Deputy Premier George Smitherman’s continued posturing on the Toronto Transit Commission’s proposed new streetcar purchase is putting jobs and public transit improvements in limbo, says NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

– NDP MPP Gilles Bisson today called on the McGuinty government to fund Ontario municipalities’ one-third cost share of infrastructure projects to ensure jobs are sustained and created during the current economic downturn.

NDP MPPs France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) and Rosario Marchese (Trinity-Spadina) today introduced the NDP’s Communities at Play program – an initiative that would provide $75 million annually to municipalities and local organizations to help with the costs of operating sports and recreation programs and improving facilities.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton said today that Dalton McGuinty’s latest budget fails Windsor by the complete absence of any commitment to improve Windsor’s border infrastructure.

Hampton’s comments came as part of his speech in the Ontario Legislature on an opposition day motion introduced by the NDP. The motion read:

NDP Leader Howard Hampton says a McGuinty government cabinet minister should resign because he was asleep at the switch while working families got scammed out of tens of millions of winnings.

“Ordinary people have been cheated out of tens of millions of dollars because of the McGuinty government and its lax oversight of lotteries,” Hampton said. “David Caplan, the minister responsible, tells us: ‘Trust me. I'll clean up the mess.’ Why should we trust him when he was asleep at the switch while his lottery corporation ripped off hard-working families? And why should he keep his job when he has lost all credibility?”

NDP Leader Howard Hampton came to Hamilton today with a message for Dalton McGuinty – help Hamilton′s flooding victims.

“During disasters, governments are supposed to be there for the victims, not standing on the sidelines doing nothing,” Hampton said.