{"id":6758,"date":"2017-10-10T08:12:09","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T12:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=6758"},"modified":"2019-05-27T09:19:54","modified_gmt":"2019-05-27T13:19:54","slug":"news-from-the-park-october-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/10\/news-from-the-park-october-10\/","title":{"rendered":"News from the Park – October 10"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oct 10, 2017 @ 08:12<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>If you follow what\u2019s happening in Queen\u2019s Park each week, you could not have missed the dramatic finger-pointing and caterwauling that went on between the Conservatives and Liberals last week over a matter that was of little meaningful consequence to the people of this province. In a nutshell, some of the Northern Conservative members took great exception to a Liberal member\u2019s reference to Northern Ontario as \u201cno man\u2019s land.\u201d <\/i>Clips of the back and forth exchange went viral in the news here in the north. I couldn\u2019t help but thinking to myself, \u201cReally? Have you nothing to use your time in question period than this?\u201d As we listened further, my caucus friends quickly noted that, in the same debate, the Conservative member for Nipissing himself characterized this region as just \u2018rock and <\/i>swamp\u2019.<\/p>\n

Exchanging political cheap shots doesn\u2019t benefit Northern families. It moves the discussion away from solving the challenges and seizing the opportunities that the North provides. Northern families need doctors, specialists, community schools, and jobs and opportunities\u2014especially for young people. It\u2019s bad enough that it took a comment made down in Toronto for the Conservatives to finally realize that the Liberals don\u2019t stand up for Northern Ontario. I am proud to say that New Democrats decided to just bring the discussion back to far more meaningful issues affecting the North. New Democrats have \u2013 and will continue – to focus on the things that matter <\/i>to Northern families \u2014sparking the Ring of Fire development, stopping the closure of our schools, lowering electricity costs and ending the deep cuts to Northern health.<\/p>\n

For example, New Democrats have been ringing the alarm bell on the crisis in the province regarding long-term care for our seniors. The NDP along with seniors groups, health care advocates, and concerned families across the province have spoken out clearly on the urgent need for a broad based public inquiry into the systemic problems in long-term care. We are concerned that the recent announcement from Premier Wynne and her Liberal government fails to specify key issues that must be included in the inquiry\u2019s mandate such as:<\/p>\n