 employed in the clean energy sector and this number is expected to grow to 639,000 by 2030.