Panelists at Laurier’s Economic Outlook event to assess Waterloo Region’s post-pandemic recovery and growth

April 28, 2021
For Immediate Release

Waterloo – The Laurier Centre for Economic Research and Policy Analysis at Wilfrid Laurier University’s Lazaridis School of Business & Economics is again hosting its annual Economic Outlook, which will focus on framing the next 10 years of the Region of Waterloo’s economic picture.

The theme this year is After COVID: Recovery and Growth and will be held virtually at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 4. This is a free public event designed to bring together expertise from the local, national and international perspectives to assess the City of Kitchener’s 10-year economic recovery plan, Make it Kitchener 2.0. Attendees are asked to register for this event to receive the event link.

The recent federal budget, and indeed municipal and provincial budgets across the country, are aiming for a swift and sustained economic recovery as we move toward the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. While these spending plans are being lauded, or derided, for the variable scope of their ambitions, it’s important to measure them against the best available economic information available.

“As with all our Economic Outlook events, we aim to bring abstract macroeconomic policies and plans home to where they have a direct impact on the lives of our fellow community members,” said Edda Claus, director of the Laurier Centre for Economic Research and Policy Analysis and an associate professor in the Department of Economics. “This is a critically important time for us to reflect, analyze and plan how our future economy will operate in the post-pandemic environment.”

Featured Panelists

Cory Bluhm is the executive director of Economic Development at the City of Kitchener. Bluhm’s team recently led the creation of Make it Kitchener 2.0, the city’s latest economic development strategy, which includes the formation of a new $110-million investment fund.

Tiffany Dawn is the co-founder and CEO of Atoms Integrator. Dawn is a Canadian entrepreneur and president of both the Canadian Business Cup Canada and the Kitchener-Waterloo Business Women’s Association. Her company provides mentoring and ongoing service support to take international startups from early stage to scale in Canada. They help startups navigate Canadian systems, identify services and find partners to work with in Canada, specifically in Waterloo Region.

Brian Punambolam is a senior account manager with Mid-Markets at the Business Development Bank of Canada. Punambolam is responsible for assisting local business owners with financing and advisory services. He also delivers his expertise to the next generation of business operators within the business program at Conestoga College.

Moderator

Edda Claus is an associate professor of economics and director of the Laurier Centre for Economic Research and Policy Analysis. Prior to joining Laurier, Claus was a research fellow at the University of Melbourne's Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. She was a post-doctoral research fellow in finance at Trinity College in Dublin and a visiting PhD scholar at Cambridge University in the UK. She has also worked as an economist with the Australian Commonwealth Treasury and the Canadian Department of Finance. Her areas of expertise include behavioural macroeconomics, monetary and financial economics and indexes of activity.

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.