Kelly DeRidder on Jobs, innovation and local business

nonite Central Committee - MCC ON and their leadership in our community, quietly powerful, consistently generous, and always focused on lifting others up. Their vision and values ripple through so many local initiatives. And if you haven’t visited MCC Thrift On Kent, you’re missing out! It’s more than a store, it’s a hub of sustainability, community connection, and purpose. Together, we chatted about how we can collaborate to make volunteering more accessible and impactful. The energy and ideas flowing between these organizations are a reminder of what’s possible when we work together.

y. #supportlocalbusiness #buylocal 🥩 Check them out online! https://oldtownbutcher.ca/

proud to have brought Kitchener’s voice to the table.

of international credentials are key to helping refugees and newcomers succeed. That’s why Conservatives are pushing for the Blue Seal program to better recognize foreign training and get skilled newcomers into the workforce faster, strengthening our local economy, services and our community.

illions of dollars in commercialized innovation here at home. But without a strategy to keep the innovation outcomes from taxpayer dollar investments here in Canada, we will continue to see IP and research talent flow south of the border. The government’s investments mean nothing without conditions or a strategy. #kitchener #innovation #ip

nds in stark contrast to what the Minister of AI and Digital Innovation recently told us: “Guardrails” exist to ensure Canadians see the economic return on these investments. However, he couldn’t point to a single concrete example. Instead, we continue to see the same policy pattern of ‘investment’ announcements but no real strategy to ensure ownership and commercialization stays here in Canada. #innovation #kitchener

t to the next generation, who are hopefully stepping in to carry on the legacy. Businesses like Morris Car Wash may not always be in the spotlight, but they’re part of the fabric of our city, steady, dependable, and deeply rooted. Here’s to many more years of success and service!

nnovation capital, but we do not monetize and commercialize here in Canada. We're losing our IP. We're losing our data. It's going to the States or abroad. What is your strategy to make sure it stays here in Canada?

avoid detection in various operational environments. Their commitment to staying rooted in our community while securing major funding is a huge win for local innovation, jobs, and economic growth. This is what it looks like when vision meets opportunity. Congratulations to the entire Alchemy team, we’re proud to have you building the future right here at home.

al investment, are driving economic opportunity out of our region. That’s not just a missed chance at growth, it’s a risk to our future. #kitchener #innovation #community

