NDP MPP for Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake. Proud Father & Grandfather. Owner of the best moustache in town.
Niagara Falls
Joined August 2010
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800,000 Ontarians out of work.
Youth unemployment near 20%.
Rents for a two-bedroom are averaging $2,000 a month in Niagara, while waitlists for affordable housing are decades long.
Food banks use is at record levels.
That's life in Doug Ford's Ontario. 🧵#onpoli
A former Postmedia CEO alleges the Premier’s Office used a government contract as leverage to get Doug Ford’s letter published across Ontario newspapers before the 2025 early election call.
These are serious allegations.
ICYMI: Paul Godfrey alleged Premier Ford's office exerted "political leverage" over his son's company by promising it government funding while also seeking a favour from Postmedia, which the elder Godfrey used to run.
Godfrey's full sworn declaration is here & @Thetrilliumca.
Wayne Gates retweeted
Skills Development Fund:
“a fund that, as exposed in last October’s auditor’s report, gave $126 million to questionable applicants who hired well-connected lobbyists — while rejecting others with stronger proposals.” #onpoli
A year after the auditor general excoriated Premier Doug Ford's Skills Development Fund, his government says the program increasingly targets "high paid" manufacturing and construction jobs. thestar.com/politics/provinc…
Wayne Gates retweeted
Essential reading by Dr. Iris Gorfinkel how the Ontario government bet on profiteer medicine but how it predictably failed. Conservative governments across the nation are a threat to the public's health. They dismiss the basic needs of average Canadians.
thestar.com/opinion/contribu…
Our hospitals shouldn't be paying interest to private banks because this gov't is underfunding public healthcare.
Its wrong. Its a waste of taxpayer's dollars.
Fund our hospitals right the first time, save on the interest. It's common sense.
We have residents in Niagara waiting months for an MRI right now.
Instead of fully funding our hospitals so we can offer public MRIs 24/7 in Niagara, Ford spent our tax dollars speeding up beer sales at Loblaws while privatizing healthcare services.
Outsourcing surgeries and imaging to private for-profit clinics in Ontario didn't drop wait times for most procedures. Wait times worsened for cataract surgery and MRI. CT scan didn't improve. Profiteering just doesn't work. @a_longhurst
ctvnews.ca/toronto/article/w…
Wayne Gates retweeted
The number’s don’t lie: Doug Ford’s privatisation scheme is a failure.
Patients are waiting longer for cancer surgeries, MRIs, and more — while over $600M goes to private for profit clinics every year.
This isn't how things are supposed to be in Ontario. Your bank account balance should never determine what kind of care you get. We need to put that funding into our public hospitals, and get everyone the care they need, when they need it.
cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/o…
It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since we lost my good friend Jim Bradley.
Jim was a real champion for all of Niagara, and also one of the biggest Blue Jays fans you’d ever meet.
I miss my friend. Thinking of Jim and his family today.
The Ford gov't has had to issue $38 million in emergency funding since 2024 to the long-term care homes that care for our family members.
LTC funding across Ontario can't be patchwork, and underfunding can't be the norm.
High-quality care starts with consistent funding.
Wayne Gates retweeted
No questions. No answers. No accountability. #onpoli
Calandra and Ford are using an American company - Staples - to sell teachers supplies at a higher price than Staples sells them on their regular website.
This "new" $750 is made up of over 1/3 money that school boards were already spending on supplies.
This makes no sense.
Wayne Gates retweeted
#BREAKING: A new poll shows the Hamilton East-Stoney Creek by-election has come down to two candidates. Monique Taylor, running for Marit Stiles' Ontario NDP, sits at 38 per cent, Doug Ford's candidate Jeff Beattie at 34, with the Liberals at 20 and the Greens at 3.
More than 500 jobs cut while vulnerable and injured workers suffer the consequences.
Ford is closing WSIB offices, including here in Niagara.
That means losing good local jobs, experienced staff and support for workers injured on the job.
This is the wrong direction.
#onpoli
It was revealed Wednesday that the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board is shutting down a number of offices in Ontario, including the one in St. Catharines.
chch.com/chch-news/ten-wsib-…
Wayne Gates retweeted
NEW: Ontario Premier Doug Ford held a private meeting with the CEO of one of Canada’s largest grocery chains, government records reveal, as the Progressive Conservatives rejected efforts by opposition parties to further regulate the industry.
globalnews.ca/news/12023959/…
#onpoli
Its clear during this week's AMO conference that municipalities are being forced to do more with less.
Niagara had record flooding weeks before AMO. The province needs to answer residents' calls for help, and help municipalities strengthen local infrastructure.
Ontario has one of the lowest funded healthcare systems in the country.
And in Niagara, our hospitals need $135 million in funding and 1,441 new staff just to play catch-up.
When will this government stop trying to privatize our healthcare and put an end to hallway medicine?
Hospitals are borrowing money to make ends meet in Ontario.
Why?
Because of a $2.2 BILLION drop in capital since 2020.
1300 jobs have been lost this year, deficits reached $500 million, and the Ford government still refuses to adequately fund our healthcare system.
#onpoli
Wayne Gates retweeted
Doug Ford spent a week calling these hotel stays "unacceptable." Now we know his own government told their MPPs, in writing, to book them.
He wasn't shocked. He was caught. The rot starts at the top, and Ontarians still haven't seen a single penny repaid.
NEW: Doug Ford railed against his own MPPs for claiming hotel stays in downtown Toronto, telling them they'd all have to pay it back.
The thing is, it was actually the government that told them to use the perk in an email last year. #Onpoli
globalnews.ca/news/11974967/…
Wayne Gates retweeted
NEW: Donors to the PC Party have funded thousands of dollars in meals, flights and hotel room costs for Willowdale MPP Stan Cho — a former senior minister in Premier Doug Ford’s cabinet who resigned amid a spending scandal at Queen’s Park.
Between 2023 and 2026, the MPP billed the office for pricey dinners at steakhouses and lobster restaurants, airline tickets, hotel stays at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier and even the cost of renting a vehicle from a limousine company.
globalnews.ca/news/11972137/…
#onpoli
Wayne Gates retweeted
If you stepped outside today, that haze you're breathing is wildfire smoke. But the real story is up north, where it's coming from. Whole communities evacuated. Families fleeing by boat. Collins First Nation burned to the ground. For most of us, it'll clear in a few days. For the people up north... it's their homes. Their communities. Their lives. And it didn't have to be this way. It's the result of choices made by governments that keep looking away.