Further debate?

Further debate?

It’s always interesting hearing the minister opposite talk about protections for renters, when I hope he knows full well that if a tenant goes to the Landlord and Tenant Board to contest an illegal eviction, they never return to their home, and the number of landlords that are effectively fined at the Landlord and Tenant Board for illegally evicting a tenant is next to nothing—maybe 20, out of 1.4 million or 1.7 million households in Ontario. It doesn’t happen. That’s the reality of what it is today.

I’m proud to rise today to speak to the single most effective measure Ontario can take to make housing affordable and more affordable in Ontario today.

Let’s also be clear: The Conservatives’ track record on solving the housing crisis is not working. It has never been more expensive to rent or own a home in Ontario, ever. This government has been in power for nearly five years.

The legacy is yours, and the legacy is huge unaffordability.

The Conservatives’ move to eliminate rent control on new buildings and permit sprawl on the greenbelt has not solved our housing supply crisis. It has failed to make homes more affordable for Ontarians. In fact, the Conservatives have made life very hard for renters.

It was alarming to learn that Toronto’s average rental price has passed the $3,000-a-month barrier for purpose-built rentals, up approximately 13.8% from the previous year. That is shocking. You need to earn well over $130,000 a year to afford a small apartment in Toronto today.

As the leader has mentioned, this is not just a Toronto issue; this has become a province-wide issue. All our members have many stories of constituents approaching them and saying, “I can’t make it work anymore. I’m having difficulty feeding my family. I can’t afford the bills. I’m being threatened with an illegal eviction. I’m having to move into a smaller unit, a basement apartment, because I can’t make it work anymore. Now I am sleeping in the lounge room so that my children can have the only bedroom available.”

We hear stories of constituents who have multiple families living in a two-bedroom apartment because they can’t make it work in Toronto or Ontario anymore. How on earth can you afford an apartment, when the average rent is $3,000 a month for a new apartment, if you’re earning just above minimum wage? If you’re working at the airport, or if you’re working in a supermarket or if you’re working in front-line retail, how on earth can you possibly make it work in this city, in this province today? The reality is, you can’t. That’s why our food bank lines are so big. That’s why people are wondering if it’s worth living in this province anymore.

Just like we look at Statistics Canada’s data that comes out, we see that people are voting with their feet, and they’re leaving this province. Net migration to other provinces is up because people come here and they realize they can’t make it work, and they’re taking their skills and their talents with them. They’re moving to Alberta. They’re moving to Manitoba. They’re moving elsewhere because this province, under this government’s leadership, is becoming too expensive.

I am proud today to support real rent control—including all homes, including homes built after 2018—and rent control that includes vacancy control, so that there is a cap on how much the rent can be raised after a tenant leaves. The reason why this is so important is because strong rent control will stabilize rent prices for Ontario’s renters, and it will protect tenants from illegal eviction, because strong rent control reduces the financial incentive for landlords to evict. It provides renters with stability so that their home that they live in can continue to be their own at a stable price. That is extremely important.

I want to conclude by talking a little bit about the myth that this Conservative government likes to present: that rent control will limit the construction of new, affordable homes. What we have seen in Ontario today is that when there is rent control, such as in the 1970s and 1980s—

I’ll ask the member to withdraw.

I’ll withdraw.

We had the highest construction of purpose-built rentals that we have seen in this province to date.

When there has been no rent control on new buildings, such as what we had under the previous Liberal government and what we have here—we have seen a reduction in rent control.

What we also know is that there are very effective ways to stimulate purpose-built rental construction and more affordable homes in Ontario that don’t involve holding up renters and saying, “You’re going to be the sacrificial lamb for us to tackle the housing affordability crisis. You’re the victims of the crisis. We’re going to make you suffer for the solutions.” That is not a good solution for Ontario today.

I urge you to look at better ways to address our housing supply crisis than making life even more expensive for renters, because they’ve had enough.

Honourable members of this House, it is my pleasure to rise today in response to the opposition motion concerning rent control and vacancy decontrol. The issue is of paramount importance to our government, as Ontarians are facing a housing supply shortage from decades of inaction by the previous government.

Last June, Ontarians gave our government a strong mandate to help more Ontarians find a home that meets their needs and budget. In response, we’ve taken decisive action to get 1.5 million homes built by 2031.

I’m proud to say that our efforts have already generated historic results. In 2021, our province broke ground on a record number of new home starts, with almost 100,000 starts in only 12 months. In 2022, we maintained our success and saw the second-highest number of starts since 1988, with just over 96,000 new homes—this is 30% higher than the average of the past 20 years. The same year, we saw the highest number of rental housing starts on record, with nearly 15,000 purpose-built rentals, a 7.5% increase from 2021.

