Mr. Speaker, today is Workers’ Memorial Day, a national day of mourning designated for us to remember workers who were killed or injured on the job.
We must take this opportunity to reflect on the sacrifices made in times past. We are fortunate to live in a time where workplace safety has been greatly improved and workers' deaths are much less common.
Those who built the Welland Canal were not so lucky. In my own riding, we are working to honour over 130 workers who perished during the construction of the Welland Canal, which was central to the development of our community. That is why I am co-chairing a community effort to build a monument that will honour the memories of those fallen workers. This will fulfill a promise that the federal government made in 1932. It was a promise that went unkept.
Today we pause to remember the sacrifices made by those men and women who literally built Canada. The best way to do that is by working to ensure that we have safer workplaces today, so that tragic accidents become a thing of the past.