Happy Monday, St. Catharines! ☀️
What a weekend this city just had. James Street full of music and history Saturday. Lakeside Park full of food and family Sunday. If you were part of it, you felt it.
Now, about this week. Almost everything important happens on the same day. Wednesday. Circle it.
And that construction you've been seeing near the canal? It's the start of something 60 years in the making. Let's get into it.
In today's edition:
💰 Two government payments land Wednesday (one just got bigger)
🏗️ Wednesday night: the GM lands plan goes public
🌉 The Skyway is getting a twin, and work has started
🏀 River Lions: the road to playoffs
✊ The weekend STC showed up (send us your photos)
🛣️ Quick hits: 18 roads, $1.5 billion, and 10,000 years
📅 Your week ahead (Ribfest is coming)
💰Seniors: Check Your Account Wednesday
Source: insidehalton.com
Wednesday, July 29 is a double payment day. Both CPP and OAS land in bank accounts, and this one comes with changes.
Here's what to know:
OAS just went up 1.2% for the July-to-September quarter. New maximums: about $751.97 per month for ages 65 to 74, about $827.17 for 75 and up. Wednesday is the first payment at the new rate.
CPP lands the same day. The maximum retirement pension at 65 is $1,507.65 this year; the average is closer to $877.
Big one for GIS recipients: Wednesday also triggers the annual recalculation, now based on your 2025 tax return. Payments can go up, down, or pause.
Haven't filed 2025 taxes? GIS can stop entirely until you do. If a parent or neighbour relies on it, check in with them this week.
Paper cheques take a few extra days. Direct deposit lands Wednesday.
Money talk isn't exciting. Missing money is worse. Pass it on.
💛 Today's Issue Is Brought To You By Garden City Digest's Own Marketing Shop
Quick honesty moment.
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Back to the news. 👇
🏗️ Wednesday Night: See What Replaces the GM Plant
Source: CBC
After 16 years of "what happens to the old GM lands?", the city presents the draft plan this week.
Here's what to know:
Wednesday, July 29 at the Holiday Inn & Suites, 327 Ontario St. Doors open 5:30 p.m.
On the table: the draft plan for the 54-acre former GM site and the whole Ontario Street corridor.
June's concepts ranged from 6,600 to 12,200 new homes. Wednesday shows where the plan landed.
The final plan goes to council in November. This is the moment your input counts most.
Wednesday is the clearest day of the week, about 25°C.
Also Wednesday night: 🚒 Hot Summer Nights brings the sprinkler trucks to Lock 3 Museum Park, 6 to 8 p.m. Free, bring towels. The open house and the sprinklers are 5 minutes apart. Do both.
Heads up: there's no Montebello concert this Wednesday. The series returns Aug. 5.
🌉 The Skyway Is Getting a Twin. For Real This Time.
Source: Infrastructure Ontario
If you've noticed crews clearing land near the Welland Canal along the QEW, here's what they're up to: the Garden City Skyway twinning has officially moved from talk to shovels.
They've been talking about this since 2010. Now it's happening.
Here's what to know:
A new 2.2-kilometre twin bridge will rise just north of the current Skyway, connecting St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake.
About 106,000 vehicles cross the Skyway every day. It's one of Canada's busiest trade routes.
This year's work: clearing vegetation, building access roads and site investigation. The visible stuff comes next.
The clever part: once the new bridge opens, ALL traffic switches onto it while the original 1963 bridge gets fully rehabbed. Then one bridge takes Toronto-bound traffic, the other takes Niagara-bound.
Completion is expected in the late 2020s. Price tag: north of $500 million.
Translation for your commute: years of construction near the canal, then a much better drive. We'll flag the lane closures as they come.
🏀 The Home Season Is Done. The Real Season Starts Now.
Source: Riverlions
Sunday afternoon, the Meridian Centre hosted its last regular season game of 2026, and the building doubled as a party: Trinidadian & Caribbean Culture Night, a perfect echo of Emancipation Day weekend.
The Lions gave the crowd a finale to match — down 27 points in the third quarter to Ottawa, Niagara stormed back for one of the biggest comebacks in franchise history, winning 106-102.
It capped a mixed week: Friday's 82-75 road loss to league-leading Scarborough tested the group, but Sunday's rally sends them into the road trip with real momentum.
Here's what's next:
The Lions close the regular season out west: at Saskatoon Thursday July 30, at Calgary Saturday Aug. 1.
Playoffs start Aug. 6, hosted in-market this year. Where Niagara finishes decides whether playoff basketball returns to downtown STC.
We'll have the playoff picture the moment it's set.
✊ The Weekend STC Showed Up
Saturday on James Street. Sunday at Lakeside Park. The Tubman 175 walk, the speakers, the vendors, LMT Connection on the waterfront, the Pan-African flag going up.
Were you there? Hit reply and tell us your favourite moment. A photo, a sentence, anything. We'll feature the best ones Wednesday (with your permission, first name only).
And a quieter piece of community news worth honouring: Frank Hayden, the St. Catharines native whose research proved people with intellectual disabilities could thrive through sport, and whose work laid the foundation for the Special Olympics, has died at 96. Millions of athletes worldwide compete today because of a kid from St. Catharines. What a legacy.
🛣️ Quick Hits
🚧 18 roads get resurfaced this year. Council moved over $1.5 million in unspent funds from past years on top of the roughly $800,000 resurfacing budget, nearly tripling it. Streets are picked by a risk-based model. Vansickle Road (Mac Turnbull to Pelham) is among the corridors on the 2026 list, with traffic calming included.
🔋 $1.5 billion is still coming to Niagara. The battery separator plant planned for Port Colborne is proceeding, a major jobs signal for the region.
🏺 10,000 years under our feet. A planned subdivision site in Niagara-on-the-Lake was found to hold Indigenous artifacts dating back ten millennia. A reminder of how deep this region's story goes.
🏖️ Sunset Beach's $6.9M makeover is fully open if you haven't been yet this summer: 185 parking spots, new boat ramps, playground, dunes and trails. Your Civic Holiday beach plan, sorted.
📅 Your Week Ahead (July 27 to Aug. 2)
MONDAY 🌦️ 27°C, chance of showers — Recover from the weekend. You earned it.
TUESDAY 🌦️ 26°C — Farmers Market, Market Square, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Peaches still peaking.
WEDNESDAY ☀️ 25°C — The big day:
💰 CPP + OAS payments land.
🏗️ GM lands open house, Holiday Inn, doors 5:30 p.m.
🚒 Hot Summer Nights, Lock 3 Museum Park, 6 to 8 p.m.
THURSDAY ☀️ 27°C — Farmers Market, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. River Lions at Saskatoon.
FRIDAY — The floodgates open:
🍖 Rotary Ribfest takes over Montebello Park, July 31 to Aug. 3. Free entry.
⚓ Canal Days kicks off in Port Colborne, four days on the water.
Full battle plan in Friday's issue.
NEXT MONDAY, AUG. 3 — 🍁 Civic Holiday. Long weekend! Your complete "what's open, what's closed" guide lands Friday.
📊 Quick Poll
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— Goodness, Garden City Digest
That GIS recalculation on Wednesday can quietly pause a senior's payment if their 2025 taxes aren't filed. One phone call to a parent or neighbour this week could save them a month of stress. Make the call.
