It was a packed place in Niagara Falls, for Jim Bradley's Regional Chair's Address.
The South Niagara Chamber of Commerce hosted the event at the Americana Conference Resort earlier today.
Bradley says we're starting 2020 off on the right foot.
"I'm very optimistic as I think many people are. I look for instance in December at the unemployment rate which was below 5 percent. I haven't heard of that since around 2000, so it's really encouraging to hear that."
Statistics Canada reported Niagara's unemployment rate at 4.9 percent for December 2019. That's significantly lower than the national rate of 5.6 percent.
Bradley says the future is bright in Niagara.
"I think good things are happening here. There's lots of development taking place, we're looking forward to GoTransit being here on a daily basis and we're looking forward to all kinds of investment that's coming into the Niagara Region."
Bradley started everything off with his opening remarks, before he started taking questions from the moderator John Armstrong.
He covered a variety of topics, including future of non-amalgamation in Niagara and how we can address a skilled labour shortage.