Premier Doug Ford’s government plan to Las Vegas-ify Niagara Falls is merely a piece of a larger strategy to invigorate the larger region and attract visitors to it for longer, Ontario’s tourism, culture and gaming minister explained on Wednesday.

The Ford government has been working on renegotiating the six-year-old agreement between the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. (OLG) and Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment that makes the company the exclusive operator of casinos in the Niagara Region, as The Trillium first reported last month. The government wants to end Mohegan’s “monopoly,” the premier said a week ago, which Niagara Falls’ mayor has endorsed.