Empire Club of Canada

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Sean Finn – Executive Vice-President, Corporate Services and Chief Legal Officer, CN CN holds a unique place in history: the unforgettable people, iconic landscapes and exciting innovations have all marked our great railroad through time. But since its creation 100 years ago, CN has faced many challenging situations, especially with unfortunate work disruptions,...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Blake Hutcheson - President & CEO of OMERS With Confidence, Resilience and Patience During COVID: Observations and Reflections during My First Hundred Days as OMERS CEO Blake Hutcheson shares observations and reflections he gained during his first hundred days at the helm as President and CEO of OMERS, one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pension plans. T...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: The Honourable Prabmeet Sarkaria – Ontario Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction Businesses across Ontario continued to be negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with local, Main Street small businesses being the hardest hit. Hon. Prabmeet Sarkaria, Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction, speaks to the COVID-19 c...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: The World Health Organization (WHO), Canada and the Way Ahead As winter of 2020 approached, COVID-19 cases were rising in many parts of the world, the importance of coming together in solidarity to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic had never been greater. Dr. Tedros, Director General of the World Health Organization, talks about the global effort to defeat COVID-19...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Mark Poweska, President & CEO, Hydro One in Conversation with Rocco Rossi, President & CEO, Ontario Chamber of Commerce In this event, Mark Poweska, President and CEO of Hydro One, and Rocco Rossi, President & CEO, Ontario Chamber of Commerce, have a fireside conversation about how Mark Poweska transformed Hydro One to put customers and Ontario first...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: The Future of the Work Place Moderator: Mary Rowe, President & CEO, The Canadian Urban Institute Panelists/ Speaker:  Veni Iozzo, Executive Vice-President, Enterprise Real Estate and Workplace Transformation, CIBC Sarah McKenzie, Independent Consultant, Innovation and Future of Work Toni Rossi BPHE, ICD.D, President, Real Estate Division, Infrastructure...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: The Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities with Resilience and Regeneration: Building out of a Pandemic and into a More Inclusive Low-Carbon Economy. The most devastating global pandemic in a century, COVID-19, was more than a health crisis. It had damaged economies, cost jobs and widened existing social inequalities. But it had...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: The Honourable Lisa MacLeod Ontario Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Cultural Industries’ Few sectors of the world’s economy had been hit harder by the Covid-19 pandemic than the tourism and hospitality, culture, and sport sectors. As the Ontario families who depended on this sector reckoned with a world that was increasingly defined by thicker borders,...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: 2020 U.S. Presidential Election Panel In this virtual discussion, our panelists focus on the impacts that the 2020 U.S. Presidential election will have on the economies of Ontario and Canada. How do the two presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, stack up on critical issues related to economic growth, transcontinental trade, and climate change? How...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Managing through Crisis and Building a Winning Culture with Michael Medline, President & CEO, Empire Company and Sobeys Empire Co. completed one of the most successful transformations in Canadian retail history. And then the entire retail industry was put to the test. In this conversation, Michael Medline, President and CEO of Empire and Sobeys, discusses ho...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Diplomacy in a COVID World with Ambassador Bob Rae As the United Nations celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2020, it and its members confront unprecedented crises including the COVID-19 pandemic, global economic recession, ongoing displacement of millions of people, and the existential threat of climate change. Canada has long had a leading role within the Unite...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Post Covid: The Future of Downtown The COVID 19 pandemic dealt a staggering blow to our downtowns. In the spring, offices and businesses were closed entirely. Organizations continued to operate with employees working remotely. Some businesses failed entirely. Even as offices have reopened, most people continue to work from home. Walking through an office buildin...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: In conversation with Mike Rencheck, President and CEO of Bruce Power on Canada’s goal of Net-Zero by 2050 and the critical role of nuclear power. Nuclear power is an integral component for Canada and the rest of the world in order to achieve its GHG emissions targets; simply put, without nuclear power as part of the solution, it is not possible to combat the dev...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Canada’s Tourism Industry: Impact and Recovery Outlook for 2020 and Beyond Since February of 2020, the tourism sector—which employs 10% of Canadians—has accounted for 30.3% of the almost 3 million jobs that have been shed. Within tourism itself, 43.3% of employment has been lost since February 2020—that’s 881,700 jobs. Of those losses, 56.1% were in part-time em...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: The Impact of the Pandemic on Women's Advancement during Recovery : Overcoming Setbacks and Promoting Change for the Better During the summer of 2020 the Empire Club held a milestone event which brought together five remarkable women (to access the panel discussion click here: https://youtu.be/ACr5TacxmPs ) to talk about mental health, money and societal shifts...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Covid-19 and Canadian Women: Mental Health, Money and Societal Shifts One of the resounding battle cries heard throughout the pandemic is “We are all in this together”. While this is comforting to many people and politically attractive as a concept, it has been very clear from the outset that certain demographics have suffered disproportionately from the outset...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Preventing the Next Pandemic-Like Event David Gold and Melissa Matlow will discuss how the next global pandemic-like event will come from our negative relationship with the environment and wildlife and offer key recommendations on how to prevent it. Nathaniel Erskine Smith provides the government's position on the actions it is taking to help prevent this event....

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: The Power of Black Female Leadership…Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Three women, trail blazers in advancing the cause of black women in Canada, politicians from all three levels of government who spent their careers-and indeed their lives- fighting to make it better for black women and indeed all minority women in Canada. The Empire Club brought together Jean Aug...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents:  My Canada is Opening Up As Canadians prepare to celebrate Canada Day this year, their country is opening up in many ways. Socially, three months of lockdown have given many more time to share their time and thoughts with their families, friends and neighbours, in physical and virtual ways. Economically, working and shopping is springing back to life. Withi...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: The Future of Live Music in Toronto The live music industry in Toronto has been decimated by the forced shutdown of public gatherings in the city. Many venues where musicians perform were already under pressure due to rising real estate costs.  Many were forced to close and some will never re-open.  But even for those that will, who knows when performe...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: A Picture of Canada’s Economic Recovery What economic measures and sequence of events are required to give Canada the best chance for a quick and robust recovery. Moderator: Amber Kanwar, Anchor & Reporter, Business News Network Panelists: Pierre Cleroux, Vice President, Research and Chief Economist, Business Development Bank of Canada Ted Mallett, Vice Pres...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: The Evolution of an Economic Engine: Assessing the State of Canadian Advanced Manufacturing Dwindling cash flows, ongoing skills shortages and disruptions to supply chains. Productions lines shut down while others retooled to make new, vitally needed health and safety products. Orders cancelled while oil and gas prices plummet. Expectations of agility in the fac...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Being Older in 2020: The Modern Joys And Risks Of Aging We are living longer, but at what risk? COVID-19 has laid bare the health issues of congregate settings in  long-term care. Will society care when the crisis is over?  Will the delivery of a robust home and community care system like other countries have done be on the table? Could this make a dif...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Making Money in Today’s Market Panelists: Nick Barisheff, President, BMG Group Inc. Thomas S. Caldwell, Chairman, Caldwell Financial Ltd. & Urbana Corporation David Rosenberg, Founder, Rosenberg Research and Associates Inc. *The content presented is free of charge but please note that the Empire Club of Canada retains copyright. Neither the speeches themselv...

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: The Construction Sector Post COVID19: What is the “new normal” During the Covid 19 pandemic, construction was unique in comparison to most sectors in that some elements were deemed essential, while others were not.  While the dividing line between who was essential and who wasn’t was the source of controversy, for those operating, health and safety measures...