Thank you to the member from Etobicoke–Lakeshore, one of our neighbouring ridings. We have very similar needs.

We do see that when we put together this legislation, the key part was to have a transition board of experts from all these sectors to make sure that when the date of January 1, 2025, comes around, that transition is as seamless as possible. What’s most important, I believe, is that there is no disruption of services in policing, paramedic, services to those most vulnerable. They must continue. This transition board appointed by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing will make sure that happens. The finances of all of those municipalities and the region of Peel will be taken into account to make sure that it is fair and equitable for all of them—again, that that transition respects taxpayers, but it’s done seamlessly, as well.

The date we have set is a year and a half from now to have the transition put in place. Up until then, things will continue as they are today. We want to make sure that when that goes through—Caledon is growing absolutely exponentially. They’re going to quadruple by 2051. We are seeing that growth. I live very close to there, so I do see it today. It is great to see that people want to move into Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon. It’s a great place to live. It’s a great place to raise a family. There are now more businesses also moving into Caledon, as well. So we see that growth, and infrastructure is being built today. It will continue to be built to make sure, once again, that it is seamless. Caledon, obviously, will be taken into consideration—

Thank you very much to the minister and the parliamentary assistant for the speeches today.

It doesn’t matter where you live; we need more housing. We need to continue to act quickly on Ontario’s housing supply crisis by empowering our municipal partners. I know that both you and the minister have spoken with all the mayors of the various places.

As part of this proposed change, I see that it talks about a transition board.

I’m wondering if you could expand on the role that the transition board would take and what its priorities would be.

Thank you to the member opposite. I enjoyed listening to his comments. I know he focused to a great extent on democracy, representation and consultation. When Minister Clark stood up in the House to announce this bill, we had all three mayors as well as the regional chair present, and this is all something that they support. So I’m wondering if the member opposite will also support this if he’s prepared to listen to the duly elected mayors from each of the municipalities, the regional chair as well as the will of this House. Will he support this bill to help our lower-tier municipalities take control of their destiny and forge ahead to help us meet our housing supply crisis?

Thank you to the member for his excellent one-hour presentation on very complicated subject matter, which doesn’t have a lot of details. This debate reminds me of the time that, at that point in time, Premier Mike Harris was forcing six former municipalities to merge to now create this new mega-city that we have in the city of Toronto. Toronto today, of course, has a population of three million people. We have a GDP over—I think it’s almost $400 billion.

Interestingly enough, I remember at that time in 1997, there was a pre-amalgamation report that this House had produced talking about the potential savings of $82 million by forcing those cities into a marriage. By 1999, the city of Toronto commissioned their own report and they found that there were no promised cost-savings whatsoever. So my question to the member is: Without deep analysis and serious, robust consultation, how can we be guaranteed that the promises that the Premier is making will come true?

I just had a quick question for the member. I know this bill also affects my particular area. I talk to a lot of folks in Simcoe county. It’s becoming a very mature region. Certainly, Simcoe county was formed when we had a lot of little, small municipalities and a lot of folks in my region opt in to the county. For example, the city of Barrie isn’t in the county. So they understand that as populations grow, all governments need to be nimble with change.

My question to the member opposite is, would they not be receptive to other areas that are included in this bill that may need to change and get with the times because their population is growing and this is the need that they see may be better for their residents?

I know that the mayors have spoken in support of this bill. I used to be a municipal councillor, so I know how you talk to provincial government when you’re a municipality, regardless of what the legislation is. So I’m not sure they had much of a choice in supporting it. I know there are a lot of concerns. I can commit that we will do one of three things: We’ll either support it, oppose it or abstain.

This is a rare situation, a dissolution of a region, and as I said in my speaking, there’s very little detail in this bill to protect residents, certainly not anything to protect workers. I think that’s what is concerning people and that’s what’s leading to issues with public trust in this government.

I want to thank my colleague for his thoughtful, in-depth hour-long speech on the bill that we have at hand. Being a Brampton boy, we always thought that when you have somebody coming to your home, you want to do everything you can to make them feel welcome, and from a provincial perspective, this means that we’ve got to build roads for people to drive on when they move here. That means we’ve got to build homes for them to live in and make sure that they have an opportunity, that when they come to Canada for a better life, they’re actually able to work towards and have that better life.

