My question is for the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. My constituents of Newmarket–Aurora, as well as many individuals and families across our province, hold a deep affection for Ontario’s provincial parks. Despite the challenges of the past few years, Ontario parks have remained a cherished destination for Ontarians seeking to escape and unwind, surrounded by the natural beauty of our great province. Visitation rates to Ontario parks have reached unprecedented levels, and this trend shows no sign of slowing.

Unfortunately for those living in more urban areas, it can be challenging for individuals and families to access these parks for a much-needed day in nature. Speaker, what measures is our government taking to expand recreational opportunities for all Ontarians?

My question is for the Associate Minister of Housing. Many communities across our province have too many individuals and families experiencing housing instability. The factors contributing to homelessness and poverty are complex and need to be addressed with comprehensive, innovative, long-term strategies that help our most vulnerable.

In my riding of Brantford–Brant, we have a number of incredible resources and supports for those who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. I am incredibly proud of the work that these agencies undertake to deliver in providing help for individuals, families and Indigenous communities, but there is more that should be done, and can be done, for them.

Speaker, can the associate minister please explain how our government’s investments into local programs will support housing and homelessness prevention services in my community of Brantford–Brant?

Under the previous Liberal government, the shortage of affordable housing worsened and community supports were lacking. Communities like my riding were unfortunately overlooked by the previous Liberal government, and my constituents are rightly concerned about the impact that their inactions have had on this serious situation. Ontarians deserve a government that is focused on tackling the supply crisis and providing a comprehensive approach to increase the supply of supportive and affordable housing for the most vulnerable.

Speaker, can the associate minister please explain how our government is continuing to make progress in supporting communities to ensure that resources are available for those who need it most?

I appreciate the question from the member opposite, and I appreciate her advocacy for increased recreational opportunities for Ontarians.

Speaker, I was proud to stand on Earth Day alongside the MPP for Pickering–Uxbridge, who has been a strong champion for the outdoors and the environment, to announce Ontario’s first-ever urban provincial park. This is also the first provincial park the province of Ontario is announcing in over 40 years.

Ontarians in the GTHA, Speaker, we know, don’t always have equal access to Ontario’s green spaces, unlike those living in other areas of the province. That’s why our government is working hard to bring more opportunities for all Ontarians to enjoy the great outdoors. As the trail capital of Ontario, Uxbridge is an ideal location, and I thank the many partners, who I’ll elaborate on in the supplementary, who joined us—

I want to thank all the partners who joined us on Earth Day for that announcement, who we’ve been working for years with to make Saturday possible. I’d like to thank Mayor Barton, first and foremost, from the town of Uxbridge; he has been a champion, working alongside our member. I’d like to thank regional chair John Henry. I’d like to thank John MacKenzie from the TRCA; Rob Baldwin from the Lake Simcoe conservation authority; the chair of our Protected Areas Working Group, Peter Kendall, who was there; the Nature Conservancy of Canada; the Schad Foundation; Earth Rangers; local high school students who were there. Speaker, this is what partnership looks like.

In closing, a special thank-you to John MacKenzie, whose legacy land donation helped make this possible. It’s important to note that legacy land donors like John—we’ve enabled them to protect these areas for generations to come, thanks to the Greenlands Conservation Partnership, which this minister increased for a historic $14 million in funding in the budget. It’s one of the reasons we’ve protected four times that of the previous government since the last election, and we’re going to continue protecting these crown jewels for generations to come.

I want to thank my colleague the member from Newmarket–Aurora for her hard work on behalf of her constituents.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t think I need to remind Ontarians about the disastrous legacy of the previous Liberal government—supported by the NDP, of course—that helped drive over 300,000 jobs out of the province and businesses that were leaving. Thanks to the efforts this government, Mr. Speaker, we are changing all of that. It’s our efforts—through 10 different pieces of legislation, we have helped reduce the cost for businesses to do business annually by about $700 million.

Mr. Speaker, it’s no secret why over 85,000 new businesses were registered in the province of Ontario last year alone. Businesses are taking notice right around the world; they are making the investments in our province. We are creating the conditions for them to thrive, which ultimately helps our province and every single resident in the province thrive.