ot recovery and not healing, just drugs. After a half a decade of chaos and heartbreak and $1 billion spent, what did the Liberals decide to do? In this budget, they chose to walk away. They chose to let mental health and addiction support funding expire, with no plan to renew it, no plan to replace it and no plan to help Canadians who are living through the consequences of the policies the Liberals championed. They are passing the responsibility to the provinces and municipalities, claiming it is not their jurisdiction. They should have had that same mindset before starting the safe supply experiment. They are pretending their decisions had nothing to do with the crisis Canadians are facing today. The government set fire to the barn, and now it is walking away hoping for someone else to put out the flames. The human toll of this drug crisis is being borne in large part by those we ask to save lives: our first responders. Recent reporting from CityNews shows the scale of what they are facing. The Vancouver Fire Rescue Services recently answered 54 overdose incidents in one day, the highest number of overdose responses ever recorded by that department. These are not rare, isolated events. In 2024, the average was between 20 and 25 daily overdose calls. In the Waterloo region, we just had to put out an overdose safety awareness alert this week. Meanwhile, an article from Canadian Affairs showcases what paramedics, firefighters and other frontline workers, like our nurses, are describing as their mental health and moral injury trauma, not from overdoses but from the endless cycle of drug-related emergencies they are powerless to resolve. One paramedic candidly described attending calls day after day for the same individuals, often without any resources to offer any long-term help. These are not merely medical emergencies; these are social emergencies rooted in addiction, homelessness and untreated mental illness, yet first responders regularly arrive at scenes where there is nowhere safe to send people, no capacity for long-term treatment and no effective wraparound supports. There is no durable strategy from the federal government to address the root causes. Essentially, we are sending paramedics and firefighters to fight a crisis that requires structural solutions while giving them nothing but repetition, burnout and trauma. Addictions and mental health are mentioned exactly once in this budget, only to say the funding is ending. Another vulnerable group being affected by this crisis is our youth. They are now suffering deeply from this drug crisis. The data shows the trend is worsening. Even the CBC has recently reported that doctors in London, Ontario, are seeing alarming numbers of youth, some as young as early teens, using opioids and other substances. Another CityNews report highlights that non-medical prescription opioid use among students jumped 10% in two years. Given all that, does it make sense for the solution to be funding opioids with taxpayer dollars? Given this information, the common-sense solution would be to crack down on illicit drug networks and use taxpayer dollars to help fund abstinence-based recovery treatment. We are witnessing rising drug use, rising overdose risk and growing addiction among youth, many of whom started using as children, yet we still lack the infrastructure, resources and political will to properly treat them. Addictions and mental health are mentioned exactly once in this budget, only to say the funding is ending. The scale of loss in Canada's drug crisis defies comprehension. According to the federal government's own data, 53,821 Canadians have died from an overdose since 2016. To put that into perspective, Canada lost approximately 45,000 soldiers in World War II. This country has now lost more people to the drug crisis than we lost in the entirety of the Second World War. Let that sink in. Let us think about this. A global conflict that spanned continents and years took fewer Canadian lives than drugs, untreated addiction and government failure, and despite the staggering loss and the fact that we are losing more Canadians to addiction than one of the deadliest conflicts in our history, the government has chosen to put zero new funding, zero new programs and zero new hope in this budget for mental health and addictions. Communities are grieving at a wartime scale. Families are burying loved ones at a larger-than-wartime scale, and the federal government is responding with silence. Addictions and mental health are mentioned exactly once in this budget, and that is to say the funding is ending. These are all national examples of how out of hand this drug crisis has gotten, but unfortunately, my community of Kitchener has not dodged it. This crisis is not abstract to the people of Kitchener. It is lived daily. Our downtown core, once vibrant, busy and safe, is struggling. Small businesses are reporting lower foot traffic, rising theft, property damage and incidents that make customers and staff feel unsafe. Restaurants, cafés and shops told me directly that patronage is down because people no longer feel comfortable bringing their families downtown. These small businesses are not just storefronts; they are jobs, community anchors and part of what makes our cities home. They are asking for leadership from the federal government. They are asking for mental health supports, treatment options and real solutions, not half measures and not abandonment, yet addictions and mental health are mentioned exactly once in this budget, and that is to say the funding is ending. I have had numerous constituents write to me echoing the same thing: not feeling safe downtown and feeling disappointed that this is what has become of their once vibrant and safe community. One wrote to me recently describing what their family faces every day living near Weber Street. They said that every single day, they see something that they are amazed is even allowed in their community. They said just up the road is a hotel filled with homeless individuals, including children, living in conditions where drugs are openly used. They once witnessed a woman shooting up right in front of the window of the Pluto Day Care in broad daylight while children played inside. Another constituent wrote that after a recent decision allowing the Victoria Street and Weber Street encampment to remain, they have lost all hope in the downtown core. They wonder why they must follow every bylaw, shovel their walkway and keep their property safe and clean while others' rights extend beyond theirs. What about the rest of Kitchener citizens? They ended with some sentences that no Canadian should ever have to say. They said this has become their new normal. They said this is downtown and they want to feel safe again. They do not know why their family does not matter anymore. Let me be clear. This is not the fault of people struggling with addictions and mental illness. They are Canadians in pain, deserving of compassion, treatment and a real chance at recovery. However, the families in Kitchener, families watching their community deteriorate, are feeling unheard and abandoned. The government set fire to the barn, and now it is walking away hoping for someone else to put out the flames. Well, I am proud to stand here and say that Conservatives will step up and put out the flames. I am here to tell Canadians that they do not have to suffer and that there is hope in abstinence-based rehabilitation. The Conservative plan offers a clear path out of this: end the failed experiment of safe supply and take the billions we are spending to perpetuate misery and invest it into 50,000 real treatment beds, medical detox and recovery housing. We owe our youth more than safe supply and body bags. We owe our first responders more than burnout and despair. We owe the 53,000 already lost more than just a budget announcing that it is going to end. Every Canadian life is worth fighting for, and it is time to bring Canadians home drug-free.

ries. Their work is a powerful example of how local innovation can drive global impact. Proud to support visionary entrepreneurs like Innovative Carbon Technologies Inc. who are building a cleaner, more sustainable future, right from the heart of our community.

h centres like Kitchener Centre?

are too high. Although I agree with incubating these start-ups, what can this government do better to make sure that they can also commercialize, stay here in Canada and not leave?

d no definition of what we want to retain, with both our innovation and our talent, but the money seems to be flowing. There are already hundreds of millions of dollars being spent. It seems to me that this government is running with their eyes closed. Do you believe there are guardrails or plans in place to ensure that the almost $1.3 billion in innovation funding goes to tech companies in Kitchener, for example, for us to retain our innovation and talent instead of leaving it to foreign entities that are taking our innovation and talent?

small business community needs real support to thrive. I’m committed to being a strong voice for them in Parliament and working toward policies that empower innovation, reduce red tape, and ensure fair competition. Thank you to the CFIB for your continued advocacy and for bringing the voices of small business owners to the Hill. #cdnpoli #business #jobs #kitchener

to hosting you in Kitchener in the New Year! 🇨🇦🇱🇹 #kitchener #AI #innovation #canada #lithuania

, manufacture and capture the jobs and the wealth. From your experience, what are the biggest systematic barriers—like high taxes, inflationary pressures or slow approvals—that are pushing biotech commercialization and our talent to the U.S. instead of keeping it here in Canada?