We know we have half a million new Canadians coming in 2025, as the federal government targets, many coming to Brampton. The city of Brampton signed on 113,000 new units as a housing pledge, and we think Brampton can control its own destiny. Does the member have any thoughts on whether the city of Brampton should be responsible for its own planning and its own destiny?

Thanks to my friend from Niagara Centre. Public transit, particularly in Brampton, biggest and busiest: 115% capacity right now. What is this change going to mean for the good people of Brampton who want well-funded, operationally sound public transit?

Thank you. Questions?

Further debate?

It’s an honour to rise this afternoon to speak in support of Bill 112, the Hazel McCallion Act (Peel Dissolution), introduced by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. I’d like to thank him and his team, including the associate minister from Mississauga–Streetsville and the parliamentary assistant from Perth–Wellington, for moving forward with this bill which, if passed, would begin the process of dissolving the region of Peel and make Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon into independent, single-tier municipalities. As the minister said, this will reduce waste and duplication, make our local government more efficient and help save taxpayers time and money. This is the right-of-centre approach to governing that I know Mayor Crombie supports.

The process would be fair for all three municipalities, and it will ensure that front-line services, including police, paramedics, public health, housing, water and waste water and all other important local services will not be affected. As the minister said, if Bill 112 is passed, protecting these services will be a top priority for our government. But most importantly, Bill 112 will give our local governments the tools they need to deliver on their commitments to build the homes we need for our growing population, including 120,000 homes in Mississauga, 113,000 homes in Brampton and 13,000 homes in Caledon.

As the minister said, the name of this bill is another great tribute to the incredible legacy of Hazel McCallion, who served as our mayor for 36 years, helping to guide Mississauga, as the minister said, from a partly rural community of 281,000 people in 1978 into one of the largest cities in Canada with over 713,000 people when she retired in 2014. Speaker, that is an average growth of 12,000 people, or about 4,000 families, every year for 36 years.

I’ve been able to speak many times here about my friend and mentor, about how she’s been an inspiration to me and about the impact she had on every part of life in the city. To give just one example, this Sunday, we’re looking forward to the annual Hazel McCallion Walk for Health along the waterfront trail in Port Credit. Last year, this event raised over $500,000 to help build the new Mississauga Hospital, which will be the largest and most advanced hospital in Canadian history, and I know we’ll be raising even more this year. Mayor McCallion was a great champion for this project, and being able to announce it with her and with the Premier was my proudest moment as an MPP.

Hazel was also a long-time supporter of independence for Mississauga. I had the privilege to serve on the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs, and 18 years ago, in May 2005, this committee met in Brampton and Mayor McCallion was one of the presenters. She spoke about overlap and duplications between the city and the region in many different areas. This begins on the council itself. Many residents don’t know this, but Mississauga councillors earn at least two different salaries: $95,000 at the city and $70,000 at the region. And I hope that the transition board will take a look at this. But 18 years ago, Mayor Hazel McCallion spoke about organizing a Khalsa Day parade, and about how she had to meet many times with regional staff because the parade was going on regional roads and with city staff because the parade was going on city roads. Hazel said, “What a waste of time.”

The same is true in the planning department. As the minister said, complex land-use policy with duplications and overlaps between the two levels of planning authority—the city’s planning department and the region’s planning department, each with their own priorities—has delayed the approvals for new housing needed in Mississauga and across the region. As the minister said, these delays are added costs to new housing, which are passed on to the home buyers and renters. According to the Altus Group, each month of delay adds about $2,600 to the cost of an 800-square-foot apartment and double that for a single family home.

Last year we passed Bill 39, the Better Municipal Governance Act, which extends strong-mayor powers, beginning with Toronto and Ottawa, to give mayors new tools to build the housing supply we need. But as Mayor Hazel McCallion said 18 years ago at the committee, mayors of single-tier cities like Barrie, Windsor and London had more authority than she had as mayor of the third-largest city in Ontario, or the sixth-largest city in Canada. The only way forward towards a stronger mayor in Peel region is to allow Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon to become single-tier cities.

But Speaker, at this point, I need to reiterate a point that the minister made: By themselves, Bill 39 and Bill 112 are not enough. We’re counting on all levels of government, including the municipal partners, to do their part to fix the housing supply, and yes, that includes transit-oriented developments and includes towers along transit routes like the new Hazel McCallion LRT on Hurontario.

