THUNDER BAY – The Ontario government is preparing to convene for a summer sitting of the Ontario legislature and newly elected Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Kevin Holland says that he’s getting ready to start bringing the issues that matter to the people in his riding to Queen’s Park.
“Last week, I was down in Toronto for the week learning legislative procedures, meeting with my staff and colleagues at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, which I'm parliamentary assistant to,” said Holland.
“This week it's continuing meeting with stakeholders in our community, different interest groups to start moving forward some of the files that I wanted to address in Thunder Bay-Atikokan in particular. Starting next week, it is going to be, as you know, we're going back early, session, we have a big mandate and a big agenda of items that we want to address.”
Holland, who has an extensive history in municipal politics, says that dealing with his riding’s issues provincially feels “the same but different”.
“You know, my time as a mayor in the district here prepared me well for some of the challenges and issues that we have to deal with as well as the opportunities that there are in northwestern Ontario, particularly Thunder Bay-Atikokan,” said Holland.
“So, it's not so much the issues. There are the opportunities that are different, but it's the process, I mean, it's a different process at Queens Park obviously than what I was used to, but I’m getting comfortable with that process, learning the procedures that are involved to move things forward.
Holland says that his job is to make sure that the perspective in northwestern Ontario and Thunder Bay-Atikokan is front and centre when discussing some of the policies and legislation before the House.
“What I saw was needed in not just Thunder Bay-Atikokan, but the province in general, you know, we're coming off some pretty tough financial challenges that the province is facing and in order to sustain our healthy communities, we have to have a strong, vibrant economy,” said Holland
“But to have that strong economy, we need to have healthy communities, so, it's really working on addressing some of the concerns, particularly around mental health and addictions in Thunder Bay and as well as opportunities related to the critical mineral energy strategy, you know, connecting the resources of the north to the auto sector.”
Health care and how health care workers are really stretched to the max has become an important topic provincially as well as locally as the region has had some emergency rooms closed and Holland says that working towards a solution is high on his priority list.
“It's not just in my priority list, it's the priority of our whole government moving forward. You know, we recognize that there is some of those challenges, we've made announcements during the campaign period about increasing the number of spots available to train more PSW's to get more nursing in,” said Holland.
“But we're faced with, you know, catching up with a system that's been neglected for a number of years, quite frankly, and the initiatives that are being taken by this government to address that, I think, are going to go a long way to solve some of those problems, and I think you're going to find that that's going to be a big component of the throne speech that comes out on Tuesday.”
