My question is to the Premier. Residents yesterday were shocked to learn that Ottawa is receiving only $845,100 of the $200 million Ontario is giving municipalities to tackle the homelessness crisis. Ontario’s second-largest city, home to a million people, facing one of the biggest homelessness crises it has ever faced, is receiving only enough money to build two affordable homes.

Curiously, at the same time, the minister’s own riding received triple what Ottawa got, with less than a fifth of the population. Something seems off. Minister, can you provide a full account of where your government’s affordable housing funding is going and why?

Minister, can your government to commit to providing cities with the fair funding they are asking for to build the affordable housing they need?

I’d be happy to, Speaker. It’s interesting that this member asked the question when the person who sits beside her, when he was a regional councillor, asked the same thing that the Auditor General asked, and that was to fix the broken formula from the previous government.

In a 2021 value-for-money audit—you can read it right here—it talks about the inequity of that program. We had Mayor Sutcliffe and officials from Ottawa here. We explained the situation to them. But we are responding directly to the 2021 Auditor General’s report, where it said for funding equity.

You know who you need to ask, member? You need to ask the people from Niagara, the people from London, the people from Windsor, who were shortchanged with that previous formula. Ask your colleague.

The updated formula was developed based on the feedback from the Auditor General and municipal stakeholders. The updated model takes into consideration a community’s share of homelessness, supportive housing units, low-income households, households in deep core housing need as defined by CMHC, and Indigenous and youth populations.

We are not going to facilitate a funding formula that was outlined in the Auditor General’s report that forgets about communities, like those in Niagara, like those in London, like those in Windsor. We’re not going to do that. We’re going to respond to the Auditor General’s report and have a fair funding formula that treats all of Ontario with fairness and equity.