I’ll continue if there are no objections.

I’m very happy to introduce my good friends, Ganapathy Raveendran and his spouse, Ruby Yogadasan, president of Yugam Radio and Media Inc. They have promoted Tamil arts and culture for many, many years in our community. Also, Mr. Speaker, they celebrated a milestone birthday—70th birthday—last week. Welcome to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

I would like to introduce Noemi Khondo, who is campaigns officer in the political action and education division; Andrew Ruszczak, who is a negotiator; and Geoff Cain—all three of them are from OPSEU/SEFPO—who is the executive board member and chair of the blood services and diagnostics sector. I’d also like to introduce Kat Lanteigne, who is the executive director of BloodWatch Ontario. They’re here to stop for-profit plasma collection. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Good morning, everyone. I am very proud to introduce some residents from the wonderful riding of Etobicoke–Lakeshore: Cole, who is our page captain today; his proud parents, Allan Okrainec and Joelene Huber, who are here; his sister Madison and his grandmother Gabrielle; and some friends and neighbours, Alicia Markson and Julia Markson, who was a page in 2022. Welcome to Queen’s Park today.

I’m not sure if he’s here yet, but I would like to welcome Tim Peterson, the former MPP for Mississauga South from 2003 to 2007, as well as his colleagues from Probus Canada. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I too would like to welcome Mr. Alan Lam and Angela Chan from the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto. Welcome.

Good morning, Mr. Speaker. I would like to warmly welcome members of the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto, located in my riding: chairman Alan Lam, president Angela Chan, and staff Simon Ip and Alice Qiao.

I have two more important people. Mr. Speaker, I’m very happy to introduce Ganapathy Raveendran and his spouse, Ruby, from Yugam Radio. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’m very pleased to welcome in the member’s gallery today Lourdes David, who is my constituency assistant holding down the fort in Davenport, but also Delilah, a Western Technical-Commercial School co-op student who has been helping us out at our constituency office. Welcome to your House.

My question is to the Premier. When will they provide Ontarians with a copy of the contract that now involves more than a billion dollars?

If it is a standard lease, then this government should have no problem providing details to the people of Ontario. We’re talking $650 million in public subsidies and a 95-year lease. Back to the Premier: What are the details of this contract?

This isn’t just about Toronto. I’ve been travelling around the province and I’ve heard people from every corner of Ontario express concerns about this government’s backroom deals and their lack of transparency. They’re alarmed by this government spending as much as $650 million on a subsidy for a private luxury spa and a massive parking lot. Now they’re alarmed that this government is committing to a backroom 95-year lease with absolutely no details.

This government has failed to show Ontarians what value this deal has for the people of this province. They’ve failed to produce the contracts. They’ve failed to provide the business case. Speaker, Ontarians deserve to know—I’m going to go back to the Premier again: When will this government come clean about this backroom deal?

I’d love the opportunity to be able to speak about the 43 acres of public park space that we will be creating at Ontario Place for families to finally enjoy. The government is entering into a long-term lease, but we cannot ignore the fact that they will be providing $500 million worth of capital investment on the site, including 12 acres of land.

I would love to highlight some of the successes through the negotiations that Infrastructure Ontario has had with our tenants. For the first time, we will have our tenants contributing to the repair and ongoing maintenance of the public realm space so that we don’t make the same mistake that previous governments have made and leave the site in disrepair. We will have wonderful tenants that will be contributing to the annual maintenance of the site to make sure that it is clean, safe and beautiful for families.

But, Mr. Speaker, our tenants will be contributing $500 million of injection to the site to bring it back to life and they will also be contributing to annual maintenance and repair costs, which has not happened before and which has led to the position that we are in today, where the site is in disrepair and in need of love and care.

Our government presented a vision to the people back in 2019 and again just last week. We will have 43 acres of beautiful public realm space. We will have three wonderful tenants, which include the science centre, and we will have lots for families to do on the site.

Thank you to the member of the official opposition. Mr. Speaker, I’d love to share what I hear from constituents across this great province, including constituents in Etobicoke, Scarborough and in Toronto. What they tell me is that they do not like the fact that this site is sitting there empty and not enjoyed by families like it was back in the 1970s and 1980s. They want to bring their families there. They want to bring people who are visiting the city there. They want it to be a place of economic development, a wonderful place for families.

Mr. Speaker, beyond the 43 acres of free public realm space, we are also making sure that we have a modern marina for people to enjoy. We are making sure that there are boardwalks, food and beverage, piers and beaches. This site now, with the plans that we showed last week, will have something for everyone to enjoy.

My question is to the Premier. Nikki has lived in a rental home for two years. She pays $1,995 for a 600-square-foot basement apartment. Earlier this month, her landlord slapped her with a $200 rent increase, and now Nikki can no longer afford to pay the rent. This unaffordable rent increase is allowed because this government scrapped rent control on new units.

As more and more people in Ontario are struggling to pay the rent, what is this government’s plan to make rent affordable now?

Again, the leader of the opposition provides a real head-scratching argument on housing. Every time the government brings forward a housing supply action plan, we know exactly what that leader and the NDP are going to do: They’re going to vote against it. Then, they’re going to rail against that there’s not enough housing supply.

Again, when they use the word “sprawl,” what does that mean? That means that a young couple who want to live in the community that they grew up in, that they work in, that they want to raise their family in can’t have that opportunity.

