SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
May 11, 2023 09:00AM
  • May/11/23 11:20:00 a.m.

My question is for the Premier.

The homelessness crisis is escalating across Ontario, with municipalities now declaring a state of emergency on homelessness—Niagara, Hamilton—and with over 10,000 people who are unhoused right now in Toronto, city council is poised to declare a state of emergency of homelessness this week. Cities across the province are in crisis, and the Ford Conservative government is abandoning them.

Will this government enact a homelessness strategy and work with municipalities to improve the lives of unhoused people in Ontario?

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  • May/11/23 11:20:00 a.m.

Speaker, it’s hard to comprehend the New Democrats and some of the questions.

Over the last two weeks, we have had municipal councils from all across the province celebrate our Homelessness Prevention Program and the fact that our government recognizes the fact that we are adding an additional $202 million to make our commitment almost $700 million; the fact that under the leadership of Premier Ford, we negotiated a historic agreement with the federal government during the pandemic and provided $4 billion to our municipal partners for a variety of measures, but most importantly, the $1.2 billion we provided them under the social services relief fund. Literally, our municipal partners saved lives in the middle of the pandemic because of their quick action with the dollars that we provided them.

Do we have additional work to do with municipalities? Absolutely. All of our service managers now have a by-name list in effect, and we want to continue to work with them so that we can move people—

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