I am pleased to read this petition.

“Protect the Greenbelt.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Bills 23 and 39 are the Ford government’s latest attempt”—well, an attempt—“to remove protected lands from the greenbelt, allowing developers to bulldoze and pave over 7,000 acres of farmland in the greenbelt;

“Whereas Ontario is already losing 319.6 acres of farmland and green space daily to development;

“Whereas the government’s Housing Affordability Task Force found there are plenty of places to build homes without destroying the greenbelt;

“Whereas Ford’s repeated moves to tear up farmland and bulldoze wetlands have never been about housing, but are about rewarding PC donors and making the rich richer;

“Whereas green spaces and farmland are what we rely on to grow our food, support natural habitats and prevent flooding;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately stop all plans to remove what has long been protected land from the greenbelt, pass the NDP’s Protecting Agricultural Land Act, and protect irreplaceable farmland in the province of Ontario.”

Of course, I support this petition. I will affix my signature and will send it to the table with page Solomon.

I listened with interest to the talk about what’s needed in housing and how this government plans to get there.

In the region of Durham, we have a lot of housing need, but what is needed varies. In fact, the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions came to my riding and did a tour of downtown Oshawa with me. I appreciate his coming and taking a look, but what we all realized is that we don’t have what is needed in terms of transitional housing, supportive housing. CMHA Durham said they have units but they don’t have subsidy.

We don’t just need the talking points about new housing that isn’t going to affect people in desperate need right now. And when the regions are doing fantastic work but without what they need in terms of a partnership from this government—we’re talking about regional government now. What are you going to do to be better partners?