I want to thank my honourable colleague for that important question once again, and I want to thank her for organizing a wonderful round table with her local businesses last Friday. I had an opportunity to hear first-hand about some of the challenges, and feedback in terms of how we can continue to make our province competitive.

One of the things that I really enjoy in my role as the minister responsible for red tape reduction is meeting with businesses, meeting with individuals, and hearing first-hand about the challenges that they’re facing and how our government can continue to help them and help their business be competitive around the province. That’s how we have informed our 10 different pieces of legislation that we have introduced to help the regulatory burden on Ontarians.

We recognize there’s a lot more work to do, and we will continue to work hard each and every day to make sure that every Ontarian and every single business in the province has the opportunity to succeed and compete.

I have been enjoying listening to all members of this House speak on the opposition day motion—

Interjection.

I’d like to highlight to the members opposite—they talk about the grocery prices and the bills. But, colleagues, one thing that can really help bring down the cost of groceries in Ontario and across Canada—

Interjection.

However, we’re here to talk about the opposition day motion, so I’ll direct my comments to that now.

It’s an honour to rise in this House to speak on a very important subject that is top of mind for many Ontarians: the affordability crisis that exists in today’s housing market—I should emphasize, today’s housing market, because while affordability is a concern for many Ontarians, I want to make it crystal clear that our government is making every effort to make sure we build affordable rental apartments across this province.

We’ve set an ambitious goal. I like to highlight to the opposition, who continue to heckle me, that they agreed to the 1.5 million new homes by 2031 in their own platform. I’m glad they agree with us on that. I wasn’t in this place prior to the last election, but it’s disappointing that every time we brought forward a piece of legislation to increase the number of houses built, to increase the number of rental properties built, they voted against it. They said they expected us to do more.

Well, on this side of the House and over there in the middle, we expect the opposition to support our housing supply action plans and to fight for Ontarians.

As the minister and the associate minister alluded to already, we’ve set records in our housing project starts: in 2021, just less than 100,000 new housing starts; in 2022 we maintained the success, building momentum with 96,000 housing starts.

As the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing alluded to this morning in question period and in his remarks, the latest data show that Ontario has seen an 11% increase in 2023, already, on new housing starts, up nearly 1,200 from last year. Rental starts are, so far, double already under this new year of construction, which is great to see.

I know the Minister of Economic Development has secured another great auto manufacturing investment in a region that I come from, with the Volkswagen plant. We will need places to live for people who work in that plant. I know across rural Ontario, as the opposition likes to talk about, the number one thing they need is more rental supply. They need more supply for those workers in auto manufacturing who will supply the new Volkswagens and the other investments that we’re bringing to this province.

I think of my friends who want to get into the housing market and are currently renting. This government continues to fight for them to ensure that they can purchase an affordable and attainable house within their lifetime, to ensure that we have the dream of home ownership.

I know many of us in this place meet with many different home builders and also non-profits in their ridings when we’re back in our ridings.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Habitat for Humanity from my local area on Friday when I was in my riding. It was a great meeting with Habitat for Humanity, and it was great to hear that some of the changes we have made as a government are helping them build more multi-use rental apartments. It was great to hear that our changes under this Minister of Municipal Affairs, our associate minister and, of course, our Premier are getting more rental construction started in my part of the province.

Our government has been clear on our commitment to ensure affordability for homeowners and renters alike. That’s why we’re preserving rent control for existing units before 2018 and exempting rent control rules for new buildings, new additions to new buildings, and most basement units occupied after 2018. These actions protect tenants while stimulating construction of new rental housing—as I mentioned previously, it is vital in rural communities, where the stock currently does not exist to any extent.

At a time when families across the province are already struggling with the rising cost of living, the carbon tax and the shortage of housing options, it is crucial that we work in partnership with the private sector and the non-profits to grow our housing supply.

It has been alluded to already by the associate minister in her remarks, how, when the NDP held power and when they were in power, when I was a young, young man, rents went up by 4.6% and 6%. I don’t think it’s really a secret to anyone in this House why they haven’t formed government since 1995. In contrast, our government capped increases for the vast majority of tenants in 2023 to 2.5%, well below current inflation rates.

