Ontario’s Liberal Government Trot Out Excuses, Fail To Protect Jobs In Fort Erie: NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

A Submission from the Office of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

(Since the recent news that the Liberal government may now let the horse racing track in the Niagara, Ontario municipality of Fort Erie fall by the wayside, Horwath and her New Democrats have focused in on this issue like a laser beam.

The NDP has issued at least three media releases on the issue in the past few weeks and NDP Leader was recently at the Fort Erie Race track to view the final race of the season and to host a media briefing At the time of this posting, the NDP’s infrastructure critic, Percy Hatfield, the MPP for the Windsor , Ontario area, was scheduled this October 23^rd to arrive in Fort Erie for a meeting with the general manager of the town’s economic development and tourism corporation, Jim Thibert, and host another media briefing.

It is hard, through all of this, not to conclude that Horwath and her party feel they have a chance to win a seat in the Niagara Falls riding which includes Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake, and even more now that the riding’s Liberal MPP, Kim Craitor, resigned his seat earlier this fall. Hudak’s Conservatives already have a candidate to run in the riding in the next election, whenever that comes. That candidate is Bart Maves, a Niagara Falls regional councillor who was an MPP in the area when the Mike Harris Conservatives came to power in the 1990s. The Liberals and NDP have yet to nominate candidates to run in a riding that is now wide open.)

Queen’s Park, October 22, 2013 – In Question Period this October 22^nd, Ontario NDP Leader Andrea kept the pressure on the Liberal government to save horse racing jobs in Fort Erie.“When it comes to saving jobs at the Fort Erie racetrack, the Premier throws around accusations of playing politics, but it’s her government who is playing fast and loose with the livelihoods of 600 people at the Fort Erie racetrack, not to mention $7.9 million worth of spin-off jobs that depend on horse racing in Niagara”, said Horwath.

“The Premier insists she wants to help rural Ontario. When will she stop hiding behind her panel, take ownership of her government’s decisions and reconsider the economic consequences of cutting out the Fort Erie Race Track?”

Wynne stuck to her script and failed to say how her government will protect jobs for track workers and horse people in Fort Erie. The Liberal plan to ram private mega casinos into cities over Ontario isn’t working. Worse yet it’s causing real damage in communities like Fort Erie.

Horwath put it plainly.

“People in Fort Erie are scared of losing their jobs, their savings, their cars, their homes, their kids’ tuition, their farms—their everything. Last Tuesday at the track, one couple squeezed my hand and looked into my eye and told me that if there’s no racing in Fort Erie next season, they’re going to lose their life’s work.”

The NDP Leader asked;, “Is the Premier ready to admit that she was wrong, allow the Slots at Racetracks Program to continue and work with the Fort Erie Race Track so it can keep people working and help the Niagara economy?”

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