Niagara Labour Market Insights December 2025
This Workforce Collective summary shows that in 2025: Niagara’s labour market showed some signs of stability, alongside demographic shifts shaping the region’s workforce. Unemployment declined to 6.9%, down from 2024, employment edged up to 56.3%, while labour force participation softened [...]
Coalition to End Violence Against Women – Community Resource Tools
The following resources were developed through the Navigating the System: A Gender-Based Violence Perspective project as part of a toolkit to help make Niagara’s gender-based violence (GBV) system more understandable, consistent, and easier to navigate. Grounded in local system mapping, [...]
Municipalities Under Pressure One Year Later: An Update on the Cost of Ontario’s Homelessness Crisis
This 2026 report updates the 2025 document, Municipalities Under Pressure: The Human and Financial Cost of Ontario’s Homelessness Crisis. The 2026 report provides updated estimates of homelessness and chronic homelessness, community housing waitlists, housing and homelessness funding and expenditures, and encampments. Key [...]
Niagara Region Economic Update November 5, 2025
This report shows that Niagara’s economy continues to navigate global headwinds while showing signs of local resilience. Looking to 2026, Niagara's economy faces continued uncertainty from external trade pressures but is buoyed by population growth, steady non-residential investment, and signs [...]
Niagara Region Road Safety Strategic Plan
The region of Niagara is home to nearly half a million residents and welcomes nearly fourteen million visitors each year. The regional government and Niagara’s twelve local area municipalities work to maintain and enhance the road network, and to support [...]
Canada’s Food Price Report 2026
This report predicts that Canadian families will spend $994 more on food in 2026 than in 2025. It also states that one-quarter of Canadian households are considered to be food insecure. The average family of four is expected to spend $17,571.79 on [...]
The Cost of Confusion: How Label Knowledge and Risk Attitude Shape Household Food Waste
This research aimed to better understand consumer perceptions of date labels and assessed how knowledge, attitudes, and personal values influence food waste behaviours. Based on a survey of 954 participants from a Canadian population, the research was conducted by Dalhousie [...]
2025 BC Active Transportation Summit Recap
This report highlights insights arising from taking an ecosystem approach to convene experts and affected parties across active transportation sectors. This 2025 Active Transportation Summit held in BC convened perspectives from transportation, health care, academia, climate action and resilience, economic [...]
‘Brain Drain’ in Niagara
Final Report #3 from the Wilson Foundation Project. This report explores the post-graduation experience of recent graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs from Brock University and Niagara College. Through a survey, it aims to shed light on [...]
Changing the Narrative: Unlocking the Economic Assets of Niagara in a Changing World
Final Report #2 from the Wilson Foundation Project. This report aims to shed light on Niagara’s evolving economy by investigating the opinions of local stakeholders. Drawing on interviews with policymakers and the private sector, it explores the opportunities and challenges [...]
The Next Frontier of Economic Development in Niagara
Final Report #1 from the Wilson Foundation Project. This report is the final part of a two-year project with a two-fold goal: first, to map the economic history and assets of the Niagara region over the past 150 years; second, [...]
2025 Living Wage Calculation for Niagara
The Ontario Living Wage Network calculation shows that the Living Wage for the economic region including Brant, Haldimand, Norfolk and Niagara is $21.40. This represents a $0.50 cent (2.4%) increase from the 2024 Living Wage for Niagara, which was $20.90. [...]
Increasing Hunger in Niagara: The Need for Action
This research is a follow-up to Dr. Heritz's earlier policy brief on food insecurity in Niagara, focusing, this time, on the importance of congregate meals. This research is a follow-up to Dr. Heritz's earlier policy brief on food insecurity in [...]
Crafting Inclusion within the Beverage-Alcohol Industry
The brief’s findings are based on three studies,* including a survey and interviews, that gathered insights and perspectives from diverse people within the industry on their opinions of EDI in their workplace. The research explores: industry employee perceptions of the [...]
Navigating Generative AI: Implications for small business and non-profits
We’ve been hearing a lot recently about the use of generative AI in our daily lives, whether through social media or in the workplace. This latest research examines the risks and benefits of generative AI for small businesses and non-profits—and [...]
Town of Lincoln Age-Friendly Business Guide
This Guide was developed by the Town of Lincoln Age-Friendly Advisory Committee, to help business owners identify, improve, and promote their age-friendly features. Businesses are encouraged to complete the age-friendly checklist. To further assist business owners, a list of valuable [...]
Food Inflation in Canada: Winners, Losers, and the Path Forward (2019-2025)
This report examines the causes and consequences of food inflation in Canada between 2019 and 2025. The report reveals that the average Canadian food basket cost rose 34 per cent over six years, far outpacing general inflation. The sharp increase has [...]
Youth Volunteering in a Changing Landscape: Insights from the Empathy Engaged Project
The Empathy Engaged project focused on Canadian youth between the ages of 18 and 25. It explored how to create meaningful opportunities for formal youth volunteering, promote a sense of belonging, and build a national strategy for youth volunteerism that [...]
Artworks: The Economic and Social Dividends from Canada’s Arts and Culture Sector
This report shows that Canada’s arts and culture sector contributed $65 billion in direct GDP to the Canadian economy in 2024. The sector grew faster and supported more jobs per dollar than other key sectors like oil and gas, manufacturing [...]
Hunger Count 2025 Report
This Food Banks Canada (FBC) report shows that food insecurity in Canada is growing, and becoming increasingly routine. The report draws on data from more than 5,500 food banks and community organizations across the country, as well as multiple surveys [...]