Key stakeholders are taking note. Tony Irwin, president and CEO of the Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario and member of our Housing Supply Action Plan Implementation Team, had this to say: “The recently introduced Bill 97 provides needed clarity for rental providers and creates a framework to increase protections for displaced residents in aging rental stock. FRPO members appreciate the balanced approach this government is taking in tackling the housing crisis, and this bill helps to further strike that right balance.”

Speaker, there is still much to be done. Our province is booming with newcomers and job creators from around the world, and they’re coming to Ontario, looking to call our province home. Our housing supply crisis is a problem that has been decades in the making. It will take both short-term strategies and long-term commitment from all levels of government, the private sector, and not-for-profits to ensure that Ontario remains the best place to live, work, raise a family and grow a business. That is why we continue to work with municipalities and our partners to update our housing supply action plans to help build more homes and make life more affordable for Ontarians.

Our latest plan, Bill 97, the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023, is geared towards further laying the foundation for growth, while expanding on protections for renters and for homebuyers.

Speaker, we are fixing the Landlord and Tenant Board—a need we very often hear about from both landlords and tenants in my riding of Mississauga–Streetsville. We’re investing an additional $6.5 million in funding to hire 40 new adjudicators and five full-time support staff, effectively doubling the total number of adjudicators on the Landlord and Tenant Board to provide critical support in addressing the COVID-19 backlog and ensuring that cases are heard in a timely manner.

That’s not all. We are also proposing greater legal protection for tenants facing renovictions and those facing landlord’s-own-use evictions; as an example, imposing the strictest penalties in all of Canada on bad actors, with maximum fines for offences increasing to $100,000 for individuals and $500,000 for corporations.

It’s this government that is standing up for everyday people by sending a strong message to bad actors that violations of the Residential Tenancies Act will not be tolerated.

Speaker, we’re hard at work for all Ontarians to ensure that tenants and landlords are treated fairly and with dignity. That’s why we’re capping the rent increase guideline at 2.5%, based on Ontario’s consumer price index; if we hadn’t, due to recent inflation, this would have resulted in a 2023 guideline of 5.3%. We’re also proposing to strengthen tenant protections and remedies, including increasing compensation for bad faith evictions or renovictions. We want to encourage a safe and fair system when renting a property, so that the tenant and landlord can benefit.

We also know that the root issue is supply, and to stimulate the construction of new rental housing, we introduced an exemption from rent control rules for new buildings, additions to existing buildings, and most new basement units occupied for the first time for residential purposes after November 15, 2018.

Speaker, let’s take a minute to talk about how we got here. As we’ve heard, the NDP are so ideologically opposed to taking any meaningful action to increase the supply of housing that they once again plan to oppose tenant protections. They’re opposed to a housing supply plan put forward by our government for the fourth time—the same Liberals and NDP who, when they had a chance to help renters, stood by as the cost of housing skyrocketed, leading to the rental supply crisis that we are now working to address.

The Liberals talk about affordability, while they were in government for 15 years and failed to do anything about the rising cost of living except increase hydro rates and taxes.

Let’s not forget that when the NDP were last in power, rents went up—sorry; the rental guides went up: 4.6% in 1990; 5.4% in 1991; and 6% in 1992—all when inflation was significantly lower than it is today.

We’ll take no lessons from the NDP on making anything affordable for Ontarians. They said no to requiring landlords to make efforts to negotiate a repayment agreement with a tenant before the Landlord and Tenant Board can issue an eviction order. They said no to increased maximum fines for Residential Tenancies Act offences to $50,000 for an individual and $250,000 for a corporation; no to requiring landlords to disclose to the board if they have previously filed for eviction to move into or renovate the unit; and no to increased tenant compensation for bad faith evictions.

Speaker, in stark contrast, this Premier, this minister, and this government are standing shoulder to shoulder with tenants across Ontario as we—

Interjections.

It’s an honour to rise to this issue, and do you know why? Because the history of affordable housing in this country is the history of the New Democratic Party. Let me tell you why. In 1944, when people who fought for our freedom returned from a war overseas and veterans and their families were being gouged, who stood up for them? New Democrats, social democrats across this country. We linked arms with them, and we stood up for them, while the Liberals and the Conservatives did nothing as price gouging of veterans and their families happened in droves.

And then I’m proud to say that once that standard was set and when the business lobby, the big corporate lobby, counteracted and took away rent control when it was given in 1944—took it away in 1949—the NDP didn’t give up. Did the NDP give up?

