OpEd Stoney Creek News 3 July 2014

Stoney Creek News                              OpEd                                          3 Jul 2014

Thank-you for your support in the June 12th provincial election. I have been privileged to represent you for the past six and half years and look forward with great enthusiasm to the next four years as your MPP.

Although our Party had been hopeful of increasing the number of seats that we have in the Legislature, we are pleased to have increased the total number of Ontarians who voted for our Party. We will deeply miss the wise counsel and hard work of former NDP MPPs Michael Prue, Rosario Marchese and Jonah Schein, but look forward to the fresh input from our three new NDP MPPs. Despite retaining the same number of seats in the Legislature, each of us is confident that we will continue to be effective guardians of your interests, particularly in a majority government situation.

I wish to extend my congratulations to the candidates for the other parties who also put lots of energy and hard work into their election campaigns. Not only do all candidates put their hearts into a campaign, so do the many volunteers who perform endless tasks to help their candidate and party and I wish to thank each of them for their hard work and commitment to this democratic process.

During the campaign you brought many issues to my attention and I will be working with you to ensure that these get appropriate attention, including bringing some of them to the Legislature.

As it is a new Parliament, the Legislation that I had tabled, but did not get passed through into law, will be brought forward again. I remain the NDP Critic for Tourism, Culture, Sports and the Pan/Parapan Am Games. The Games are just a year away and some of the deadlines for completion of various venues is fast approaching and appear to be behind schedule. In Hamilton we want to ensure that our Stadium is the best possible for the Games, but primarily for the legacy use of it before and after the Games. I have requested a meeting with the new Minister responsible for the Pan/Parapan Am Games, to discuss our concerns and talk about how we can ensure not only successful Games, but the timely and safe completion of our venues.

I will continue my efforts at supporting job-creating proposals that will put our City and community back on its feet. Despite the Liberal Government NOT requiring a percentage of local workers for the Pan/Parapan Am Games venues, I will fight for a community engagement requirement of at least 25% of jobs for local workers each time that a government project is planned for Hamilton. We have a wealth of workers of varied skills, education and ability who deserve the opportunity to live and work in their community.

As always, with fresh Ontario-grown produce on our grocery shelves, I encourage you to make the choice that will support our neighbours and keep jobs in our community.