April 15th, 2021

NDP's Gates: Niagara postal codes need the vaccines urgently

QUEEN’S PARK — Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates made a statement in the Ontario legislature Thursday calling on the Ford government to immediately address the problems with their vaccination rollout, particularly the delays faced by postal code hotspots, including Niagara.

“On April 6, the government released a list of postal codes across Ontario which were deemed hot spots. These hot spots were designated based on transmission records, hospitalization. These postal codes had seen so much death and suffering on account of this virus,” said Gates in the Ontario legislature.

“One of those postal codes is L2G postal code in Niagara Falls, yet that community in Niagara was not given access to priority lists for vaccines. This is another failure of this government to provide the vaccines we need in Niagara. In fact, this postal code may not have been needed at all if this government didn’t divert over 5,000 life-saving Moderna vaccines from us in January, something the government now claims is a myth, despite all the evidence that this happened.”

“Time and time again, this government’s failure to get Niagara the vaccines it needs is making this pandemic worse. The people of Niagara want an end to this cycle of lockdowns and viruses. We can end that cycle by following the guidelines set out and giving vaccine priorities to more postal codes in Niagara, especially the L2G code, as identified by your own government as a hot spot. You say ‘listen to the doctors’ so let’s listen to them and their plea to provide paid sick days for workers, paid time off to get vaccines. We also need more vaccination dates available in Fort Erie. We also need them in Niagara-on-the-Lake to serve our elderly population,” added Gates.

“Enough failures. Get this right. Get these vaccines into these postal codes in Niagara immediately, and let’s save lives.”