So I’m not going to take any lectures from these members opposite, certainly not when the great Evelyn Gigantes is my neighbour back home. Evelyn Gigantes stood in this place, was the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and under her leadership—not this government’s leadership—non-market housing increased in Ontario by 60%.

Co-op housing, community housing—that’s the NDP record on housing. And do you know why? Because when you go to any one of our fundraisers, you’re not going to find the DeGasperis family. You’re not going to find the Cortellucci family. You’re not going to find the real estate investment trusts like Smart Living, which—in my community back home, Smart Living is throwing 121 tenants out of their homes, in the south end of our city, to create gentrified units of $3,000 to $3,500 a pop. And these are some of the last remaining affordable housing units in this area. Who fought for them to remain? Who stood by the tenants? The New Democratic Party stood by the tenants. ACORN stood by the tenants while these vultures from Smart Living swoop in, buy up housing stock that they know is dilapidated, refuse to fix it, and throw people out on the street.

The member for University–Rosedale mentioned that the average rent in this city of Toronto is 3K; it’s 2K in Ottawa—that’s up 11.5%.

Everything in our lives is becoming more expensive under a Conservative government—groceries, rent, gas. The way to get out of this mess, on this day when we are fighting for affordable housing, which is an NDP tradition, is to get rid of the Conservatives who serve the rich and powerful. You should have a government that works for you.

Further debate?

Yes—as we take decisive measures to strengthen tenant protections and remedies. That’s why Ontario’s rental housing starts so far this year are more than double the amount the same time last year.

That’s why Ontario is becoming the number one jurisdiction for businesses, for jobs, and for newcomers, with more active cranes in the skies of Toronto right now than there are in New York, Chicago, LA, Washington, DC, Seattle, and San Francisco combined.

But the NDP and Liberals would rather drag us back to the past. They would rather table legislation adding more red tape to delay, obstruct and oppose our progress.

In closing, our government is committed to ensuring the well-being of the people of Ontario and making sure that tenants and landlords are treated fairly. We’ll continue to look for ways to make homes more attainable for hard-working Ontarians, while making it easier to build more houses and rental units to address the ongoing supply crisis. This work is critical because we know that when communities and residents thrive, Ontario thrives.

No.

We heard the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing actually say in his remarks that it was the last two governments that have caused this housing crisis; frankly, it was a Liberal government for 15 years, with a Conservative official opposition for that entire 15 years—before the Liberals, it was the Mike Harris Conservatives. It seems like those of us on this side finally have something to agree with you on: It was indeed caused by both the Liberals and the Conservative governments.

Speaker, those of us on this side believe that housing is a human right. Studies have shown that when people have proper access to stable and safe housing, the risk of chronic homelessness vastly decreases and health and education outcomes increase positively.

Speaker, there are currently over 6,000 households waiting for housing in the city of Windsor alone. The Landlord and Tenant Board, which that this government talks about fixing—the backlogs are causing significant issues for my residents, and not just mine; all around the province. Landlords have applied for additional rent increases through the Landlord and Tenant Board, and because of the backlogs, decisions are being rendered years later. We have landlords that are coming to the tenants for back pay. One building in Windsor is charging tenants $1,000 in back pay for a rent increase because they waited so long for a decision from the Landlord and Tenant Board.

I had a constituent, just last week, come into my office in tears because she went to the Landlord and Tenant Board, couldn’t get an answer, was told to go to the Rental Housing Enforcement Unit, which has an automated message—they don’t answer—telling them to go back to the Landlord and Tenant Board.

So this government can crow all they want about what they’re doing at the Landlord and Tenant Board, but people can’t actually access those supports.

Speaker, it’s this Conservative government that has allowed the housing crisis to go from bad to worse.

I want to highlight some things. A recent report went to the city of Windsor council, reporting a significant increase in people experiencing homelessness in Windsor. The report shows that the number of people experiencing homelessness in Windsor has more than doubled compared to the report numbers in 2021—a Conservative government. The Conservatives have had a majority government for five years and, as I said, they were the official opposition for 15, and this is their record.

There’s an increase of 61% of Windsor-Essex residents visiting food banks from 2019 to 2022.

According to Feed Ontario, food bank use remains at an all-time high. There has been an increase in food bank use of 42% over the last three years and a 47% increase in people with employment accessing food banks since the Conservatives formed government in 2018. One in four children live in poverty and have to rely on food banks under this Conservative government. Two out of three people who access food banks are social assistance recipients. People in my riding and all across Ontario are struggling to provide food for their families.

Speaker, a key step toward addressing the housing crisis, to addressing child poverty and the increase in food bank use is to actually have affordable housing, to bring in true rent control for all residential units across the province.

