Quinte News continues to look back on the year of 2025 speaking with local municipal, provincial and federal community leaders, and stakeholders.
We had the chance to speak with the Chief Executive Officer of the Quinte Economic Development Commission, Chris King.
He tells Quinte News that it’s been a pretty good year for projects coming to the region, despite the ongoing threat of tariffs on trade.
“Some projects had to be put on pause or on hold, both in terms of investment attraction but also some expansions,” King said on the tariffs impacts.
“But we also are seeing companies that are still going ahead, they’re investing in new buildings and new equipment and hiring people. So it was a mixed year with some challenges, but overall it was still positive. We were pleased to see some of the results that we had.”
It was an especially trying time King notes, due to the area being listed as one of the top in Canada that would be affected the tariffs.
“Early in the year, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce had their list of communities across Canada that were going to be most at risk because of tariffs and the Bay of Quinte region, the Belleville-Quinte West region, was number 11 in Canada,” King explained.
“So we had a lot of exposure to the U.S. marketplace, but a lot of our companies were still able to navigate through that, whether it be still providing products across the border through the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Free Trade Agreement, and still getting products across.”
With the tariffs in place, King said it was an opportunity to speak with businesses.
“But for us, it was a year of communicating, talking to our existing manufacturers to understand the issues – what, and then how can we support them, in terms of dealing with any trade issues they may be facing.”