They also believe that a farm family who wants to have an opportunity to maybe build a site for their workers on their property or maybe—and this is tough for the NDP to understand—sever a lot for their son or daughter to live on the family farm—that’s the crux of what the NDP stands up against.

What do they also stand up against? They stand up to a $700-million investment in homelessness—

Interjection.

Interjections.

Interjections.

So what have our policies done? They protected tenants who are under existing rent control, just like we promised in the 2018 budget.

But what’s happened to new rental construction? We need more affordable rental supply. What’s happened, Speaker? In 2021, a 30-year high in purpose-built rental construction; in 2022, the most rental construction starts in our province’s history. And in 2023, our province is staying on track with over 5,000 purpose-built rental starts already this year, which is double last year’s total. We want to build upon that success. We don’t want to go back to the failed policies that that member and her party continue to talk about.

Here is another thing that this government is trying to convince Ontarians of: They’ve put a lot of effort into trying to convince Ontarians that building luxury mansions on expensive sprawl is the solution to our housing crisis. They’re even ordering municipalities to create more sprawl on prime farmland. They’re risking regions’ drinking water.

The truth is that no one out there is buying it. No one thinks that bulldozing species at risk or adding to municipal servicing costs and driving up property taxes is going to get a single affordable home built.

Speaker, my question is to the Premier. How will lower density and more sprawl make housing more affordable to Ontarians?

As rents are reaching all-time highs and corporate landlords are turning record profits, you know who aren’t affected? Those who live in co-operative housing. Co-op residents don’t have to worry about excessive rent increases because co-ops are non-profit. Co-ops are a key solution to solving the affordability crisis for low- and moderate-income households in this province, the people who are feeling the very real effects of this government’s housing crisis. Yet this government’s budget offers absolutely nothing to create more affordable co-op homes.

To the Premier, will he reverse course on his failing housing plan and start investing in co-operative housing to bring some relief to Ontarians who are truly struggling?

Interjections.

They do not seem to even understand history, Speaker. The last time a government made investments in co-op housing in this province, it was an NDP government. We helped build 14,000 co-op homes. And do you know what, Speaker? We readied 17,000 additional homes for construction, and, guess what, the Conservatives came in and they cancelled them all—17,000 affordable places to live, all gone.

But let’s look at the here and the now. If this government still refuses to build more co-op housing, the least they could do is to bring back real rent control for the people of this province.

Speaker, back to the Premier: People need homes they can actually afford to live in. So will he take action by supporting the NDP’s motion today to bring back real rent control?

Interjections.

To reply, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Supplementary question.

Start the clock. Final supplementary?

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

I want to thank the great work of the MPP from Elgin–Middlesex–London. I always say he’s one of the smartest business minds down at Queen’s Park. Thank you.

It took about 16 ministries; it took a big chunk of the province right across the board to get this deal done, to make sure that we’re competitive with the rest of the world, no matter if it’s our US friends down south of the border, or Asia, or Europe, or South America. We’re in a competitive market, but we made sure we rolled out the red carpet, creating 3,000 jobs.

The real amazing story about this is the spin-off jobs, 30,000 extra jobs. No matter if it’s an additional school or hospital or roads or bridges or a Walmart or a Costco, these are the reciprocal jobs that are coming to St. Thomas. St. Thomas has seen some very tough times, when they lost 5,000 jobs. Now their town is going to be absolutely booming. That will have spin-off jobs in London and Elgin and the whole region.

Let’s remind everyone of four and a half years ago, when the Liberals and the NDP chased 300,000 jobs out of the province. They were gone. GM was closing. Ford was leaving. Stellantis was leaving.

Guess what, Mr. Speaker? We’re an economic powerhouse. We’re leading the EV revolution everywhere in the world right here in Ontario.

Back to the Premier: It is alarming to learn that Toronto’s average rent price has passed the $3,000-a-month barrier for the first time ever, approximately 13.8% up from the previous year. This is shocking. This massive rent spike is a clear distress signal that our housing affordability crisis is getting worse and the Conservatives’ plan is not working.

The NDP is bringing forward a motion this afternoon to bring in real rent control on all homes to provide immediate financial relief to Ontarians, 1.5 million renter households. My question is to the Premier: Will this government support our motion?

Interjections.

Through you, Speaker, to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing: There’s a housing development in Port Colborne, a city in my riding, that was approved in the 1980s and they still haven’t broken ground. As a matter of fact, the Regional Planning Commissioners of Ontario, AMO and Ontario’s Big City Mayors have all pointed out that there are 1.25 million homes in the approval pipeline that are not being built. Planners say if the province could incentivize developers to build what is already approved, they’d be 85% of the way to their goal. Will the minister agree to implement a reasonable time limit on developers and builders whose developments have already been approved, yes or no?

Will this minister stop blaming municipalities, do what is fair and implement a sunset clause on approvals so that developers and builders must build housing in a reasonable period of time after they’ve been approved, yes or no?

I want to thank the member opposite for her question. It’s this government that stands shoulder to shoulder with our tenants across Ontario. We’re the only government that has taken decisive measures to strengthen protections for renters, whilst also putting in place measures for more rental housing. We’ve heard about the record purpose-built rentals.

But I want to take us back a little bit, to the dark days of the early 1990s, when we remember when the people of Ontario entrusted the NDP for one term to run this government. They had a majority, and what did they do? Let’s talk about rentals. The rental guideline in 1990 was 4.6%—

Interjections.

Interjections.

To reply, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

To respond, the Associate Minister of Housing.

Supplementary question.