Further debate?

Yes. You will also have an opportunity to vote on Bill 97, which also protects it more, I would argue. I encourage you to vote with us, but I’m not going to hold my breath on that.

Given the importance of the pressing issue, I can appreciate what the NDP is trying to do, but it falls very short, as usual, which is unfortunate.

Our government will continue to work with landlords and tenants, while the opposition will focus on ideological fixes. We will continue to work with builders, the non-profit sector, and with our construction and our municipal colleagues to ensure we build more housing across all of Ontario, in every community.

They can talk all they want, but our government is taking action. I hope they’ll join us in saying yes to real protections for tenants under Bill 97, but I know many of my fellow Ontarians fear they will just say no.

It’s an honour to rise to participate in this debate because the housing affordability crisis is at a complete breaking point.

Last week, it was reported that in the first quarter of this year, average rents in the GTA for purpose-built apartments hit $3,000 for the first time, the sixth straight double-digit, year-over-year increase in the Toronto area—and it’s not just Toronto; it’s literally cities all over the province. In my own riding, average rent for a one-bedroom apartment hit $2,085 at the end of last year; that’s up 22.4%.

It is heartbreaking to see so many Ontarians with jobs, like nurses, teachers, retail workers and so many others, struggling to be able to find an affordable place to live in the communities they want to live in, where they work in, being forced to spend well over 30% of their income just on housing—let alone minimum wage workers and people who are living in legislated poverty because this government refuses to raise social assistance rates.

Advocates on the front lines have been telling us for decades now that we have to invest in homes that people can actually afford. According to the Daily Bread Food Bank Who’s Hungry Report, 87% of their clients are living in housing that is completely unaffordable; seven in 10 were paying half of their income—imagine that, Speaker—just on rent; and 18% were paying all of their income just on rent. Imagine how you afford sky-high food prices and so many other expenses in a day-to-day life.

Let’s be clear: The government’s expensive sprawl agenda will not solve the housing affordability crisis. It’s too expensive for municipalities, who simply can’t afford the cost of servicing sprawl, and it’s too expensive for people and families, who simply cannot afford the long, expensive, soul-crushing commutes this government is imposing on them.

That’s why we actually have to invest in homes that people can afford. That’s exactly why the Ontario Greens housing affordability plan, which some have called a master class plan in delivering the solutions we need—that’s why we’ve introduced Bill 44 and Bill 45, to end exclusionary zoning and build the gentle density and missing middle housing supply in homes that people can actually afford, in communities they want to live in.

That’s why we’re working so hard to end speculation in the housing market—because homes should be for people, not speculators.

That’s why I support this motion to bring in rent control, to bring back what this government took away—and not just rent control on units, but rent control between tenants, within units, so we have vacancy control, to get rid of the incentives for landlords to renovict and push their tenants out just so they can jack up rates even higher.

Speaker, we also need to have an honest conversation at all three levels of government. Up until 1995, in the 1970s and 1980s and early 1990s, 15,000 to 20,000 housing starts in this country every single year were government-supported non-profit and co-op housing that people could actually afford. So we’re not going to solve this problem with supply alone—even though I’ve put forward numerous solutions to increase affordable supply within the communities that people want to live in. That alone, if we’re going to be honest, is not going to solve the problem. We need both the federal government and the provincial government to come back to the table with the financial supports to help non-profit and co-op housing providers build the deeply affordable homes that people need to be able to survive month to month, to stabilize their lives.

Finally, we’re going to need government to come up with more than $202 million if we’re actually going to build permanent supportive housing with wraparound mental health and addictions supports to support people in our communities, because we know that every $10 invested in supportive housing saves government $22 in services.

Those are the solutions we need. That’s what we need to fight for for the people of this province.

It’s an honour to rise in the House today to speak to one of our government’s biggest priorities and, frankly, the top priority for new Canadians, millennials and senior citizens. Of course, I’m talking about the housing crisis. And it is this PC government that recognizes the severity of the housing crisis that we’re facing.

I want to address some points from my colleague before I get into my prepared remarks about supporting non-profit and affordable housing—that’s exactly why, in Bill 23 last year, we made sure that we aren’t taxing these new builds. The average development charge in the GTA is $116,000. That’s a tax that hits the construction before a single shovel hits the ground, before any tenancy even takes place. I would remind that my colleague voted against Bill 23, which actually removes development charges from affordable non-profit housing, which seems to be contrary to his point.

