I’m proud to say that Ontarians experiencing or at risk of homelessness will be getting a hand up from our government to be better connected with emergency and transitional housing, including in my community of Newmarket–Aurora.

Last Tuesday, I had the privilege of being at regional headquarters in Newmarket to announce that the regional municipality of York will be receiving more than $36.7 million in 2023-24 under the Homelessness Prevention Program. I am thrilled to say that this represents a 76% increase in annual funding. The boost in this funding is part of the initiative that we are taking to tackle homelessness head-on and provide support for Ontario’s most vulnerable by including an additional $202 million annually in homelessness prevention programs in our 2023 budget, Building a Strong Ontario. This allocation will allow York region and local supportive housing service managers the flexibility to allocate funding where it is most needed, including capital projects.

I’d like to thank regional chairman Wayne Emmerson, commissioner of community and health services Katherine Chislett, and their entire leadership team for their continued support of our community’s well-being.

I’d also like to thank the member for Thornhill and the member for Markham–Thornhill for joining me last Tuesday.

I have more great news from the riding of Essex. In Essex, we have two really super builders. They are Rosati Group and Jones Realty Inc. They are putting up a 74-unit apartment building in the town of Amherstburg, which is my hometown. That might not be a big building for a city like Toronto, but for Amherstburg it is a big building. It’s going to let 74 families stay in the town of Amherstburg and live and work in the town of Amherstburg—or if you want to downsize, you’re going to be able to stay in the town of Amherstburg and live in the town of Amherstburg. That’s good news for people who want to live, work and stay in the town of Amherstburg.

So I want to encourage great builders like Jones Realty and Rosati construction to keep doing the great jobs that they’re doing.

And I want to encourage the Associate Minister of Housing and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing in their crusade to build 1.5 million homes in the province of Ontario, because people in Ontario should stay in Ontario and have a home in Ontario.

Another fable by the New Democratic Party is being told in the Legislature this morning.

Through you, Speaker: She talks about public commitment for housing. Well, Minister Bethlenfalvy, under the leadership of Premier Ford, tabled a wonderful budget—

We added $202 million to our Homelessness Prevention Program. And I want to thank members from both sides of the House for doing some great announcements last week—in fact, one of the ones was the member for Niagara West, who made a fantastic announcement that the member for Niagara Falls was pleased to attend. So some of her own members are celebrating the public commitment this government has made to ending homelessness by adding that additional $202 million. I don’t know about the Leader of the Opposition, but some of her members have got with the program.

My question is for the Premier.

The housing affordability crisis is getting worse, not better. Over 185,000 families are on the wait-list for social housing.

Until the mid-1990s, Canada was building 20,000 non-profit and co-op houses each and every year. In Ontario alone, 14,000 co-op homes were built between 1989 and 1995. In fact, 93% of our current below-market rental supply was built before 1996.

But instead of building more homes that people can actually afford, in the communities they want to live in, this government is imposing an expensive sprawl agenda that municipalities and families simply cannot afford.

Speaker, I want to give the Premier an opportunity today to commit to making the financial investment to build 122,000 non-profit and co-op homes—deeply affordable—over the next decade.

Maybe the minister is saying that he will support my Bill 44 and Bill 45 that will allow fourplexes and four-storey walk-up apartments, will allow six- to 11-storey mid-rise apartments as-of-right in this province—

Interjection.

Interjection.

Speaker, is—

Interjection.

The member opposite has a fundamental difference with the government on creating affordable housing.

We are in the middle of a housing supply crisis, and we’re going to do everything in our power to build more purpose-built rental. We made a conscious decision. We delivered on our promise to existing tenants to protect rent control. In 2018, we made the exemption in the fall economic statement for one reason and one reason only, and that was to incent the construction of purpose-built rental. What happened last year? I’ve said it many times in the House: We had a record of 15,000 purpose-built rental starts in Ontario because of that. And already this year, we’re seeing bright signs in this city. We’re seeing permits for purpose-built rental five times higher than they were at the same time a year ago.

We invoked the cap this year because of the inflationary rate, to ensure that the maximum under rent control was 2.5%.

We delivered in the middle of the pandemic. The Attorney General blocked evictions in the middle of the pandemic to protect the most vulnerable. We capped rent increases in the middle of the pandemic.

We have stood up year after year after year to protect tenants and strengthen the stock of community housing and purpose-built rental housing, and we are going to continue.

The question, though, before the House, with all of our renter protections in the bill before the House, Bill 97—will that member and her party, the New Democrats, support those rental protection measures in Bill 97? Yes or no?

I always say this about the Liberal-Green alliance: They always talk a good game in their questions, but they never deliver on it when the votes come.

Exactly what this member talks about, allowing a young family to have the opportunity to build a home that meets their needs and their budget, close to where they grew up—that’s exactly what the policies we’re consulting on right now will provide.

The member talks about supporting farms and farm families. It’s going to be very interesting to see if he supports our initiatives to allow sons and daughters of farmers to be able to have a property on the family farm—or more importantly, to talk about workers and the opportunity to have a lot on a farm. to upgrade the opportunity for farm workers to have not just employment but a home there.

We’ve put all those policies down in some progressive bills in this House that this member has voted down every single time.

Oh, he has to finish? I’m so excited to answer.

I just want to give some stats. Stats Canada came out with February’s numbers—a 25% increase in condo permits, the highest increase in the entire country, which is great.

Mr. Speaker, do you know what really irks me? I really like the leader of the Green Party, but let me tell you something: It’s a little rich when he gets up and says, “Housing, housing.” As the Minister of Municipal Affairs says, “It’s all talk, no action.”

There are 444 municipalities in this entire province. Guess who has the lowest housing starts? It’s his riding of Guelph. But this gets even better.

Interjections.

He talks a good game—