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Niagara Falls
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Editorial: Let’s all supportNOTL businesses

A couple of weeks ago The Lake Report quietly kicked off a campaign to help local businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic.

With support from the NOTL Chamber of Commerce, Town of NOTL, Niagara Holiday Rentals, NOTL Bed & Breakfast Association, Lord Mayor Betty Disero and MP Tony Baldinelli, we have dedicated a full page each week to our “Shop Local” campaign.

The page features free business profile stories to any Niagara-on-the-Lake businesses or business owners. It is a 10-week campaign that we hope will continue and grow.

Why?

With the pandemic kicking into full gear again now that the cold weather is on us, and with restrictions tightening up, we feel it’s absolutely necessary to support local businesses.

Not only do we at The Lake Report sympathize as a fellow local business, but we have seen first-hand through our stories, even this week, how damaging this pandemic has been to people trying to make ends meet.

And it isn’t just business owners who suffer, it’s their employees, their service and goods providers, and family members.

And when businesses close, our residents suffer, too.

And, of course, one major reason we can’t forget is that without local businesses advertising in this paper, The Lake Report would not exist.

Without a strong local paper that will cover hard news stories like the major fraud at NOTL Hydro (which other media simply ignored) and keep our politicians and decision-makers accountable, the town will suffer. We would be at a loss for real, informative journalism and ordinary people's voices would be heard far less often.

So, we have chosen to support our local businesses that help support us to keep important news coming to the residents of our town. We don't want NOTL to end up as a news desert, like many other small communities.

Another way we’re supporting local businesses is by waiving all fees associated with our Press Pass local discount program.

The program offers discount cards to any resident of NOTL, free of charge, and businesses can sign up to be listed on our website as a partner, to help drive local business during the off-season, while maintaining regular prices for visitors.

Between these two initiatives, we are choosing to invest in NOTL businesses. If it even brings even a small bit of extra business to our town, it will have been worth it.

Over the coming weeks, we will continue to publish stories about businesses free of charge and we encourage all residents of NOTL to read the stories and patronize the businesses. See our Shop Local feature on Page 7 this week.

And, of course, we have always encouraged our readers to support our regular advertisers. Without the people who advertise week-to-week, the paper would not be able to continue.

A strong community paper brings other benefits, including highlighting countless charitable initiatives, helping spread the word about non-profits and fundraising events for important charities that improve the quality of life for residents, such as NOTL Palliative Care, Niagara Nursery School, the NOTL Rotary Club, the Legion, Lions Club, Shaw Festival — the list goes on.

Remember to please support our local businesses now, during the holiday season and beyond into next spring.

They need your support. We need your support.

You can find a full list of businesses in our Shop Local program on our website, Lakereport.ca. You can also head there to check out what businesses are involved in our Press Pass program and stop by our offices to pick up your very own Press Pass.

Stay safe and abide by safety measures put in place to make sure our economy doesn’t suffer further.

The more diligent we all are in ensuring we aren’t spreading COVID, the more numbers will drop, and the closer we’ll be to seeing our economy fully reopen so businesses can recover.

Shop Local.

editor@niagaranow.com

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