The other thing that my colleague mentioned was around the $202 million for homelessness prevention supports. We saw in the region of Peel—we got $42 million for the region of Peel. We were just there on Friday to announce that. I was joined by colleagues from across Peel region, many of our PC colleagues in Peel region. Good gosh, Speaker, after that election, we’ve sure got a lot of Peel MPPs in the PC caucus, don’t we? Well, we were all there and we were all very happy because that $42 million that we invested is a 38% increase over the same program that was coming to the Peel region the year before. That’s a 38% increase in more supportive housing supports to the region of Peel, which is going to help our most vulnerable citizens, our most vulnerable residents, get a roof over their head and get the wraparound supports that they need and deserve. I was proud to vote on a budget that put that money forward.

Like the member opposite, I want to make sure that we’re investing more money in these things too, but we can’t do that, unless we have a growing economy, an economy that people work in.

We hear from members of the opposition; they talk about how they are the party of workers, but I question—what would workers do under an NDP government? They don’t want to build any other houses. They want to sit with their heads in the sand and ignore that. They don’t want to build transit, in case we ever damage a tree instead of building a subway, which takes cars off the roads, puts investment in our community, and creates good-paying union jobs. They don’t want to invest in the auto manufacturing sector, where we’re having clean, green electric vehicles, electric batteries being made. Volkswagen is coming with 3,000 jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs to St. Thomas. I heard there are a lot of NDP and Green Party candidates who are looking for a job after that last election; maybe they can go on to St. Thomas, where it’s booming with opportunity. They can all work there.

Now I’ll get to my prepared remarks, because I know we’ve got to cool it a little bit.

This PC government recognizes the extreme severity of the housing crisis. That recognition starts by acknowledging where we live. The province of Ontario is the greatest place in the world. It’s no secret people want to live here; quite frankly, we need them to. All of those jobs that we’re creating that the NDP continually vote against—we need people to come here and fill them. We need more people to come to Ontario from all over the world. We need more diversity, not less diversity. We’ve got a labour shortage of about 400,000 jobs, give or take, and our government is hard at work to find ways to get more people into the skilled trades to combat that shortage, be it newcomers from around the world bringing their families with them to benefit our province and begin to call it their home, or our children being taught that they can make a great future for themselves in the skilled trades.

But do you know what, Speaker? We can keep telling people that if they work hard, they can live the life they dreamed of—we can say that all we want, but until we get shovels in the ground and start building homes at the right pace, this is only lip service.

Every member of this House should be standing up and voting for Bill 97, Bill 23, Bill 39, to get shovels in the ground and homes built, to build the dream of home ownership for everybody in Ontario.

Interjections.

For our economy, we need people to move here. But who would we be if we invited people to move to our home, to come to our province, if we sold people on the Canadian dream but we didn’t provide them a place to live? Brampton North, my riding, was once a place people would move to in search of an affordable home outside of Toronto, but now, people of all ages are getting priced out of Brampton. The rising costs are simply unaffordable for the average Ontarian.

Last year, the federal government announced that Canada broke its record with over 430,000 permanent residents welcomed to the country in 2022; by 2025, they hope to see the number go to 500,000. That is welcome news on our side, on the PC Party side of the House. We need to fight the labour shortage, and we need new Canadians to come to Ontario and call our province home, but we also need to welcome them with an opportunity to have a home that meets their needs.

As it stands today, our housing supply is not prepared to welcome the large and rapid influx of new Ontarians we are expecting. Of the 500,000 in 2025, we know that over 60% are going to come to Ontario; specifically, the GTA—and if history shows us anything, many, many, many coming to my community in Brampton. We welcome that, but we need to build the houses so that people have somewhere to live. We need to build the roads so that people have somewhere to drive on, to take their kids to school, to take their parents to the doctor, in order to get to work. We need to build opportunity and jobs for people to work at when they get here.

A recent study conducted by the Ontario Real Estate Association found that two thirds of Ontarians polled are spending well over one third of their budget on housing. We also know that on average, it takes millennials 20 years to save for a down payment. In Mississauga, development charges add approximately $127,000 to the cost of a home. And across the GTA, before a single shovel hits the ground, the average homebuyer already faces an average of $116,900 in municipal development charges and fees. Speaker, $116,900 is more than the cost of a down payment for many homes—and over the course of a 20-year mortgage, it could add more than $800 to a new home buyer’s monthly payment.

We do not believe non-profit and affordable housing providers should be charged huge, unsustainable fees when looking to build housing for vulnerable Ontarians. Through Bill 23, our government is eliminating development charges for affordable, attainable and not-for-profit housing, and purpose-built rentals will see reductions of up to 25%, with the biggest reductions coming for family-sized, family-friendly units. To be clear, this doesn’t mean that municipalities won’t get any revenue from a new home build. It means that home ownership will be a little bit closer in reach for Ontarians because of these increased fees being decreased, that add thousands to the price of a home.

