In a press conference this week, the Minister of Education talked about provisions which would potentially allow for the purchasing of school properties for the development of long-term-care homes. Given the crumbling private long-term-care system, I just want clarity around whether these properties would remain in the public long-term-care system.

I want to thank the great member from Etobicoke–Lakeshore for that great question.

Our government remains committed to delivering on our promise of 1.5 million homes. You saw Stats Canada a couple of weeks ago—445,000 people landed here in Ontario. That’s the fastest-growing region anywhere in North America. We’re going to make sure we have homes and rental homes.

As you saw, housing starts in the GTA rose by 7.7% last year—the highest level since 2012. Year over year, total housing starts in Ontario are up 4.5%. Rental starts are double what they were the same time last year because of Bill 23—the minister did an incredible job.

We’re cutting red tape. We’re making sure we get shovels in the ground. We’re going to make sure it doesn’t take five years for a municipality to issue a permit. We’re getting homes built for the newcomers and people who have been here for years. We’re going to make sure we have affordable, attainable homes for everyone.

Multi-unit construction in Ontario has increased by 7.6% since February. We’re seeing this continue to grow—the largest increase in the country, over any area in the country. We saw a 25% increase in condo permits, also the largest increase in the entire country. There’s a reason. Everyone heard the stat—and this goes back many years. We’ve created the conditions and the climate for companies to come here and build. We have more cranes than LA, New York, Chicago, Washington and Boston combined. They’re building because we’ve created the climate.

We’re cutting red tape. We’re getting shovels in the ground. We’re making sure that municipalities are held accountable for the first time ever—they’re being held accountable. We’re going to make sure we have condos and houses for people who may not be able to afford it.

It’s very simple—the Liberals and NDP have never understood it for decades—it’s called supply and demand, and we’re going to have to supply the demand.

My question this morning is for the Premier.

Over the coming decade, Ontario is expected to grow by more than two million people, and many of those people want to call the beautiful riding of Etobicoke–Lakeshore home. But as Ontario’s population continues to grow, housing construction has historically not kept pace.

Now, like much of Canada, Ontario is facing a housing crisis that is freezing individuals and families out of the dream of home ownership. With each year that passes, we know that thousands of newcomers to Canada will settle in Ontario, and many are skilled workers looking to potentially buy or rent a home. Simply put, Ontario needs to build a lot more homes to meet the rapidly growing population.

Can the Premier please explain how our government is taking action to increase the pace of new home construction?

But, Speaker, more can be done and should be done when it comes to addressing our province’s housing crisis and the affordability crisis that’s affecting all regions of Ontario. For too many Ontarians, including young people, newcomers and seniors, finding the right home is still too challenging. It is essential that our government implements measures so that local interests and demand for housing are considered when it comes to building housing to accommodate community and region-specific needs.

Can the Premier please explain how our government is promoting collaboration and partnerships in responding to diverse housing needs?

I cannot support a bill that’s going to make the housing crisis worse. We already have enough land set aside for development, according to the government’s own hand-picked Housing Affordability Task Force, to build two million homes—not just the 1.5 million, but two million homes. And if we do it within our existing urban boundaries—instead of imposing sprawl on municipalities, which this bill does—it will be more affordable for municipalities.

I don’t understand; I thought Conservative members understood fiscal responsibility and understood why it is so important to efficiently build within existing urban boundaries.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Interjection.

I thank the member for his question. I’d return to my hometown, where the future of our municipality is actually set for what is presently farmland, but it’s been zoned as residential for many years—or at least it has been in the official plan. Municipalities actually have a 20-year horizon for planning for the future, so we already know where a lot of these developments are being mapped out.

Families need a place to live. What I experienced in my municipality is school closures because of the empty-nesting. We have families where the parents are staying in their home but the kids are moving out and they can’t find something close by, so the services are being depleted, especially in rural and suburban communities. We need to ensure that we have homes built where they are serving families together.

Bill 23 brought forward a number of protections, including the strictest and most comprehensive fines for bad actors across Ontario and, really, across Canada. Bill 97 has a cooling-off period on purchases of new freehold homes and a mandatory legal review of purchase agreements for all new home purchases.

Ontarians, and especially young Ontarians and those just starting out, deserve to have peace of mind. It is the largest investment that they’re destined to make, and now it’s even more difficult than ever before. That’s why our government is continuing to work hard to protect the investment of Ontarians against bad actors.

As part of the changes here, there is support for both renters and landlords. I mentioned the adjudicators at the Landlord and Tenant Board. Really, we have very strict laws; as landlords, there’s a singular lease which everyone has to follow. So there is already a standardized process, but really getting through the disputes is taking a long, long time, so that’s—

Madam Speaker, the government has committed itself to building attainable and affordable housing, and has in fact introduced four separate pieces of legislation consecutively towards this goal. I guess we would imagine introducing even more. But rather than introducing their own program, the NDP has only made passing remarks at what they imagine to be, in their plan, a government-run corporation to build homes. But we’ve never actually heard or even seen the NDP plan to build any homes. So I invite the member to take this opportunity: What does your proposed government-run company look like, and how would your government-run company operate?

For a moment, I thought the member was going to take the full 10 minutes and I’ll be able to answer it next time. But again, thank you to the member opposite for that question. He’s actually the member for the honeymoon capital of Canada. Every time we talk about it, he always raises that.

So I’ll tell you what is happening in this country, in the province of Ontario: Housing affordability is drifting away from our youth, from our young Canadians, from our newcomers. What is this bill doing? We’re going to continue to work hard to make sure that everybody who has a dream to have ownership of a home has the ability to have a home. That’s why we will encourage everyone to look at the policies we are making sure—and the actions we’re taking to build 1.5 million homes by 2031, and we’ll continue to work to do it.

Madam Speaker, it’s not a hidden secret that COVID-19 had a lot of impact on our society and our community. One of the things we have seen due to COVID-19, when offices were closed, the number of cases had gone up, and I always talk about when there is a problem, we need to tackle it with a solution, and that is what our government is doing. We’re making sure that we are investing an additional $6.5 million, hiring an additional 40 adjudicators and hiring additional staff to improve the service standards and continue to reduce the active application and decision time frame. That’s what we’re doing to solve the problem.

But what we’re doing along with this is, we are actually building and making policies and the impact of the policies is that we are seeing the highest number of new purpose-built rental starts on record in 2022 with nearly—

As we all know, this government has introduced four pieces of legislation towards our plan to build more homes in Ontario. But we still haven’t seen the NDP plan, nor has any member of the NDP taken an opportunity to outline their alternative plan. Now, I asked the question of a different NDP member. I’ll offer the same question to this NDP member: You proposed to have a government-run corporation to build homes. It’s your idea. What does your corporation look like and how is it going to operate?