Wayne Gates, MPP (Fort Erie, Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake), August 3, 2023, VOL. 4 ISSUE 25
For the decade I’ve had the privilege of serving Fort Erie, Niagara Falls, and Niagara-on-the-Lake as your Member of Provincial Parliament, I have been a strong supporter of our tourist industry and its various components.
The Town of Fort Erie is a desirable vacation destination for folks from across Ontario as well as our friends south of the border in the United States. This is for good reason. Unique communities within Fort Erie, new and long-established businesses across town, and our Fort Erie Racetrack make Fort Erie a great place. However, your municipal government and small businesses rely on visitors from across the province to come and patronize those businesses, pulling in more tax receipts to continue improving the Town of Fort Erie. Workers in Fort Erie rely on their employers having plenty of customers so that they can pick up more hours and provide for themselves and their families.
This is why I am seriously concerned about the recent closure of Niagara-bound lanes on the Burlington Skyway and the effects it will have on our local tourism industry. It also shows me that the fight for two-way, all-day, everyday Go Train services is more important than ever. We certainly need to continue investing in Ontario’s highway infrastructure and getting the Burlington Skyway fully open. However, the closures on the Skyway are happening during the busiest and most critical time of the year for communities like Fort Erie and Niagara.
Not only are Burlington Skyway closures affecting Fort Erie residents, but the Fort Erie Bound QEW is also in rough shape, and it’s a serious problem for residents and visitors of Fort Erie – one that my staff has contacted the transportation minister’s office about. Large potholes on a major highway can cause serious damage to vehicles and take appeal away from Fort Erie’s wonderful businesses and beautiful scenery.
I have spoken to many local business owners and stakeholders who have expressed concern about the negative impact the closures at the Skyway and the condition of the QEW are having on our economy. These factors mean that businesses are experiencing many more cancellations and delays due to traffic. To make matters worse, construction on the Skyway has been extended into August.
It cannot be stressed enough just how important tourism is to the Niagara Region. It sees over $2.4 billion in annual expenditures and employs more than 40,000 people in the region. We have already experienced negative impacts from the downstream effects of reduced hotel room bookings across the region.
Beyond the Burlington Skyway, this situation shows me that we must invest in sustainable transportation infrastructure – particularly two-way, all-day Go Train service from the GTA to Niagara. It will introduce an even greater number of people to the beauty of Niagara, it will be a major boon to our local tourism sector, and it will help our environment by reducing congestion on our highways. It will also help our many friends who commute to the GTA for work each day.
This is the first full year back since 2019 for our tourism industry, and 40,000 workers from across our region rely on the industry being in full swing to put food on the table, gas in their cars, and paying their rent or mortgage in this tough economy. We must do everything in our power to support the tourism industry and other local businesses. The billions in revenue that our region gets from tourism is a major driver of our community’s economic success.
The key to our success is coming together as a community to support local businesses and invest in infrastructure that brings us economic success and more opportunities for the people of Fort Erie, Ridgeway, Crystal Beach, and Stevensville. That’s an open Burlington Skyway, fixed potholes on the QEW, and two-way, all-day, everyday go Train Service. We need to make Fort Erie the place where you want to work, play, and raise a family.