We are committed to building Ontario. That’s why this PC government, in partnership with municipalities across the province, has committed to building 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years. I look to the members of the opposition and tell them that this is what collaboration looks like.

In Brampton, in my community, which includes my wonderful riding of Brampton North, the city council endorsed the municipal housing pledge to help our province deliver 113,000 units by 2031. Brampton is not the only municipality to sign on to the housing pledge. The city of Toronto’s housing action plan aims to increase the supply of housing to achieve or exceed the provincial housing target of 285,000 new Toronto homes by 2031. Ottawa has pledged 151,000 homes by 2031. We have Markham pledging 44,000 new homes by 2031. We have 21,000 in Milton, 23,000 in Barrie, and more across the province. Our government is showing the world that collaboration leads to results. The pledges that these cities have signed onto demonstrate their commitment to unlocking more housing, streamlining development approvals, removing the barriers, and accelerating planning in support of the province’s housing target.

Last Friday, I was proud to stand with my PC caucus colleagues, along with three mayors representing the region of Peel: the mayors of Brampton, Mississauga, and Caledon. We all announced over $42 million to the regional municipality of Peel, through the province’s Homelessness Prevention Program, to help those experiencing or at risk of homelessness and supporting community organizations delivering supportive housing. This is a year-over-year increase of 38%. Together we’re getting it done for the people of Brampton, for the people of Peel and the people of Ontario, and this is just building on a track record that this PC government has been working on.

In 2019, we created the province’s first-ever housing supply action plan to reduce red tape and get shovels in the ground and build the dream of home ownership. We built on that success by passing our More Homes for Everyone plan last spring and our new More Homes Built Faster plan last November. And we’re already seeing historic results.

In 2021, our province broke ground on a record number of new home starts, with nearly 100,000 starts in only 12 months. That’s the highest level of new housing starts in a year since 1987. In 2022, Ontario maintained its success and saw the second-highest number of starts since 1988, with just over 96,000 new homes. This is 30% higher than the annual 65,000 home average of the past 20 years.

Speaker, I will say it again for the opposition to hear, through you: This is about collaboration, working together—something the NDP chose to do with the previous Liberal government, backing them every step of the way, through every decision that set our province back. They supported the Liberal government while they closed down hospitals, like the one I was born in, Peel Memorial Hospital, where not only I was born in, but many people in my generation were born in—the same people in my generation in Brampton who want to live in the community that we were born in, who are priced out of the neighbourhood because housing prices have skyrocketed under 15 years of Liberal neglect, backed by the same NDP.

Now, how are we in this situation where we’re asking them to collaborate with us to get shovels in the ground, to build opportunity, to get homes built, to get transit built, to create jobs—good, union, fighting-NDP jobs, union jobs? We’re doing it all over the place. And what do they do? They vote against the measures every single time.

Interjections.

Further debate?

Further debate?

And they’re uncomfortable; they’re yelling about it, because they know that we’re right. They vote against it every single time. Now they’ve put legislation saying they’re on the side of the little guy. Golly, Speaker.

NIMBYism is one of the most dangerous forces in our politics today. It’s one of the lowest forms of politicking that a prospective candidate can engage in. You promise a group of residents that they won’t have to put up with any new neighbours, they can enjoy all the services themselves and keep the neighbourhood to themselves. We need to make this asinine ideology, this NIMBYism, these NIMBY ideas that the opposition continually ramp up, as politically inconvenient as possible.

It’s not just the NIMBYs saying no to development in their own backyard; now they don’t want homes to be built in anybody else’s backyard. They don’t want to expand settlement areas so that millennials or new Canadians could have a backyard one day. This simply won’t do. As council after council is passing motions pledging to meet their municipal housing targets, working with our government to give families back the dream of home ownership, this PC government stands with them. We support them. We endorse it every step of the way.

Some members will talk about where I sit in this House. They say, “Oh, Graham, you’re in the rump. You’re on the back benches.” Well, I think it’s an honour to represent my community of Brampton North every single day in this House. I tell these opposition members that if they don’t start standing up for their residents, I’ll represent their residents as well. If they don’t want to stand up for new Canadians who move into their neighbourhoods, this PC government will stand up for those new residents. We will get homes built. We will get shovels in the ground.

I expect them to get on board and vote for Bills 97, 23 and 39.

It’s a pleasure to be able to rise today, on behalf of the good people of Niagara West, and speak to the opposition motion that has come before the floor this afternoon.