Our government is committed to continuing to release a new housing supply action plan every four years of our mandate. I know when I was on the campaign trail, many appreciated the fact that the government would continue to come back to this Legislature, under this municipal affairs and housing minister and this Premier, to always bring forward new additions, because we know we need to do more work. And right now, right in front of this House, is Bill 97, which protects tenants’ rights.

I was speaking to a renter on Friday when I was in the riding, and this renter was very appreciative of the tenant protections we had in the bill. Their landlord is renovating, so they were very encouraged to hear that, under proposed Bill 97, if passed—and I hope my colleagues across the way choose to support these protections for tenants—the landlord would have to provide a 60-day grace period for them to move back in, and the landlord was to allow the tenant to move back in at a similar rent. This was very encouraging for my tenant, and they said that this was long overdue.

As the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing alluded to, we’re increasing the fines—almost doubling them—under the Residential Tenancies Act for any violation.

As the Associate Minister of Housing alluded to, we are, under the Attorney General, investing more in the Landlord and Tenant Board—additional investments on the investments we made in budget 2022. We are investing $6.5 million extra to help alleviate the backlog at the Landlord and Tenant Board for both landlords and tenants—to clear that backlog to ensure that we can have the protections for those renters in Ontario.

Our government is sending a strong message to the actors that violate the Residential Tenancies Act with these changes to the fine structure.

I’m happy to see the NDP bring forward an opposition day motion to call on the stronger protections act. I know we’ll have an opportunity to vote on it later—

Interjection.

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.

I want to thank, first of all, my colleagues in the official opposition for their impassioned speeches this afternoon and their support of this really important motion. I think you heard here today so many stories, so many stories—the voices, really, of Ontarians brought here into the chamber over and over again—the stories of real Ontarians, regular people struggling to keep their homes, making choices between whether or not they can make rent or put food on the table for their families. And this is a choice that more and more families are making today, Speaker.

Rent is skyrocketing in this province. It’s the highest it has ever been, and the increases we’re seeing—you know, we heard today of 27%, 40%, 30% increases. Who can afford that? Who can afford that? We heard, also, about employers who are saying—we speak to the chambers, Speaker—that this is destroying our communities, our economy, because workers simply can’t afford to live in our communities anymore. They can’t get by. People are leaving this province.

All of those people that leave Ontario, that leave our communities? Those are our future. And they’re gone. They’re going. What’s really astonishing is the lack of other options, right? It’s the lack of other options. If there were other, more affordable options, maybe this wouldn’t be a conversation we would be having today. If Conservative governments of past days gone by hadn’t cancelled 17,000 co-op units that were supposed to be built in this province, maybe we might not be in quite the situation we’re in. But we can’t go back and rewrite history.

I think what I find the most concerning is that this government wants people to think that there’s no way out. That their backroom deals with developers are going to solve the problem. And that is—

There is another way. The government can join us, we can bring back real rent control in this province and we can stop the through-the-roof rent increases that are causing people in this province to lose their homes. We can create an Ontario where people can live a safe and secure life, not worrying about whether or not they’re going to be able to afford to keep the roof over their head.

I want to ask the members opposite: I know that they’re feeling pressure from the people in their communities, and that’s why they get grumpy like that, because they’re feeling the pressure, too. If we’re hearing about it, so are you. It’s time to do the right thing. This is one measure among many that we need to take to address the housing crisis in this province, but it’s a really important one.

Join us. Join us in bringing back real rent control in the province of Ontario.

I want to thank my colleague from Brampton West for his comments today on this important piece of legislation. Two aspects he spoke of in his presentation today were partnerships and investments. In my riding of Simcoe–Grey, we’re seeing significant investments by this government in critical infrastructure as my riding continues to grow, with the growth pressures we’re under. We have hospital redevelopment projects in Alliston at Stevenson Memorial and in Collingwood at Collingwood General and Marine Hospital. The town of Blue Mountains has a 160-bed licence to develop a long-term-care facility. And Collingwood recently received over $2 million to repair and rehabilitate a section of Highway 26, which is a critical piece of infrastructure for my area.

My question to member is, how does he see this legislation bettering the lives of Ontarians across the province?