Message from Mayor Dan Carter to Business Community Stakeholders
Businesses like yours are an essential component of Oshawa’s dynamic and diverse neighbourhoods and their sustainability is a critical pillar of our community. As such, I am working with the Mayor’s Economic Recovery Task Force Chair, Regional and City Councillor Tito-Dante Marimpietri and both the membership of the Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce (GOCC) and the Downtown Oshawa Business Alliance (DOBA) to advocate and assist in any way possible to help mitigate the financial losses that businesses are continuing to endure during this difficult period.
As supported at City Council on Monday, January 24, I am issuing letters to the Prime Minister and Premier requesting that both the Federal and Provincial governments continue to offer and expand on programs to assist in economic recovery. These programs include wage subsidies, programs to cover lost revenues and rent subsidies, while also considering other immediate and long term measures to assist affected businesses. We continue to take immediate action to assist our small and community-owned businesses that have been hardest hit by the economic impacts of COVID-19. This is of critical importance for businesses in downtown Oshawa and our great city.
Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, Oshawa continued to see strong economic growth across multiple sectors which resulted in the 2nd highest total construction value on record in 2021 at $564,582,600. To complement the rapid pace of residential growth with economic diversity and new job creation, $51.5 million in Commercial, $36.6 million in Industrial and $8.5 million in Governmental/Institutional permits were issued.
As the only downtown of its kind in the eastern G.T.A., our city’s core is the heart and soul of our community. Our downtown is a unique urban environment in our region with incredible potential. The downtown is a cultural and entertainment hub, major employment district and a significant asset within the eastern G.T.A. The City’s downtown revitalization strategy aims to leverage those features in order to create a unique downtown experience. An experience that is centered around people, with an emphasis on social gathering spaces. We continue to strive towards creating a vibrant, attractive and animated downtown where people come together to live, work, shop, learn, meet and engage.
As part of our efforts to engage the business community on matters pertaining to City, including our downtown, I would like to provide you with an update on a number of programs and initiatives taking place to support the broader Oshawa community as we continue focus our efforts on economic recovery.
Oshawa Business Support Campaign
In order to drive continued engagement with the business community as they navigate support programs related to COVID-19 and the Omicron variant, Oshawa Economic Development Services has launched a campaign to support impacted businesses. As featured in some of the many resources available on our Mayor’s Economic Recovery Task Force page, you will find a summary of Municipal, Provincial and Federal supports, grants and incentives. We are encouraging the business community to reach out directly to Economic Development Services at [email protected] or 905-436-5617 for pandemic support. We’re here to connect you to the resources that matter to your business.
Oshawa Loves Local Campaign
We ended 2021 with a holiday-themed push of our #OshawaLovesLocal campaign. In an effort to advocate for local family-owned businesses and to assist in their recovery, a series of business highlight videos were produced to demonstrate the benefits of buying local and to introduce the broader community to businesses and families that have operated in the City of Oshawa. Our video content has received over 150,000 impressions with positive feedback in support of buying local and rallying around family-owned businesses across the City of Oshawa. We are proud to speak up for our business community and will continue to do so at every opportunity.
Now more than ever, it is important for us to support local and buy local whenever we can. We’re encouraging residents to make a difference by purchasing from local businesses online, dining out at home by ordering takeout from a local restaurant, and purchasing gift certificates now to use later.
Downtown Oshawa Instagram Re-Launch
Social media continues to grow in importance, playing a pivotal role in how we engage with the community. This has become more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic. For that reason, we are excited to have re-launched our downtown Oshawa Instagram account. We’re seeing excellent growth in our audience and strong engagement from the community as we promote tourism, shopping and dining experiences in our downtown. I encourage you to follow along (@OshawaDowntown)as we continue to promote downtown businesses.
Enhanced Communications
Consistent and ongoing communications are taking place between myself, Economic Development and community groups such as the GOCC and DOBA. This includes on-going communication to ensure collaboration among the various groups. Additionally, Economic Development will be launching a monthly newsletter focused on Downtown Oshawa sharing relevant updates, promotions and other helpful information. To subscribe to the newsletter please email [email protected]
Future Events
As Mayor I fully support and embrace the resumption of events and festivals in the City to create a space for our community to connect, explore and enjoy while supporting the businesses that benefit from the enhanced attendance. The ability to host large scale community events has been impacted with the ongoing restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, but I look forward to 2022 bringing Kars on King, Summer in the City, amongst other events, back to the Downtown, subject to provincial guidelines in place.
Sidewalk Patio Program
With our 2022 patio season around the corner, our Economic Development branch continues to serve as a primary conduit for businesses navigating processes, asking questions or to expressing any concerns when dealing with Municipal and Regional departments surrounding permits, food inspections or business licensing. As we approach our next patio season, we encourage you to reach out to see how we can assist you.
Downtown Window Signage
Work is underway to install signage in select vacant windows on Simcoe Street, Mary Street and Bond Street. We will continue beautification efforts on select windows with positive messaging, vibrant graphics and links to featured Oshawa businesses on Downtowns of Durham. Should you have a window in the downtown for consideration, please connect with the Economic Development Services team.
Go Train Extension
I, along with my colleagues Regional Chair John Henry and Municipality of Clarington Mayor Foster continue to call on the province to set aside funding for the GO Transit Lakeshore East extension to Bowmanville. We are working to meet directly with Premier Ford to ensure that funding for this critical project in our community is included in the upcoming 2022 Provincial budget. The extension would bring two new stations to Oshawa, including Thornton Corner’s and Oshawa Central. Updates on the project can be found here.
King Street Streetscape Improvements
Oshawa residents, businesses and community members are invited to share their feedback on Phase Four of the King Street Streetscape Project on Connect Oshawa.
This phase follows the pilot project that began in 2018 with public consultation where the City sought feedback regarding three design options for the widening of the sidewalk on the north side of King Street East between Ontario Street and Mary Street North, as well as the second phase of King Street East, constructed in 2020 between Simcoe Street North and Ontario Street, and the third phase constructed in 2021 between Prince Street and Simcoe Street.
The fourth phase of the project focuses on the widening of the sidewalk on the north side of King Street West between McMillan Drive and Centre Street with public consultation about to start. The widening will allow for additional space for pedestrians, landscaping, outdoor patios/cafes, streetscape amenities and businesses.
The community is invited to participate online on Connect Oshawa, where participants can review the proposed design, share feedback and ask questions.
As we chart a path forward, we are incredibly proud of our business community. You have faced down a historic challenge, made significant sacrifices and exemplified a resiliency that the City of Oshawa is known for. You are not on this journey alone. We are here to support you. Together, we will recover stronger than ever.
Yours truly,
Dan Carter
Mayor