I want to begin my remarks by expressing appreciation and gratitude for the hard work of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing; his associate minister, Nina Tangri; and of course, the parliamentary assistant, the member for Perth–Wellington—for their work and continuing to work with 444 municipalities in every corner of this province to help build more homes and make life more affordable for Ontario’s families.

We know that, fundamentally, we need to ensure that there is an adequate supply of housing stock on the market in order to address the needs of a growing population. It would be one thing if Ontario was the only place in the world that had challenges that it faced in terms of housing stock and in terms of ensuring there’s enough rental stock as well, but we know that we exist in a multi-faceted economy, where people are able to move around, people are able to look at other housing markets. We’ve seen that in places where there is enough supply, where there are many new units coming onto the market consistently, year after year, where we see a rapid growth in the amount of housing stock that keeps pace with the amount of people who need new rental properties or who need to purchase a home or are able to purchase a home—we can see a pricing equilibrium.

In fact, if you look at some other places across North America and even in Canada, we don’t see some of the challenges that we have here in Ontario. Why is that? It’s for a number of reasons, one of which is very, very good. Many people are coming to our great province because they recognize that the investments that have been made in our economic prosperity here in the province of Ontario, under this government, are leading to better hope for the future and opportunities for the future. But that’s creating an immense pressure. It creates pressure not just on those who are looking to get into the housing market in terms of purchasing their first home, but also on those who are interested in renting and those who are looking to be able to have a place that they can call home in a rental home.

We live in a prosperous and growing province. It’s one of the best places, I believe, in the world to call home. Yet for too many Ontarians, finding that right home is all too challenging. It’s because, for decades, we saw governments in this province that, frankly, didn’t do enough when it came to building the supply of housing that was needed to meet the demand of a growing population. I’m very pleased that that is now changing, that our government recognizes the importance of housing affordability and affordable housing and ensuring that there is more and more supply coming onto the market. But I believe that, ultimately, we need to all play a role in that solution. We need to work as partners, in all parties in this Legislature and with all of our partners at various levels of government.

We know that for young people eager to raise a family in the community of their choosing, for newcomers ready to put down roots and start a new life, and for seniors looking to downsize but wanting to stay near their family and loved ones, there is a crisis. It’s not just a big-city crisis, as we heard. It’s a housing supply shortage crisis that affects all Ontarians—rural, urban, suburban, north and south, young and old.

The problem is clear. There are different aspects to how the problem manifests itself in different parts of this province, and there are different, local variables that play a role. But overwhelmingly, we know there simply aren’t enough homes being built. The issue is clear, and the solution is equally clear: We need to get more homes built faster to restore that housing equilibrium and ensure that people are able to get into the rental market and into the housing market.

Speaker, we know that all parties in this chamber are committed to building 1.5 million homes, yet our government is the only registered party in this chamber that has a plan to get those 1.5 million homes built. Through our housing supply action plan, we’re already seeing historic results.

In 2021, our province broke ground on a record number of new housing starts, with nearly 100,000 starts in only 12 months. That’s the highest level of new housing starts in a year since 1987.

In 2022, Ontario maintained its success and saw the second-highest number of starts since 1988, with over 96,000 new homes. This is 30% higher than the annual 65,000 home average of the past 20 years, when, again, governments neglected their responsibility in ensuring that they were incentivizing new home building here in the province.

Even more exciting when it comes to the motion at hand and the motion that we’re discussing this afternoon is that in 2022, Ontario had the highest number of rental housing starts on record: nearly 15,000 new purpose-built rentals, a 7.5% increase from 2021—substantial numbers. That’s 15,000 units for people to be able to call that place home so that those who are on the wait-list for rental housing, those who are looking for rental housing—15,000 more of those units become available to families here in Ontario.

But we know there’s more to be done. Our province is booming. Newcomers and job creators from around the world are flocking to Ontario, looking to call this province their home. Ontario’s population reached a historic 15 million last year, and it’s expected to continue growing by over two million people by 2031, with approximately 1.5 million new residents living in the greater Golden Horseshoe region alone, including in Niagara.

Our housing supply crisis is a problem that has been decades in the making, and it’s going to take both short-term strategies and long-term commitment from all levels of government, the private sector, and the not-for-profit sector to ensure that Ontario remains the best place to live, work, raise a family, grow your business, grow your community, and grow your opportunity for a better life. It’s why we continue to release a new housing supply action plan every year—to build more homes and make life more affordable for Ontario’s families.

Speaker, I have to have a brief interlude, if you will indulge me. I have a number of friends who are, I will say, not Conservative, are not necessarily philosophically or ideologically aligned with our government on a couple of different areas or with myself personally. We have a lot of good discussions about that. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to have the conversation. As I speak with a number of my friends, some of whom have voted for the NDP and a number of whom have voted for the federal Liberals, one of the things I consistently hear from them is shock and dismay, and frankly, bewilderment at the fact that we’ve seen the left abandon the need to build more housing. They say, “Sam, I’m someone who doesn’t consider myself Conservative, but your government is the only government, you’re the only political party, that’s really talking about getting housing built.”

For me, for a young person who wants to be able to see my friends, my neighbours, my community succeed—I hear from those young people who until recently were having to say, “Well, perhaps I’m not going to be able to stay in this province if we don’t see that housing built.” And these are people who are, more and more, looking at their opportunity for the future and recognizing that it’s the Progressive Conservative government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, that is talking about housing affordability and recognizing the core root of the issue: the lack of supply in every corner of this province, which is driving up the price of rental, which is driving up the price of new homes and is making it difficult for people to be able to save up for other things that they want to be able to achieve in life.

So to those people I have spoken with who may not identify as PCs, who may not identify as any political stripe but want to be able to see that opportunity and that future: Know that our government is listening. And we are doing more than listening; we are taking action.

In fact, in our most recent housing supply action plan, Bill 97, we have built on the strong foundation of previous pieces of legislation. We’re providing a strong foundation for growth while also expanding protections for renters and homebuyers.

We’re fixing the Landlord and Tenant Board—a need we have heard often about from both landlords and tenants alike. We’re investing funding to hire 40 new adjudicators and five full-time staff, which will more than double the total number of adjudicators on the Landlord and Tenant Board. This will provide critical support in addressing the COVID-19-related backlog and also ensure that cases are being heard in a timely fashion.

We’re proposing greater legal protections for tenants facing renovictions and ensuring that when evicting a tenant to renovate a unit—we’re proposing that landlords would be required to provide a report from a qualified third party stating that the unit must be vacant for renovations to take place. In addition, landlords would be required to provide updates on the status of those renovations in writing. Landlords would also be required to provide a 60-day grace period to move back in once the renovations are complete.

We’re also proposing greater legal protections for tenants facing landlord’s-own-use evictions. When evicting a tenant to use the unit themselves or for their family, the landlord or their family members would have to move into the unit by a determined deadline. By failing to move into the unit within the determined time frame, the landlord would be presumed to have acted in bad faith, if an application is made by the tenant to the Landlord and Tenant Board for a remedy.

We’re proposing to impose the strictest penalties in all of Canada on bad actors. Proposed changes would double the maximum fines for offences under the Residential Tenancies Act, and we would see that maximum fines for offences under the act would increase from $100,000 for individuals to $500,000 for corporations. This sends a strong message: Our government will not tolerate violations of the Residential Tenancies Act.

We see, unfortunately, that members on the opposite side of the House are so ideologically opposed to taking any meaningful action on the housing file that they appear willing to even vote against these types of protections. They’re willing to once again, for the fourth time now, vote against the housing supply action plan brought forward by our government without introducing their own plan in opposition.

Our government is committed to ensuring the well-being of the people of Ontario and ensuring that tenants and landlords are being treated fairly. As Ontario’s families face the rising cost of living, our government has provided stability and predictability to the vast majority of tenants by capping the rent increase guideline well below inflation, at 2.5%.

We know that it is important to be able to respond to the needs of the people in our communities, and one of the most fundamental needs that all of our constituents rely upon is the need for housing. But to put matters into perspective, when we have almost 400,000 people moving to this province each and every year, with that number only rising—when we have a city, essentially, the size of London, Ontario, coming to this province each and every year, and we’re trying to fit all of those people into the amount of housing stock that exists in a city the size of St. Catharines, the numbers just don’t add up. At its core, it is about supply and demand. When you don’t have enough housing units available, people are going to bid on those units and drive up the prices. That’s why we need to ensure that we’re addressing that supply equilibrium.

I appreciate that for once, after such a long time, we’ve seen the members of the opposition and the Leader of the Opposition come forward—late to the game, I might add—and try to at least present a motion that they would argue is in the interests of people who are looking for housing. Yet, we’ve seen so little action when it comes to their ability to actually stand on their feet and vote for tangible actions that would protect the people of this province by building that supply and ensuring that we meet that housing equilibrium.

Speaker, on behalf of the people of Niagara West, I’m thankful that all members in this House are speaking about housing. But I would encourage the members opposite, when they look at this motion, to think about going beyond this motion and bringing forward meaningful solutions, instead of rallying against anything that comes forward from this government to solve the supply issue and ensure that we’re building more—