Mississauga is Ontario’s third-largest city, but over the last 10 years, the city built an average of only 2,100 new homes each year, far below the 12,000 that we need. In the past few months alone, the city rejected applications for two residential towers with over 1,100 units, right next door to the Port Credit GO station, a major inter-regional transit hub that will connect to the Hazel McCallion LRT and bus rapid transit on Lakeshore. Less than 500 metres south, they rejected an application to develop the old funeral home in Port Credit into an 11-storey, 42-unit condo building because the city height limit was just three storeys—again, right next door to a major transit hub. Our councillor said the funeral home “is very much a part of what” we want and “what we’ve come to know and like about Port Credit.” He’s talking about a funeral home.

Earlier this month, the city rejected a proposal to build nine towers and townhouses, a total of 4,700 units, on vacant land right next to the future Hurontario LRT station because of the concerns about shadows on single-family homes.

I could go on with many other examples. When the minister granted an MZO earlier this month for more housing in Lakeview Village, some at the city were outraged. Rob Trewartha, the mayor’s former chief of staff, tweeted that “13 years of work by council” was “erased with the stroke of a pen.” But 13 years of planning work by two layers of bureaucrats at the city and the region without a single shovel in the ground while housing costs in Mississauga increased by 200% is not something to be proud of.

Speaker, earlier this year, we passed Bill 71 because we recognized it shouldn’t take 15 years to get a mining permit in Ontario. It shouldn’t take 15 years to get approvals for new homes, especially in a housing supply crisis. Earlier, I mentioned that under the leadership of Mayor Hazel McCallion, Mississauga grew by 12,000 people, or about 4,000 families, each year for 36 years. But the numbers since she retired in 2014 are very different. For the first time in Mississauga’s history, the city’s population actually declined, from the 2016 census to the 2021 census from 722,000 to 718,000. That’s a loss of about half a per cent of our population over five years. So while Mississauga grew by 12,000 people each year under Mayor McCallion, we lost almost 1,000 people each year under Crombie. Speaker, that can’t continue. In order to grow by 995,000 people by 2051, as the minister said, Mississauga needs to add at least 9,000 people each year for the next 30 years, which is actually less than our growth rate under Mayor Hazel McCallion.

With Bill 112, we’re granting the city’s request for independence, only with the expectation that they will approve and build homes they agree to—at least 120,000 new homes over 10 years, or 1,000 new homes every month. The mayor suggests that the city is on track, but her chief building officer told me recently that the city would have trouble meeting this target. A recent analysis by professor Mike Moffatt at Western University in London, who tracks the progress of each city towards their housing targets, ranks Mississauga only 27th out of 29 cities. Speaker, 15 months into the 10-year pledge, only 2,000 new homes have been completed in Mississauga—only 13% of the 15,000 we need. And yet when the minister approved an MZO in Lakeview Village, the mayor and councillors asked residents to call my office and complain.

Speaker, I actually did get a few calls and emails. I would like to read one now that I just received:

“Hello, Rudy. I’m reaching out to you with hope that our voices will be heard, and other actions will be taken by the government to make housing more affordable.

“Me and my husband (both 30 years old) are both working professionals. I’m a professional engineer and my husband is a technician. We came to Canada as students (10 years ago) and since we graduated in 2016, we have been working continuously trying to save money for the down payment so we can buy a house, where we can live (with) our baby.

“But it has been almost impossible to buy anything in the GTA, and we have lost all hope. Even with good incomes, we are not able to save because of high rent: 35% of our income goes to just the rent! This is crazy and so” unbelievable “for young families like us.

“We have friends who have already moved out of Mississauga, and went as far as moving outside of Ontario or moving to the US.

“We have decided to leave Ontario next year in the spring to purchase affordable housing. And I wanted to let the government know that they will lose out on many talented and skilled people very soon if no actions are taken.”

I’ve received many more like this—not just from young Ontarians. Last week, a senior called my office. She didn’t complain about the building height or the shadows or impact studies. She didn’t complain about the province throwing out 13 years of planning work. She didn’t say the Skinner and Middlebrook Funeral Home is what she loves about Port Credit. She was upset because her only daughter, a nurse, is planning to move to Alberta—and not because of Bill 124. She’s planning to move to Alberta because the cost of a home in Calgary is less than half of it here in Mississauga. In part, that’s because the city’s development fees add about $126,000 to the cost of a single-family home, and that’s $1,000 added to the average homebuyer’s mortgage payment over the next 20 years. That’s why last year we passed Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, to freeze, reduce or exempt some of these fees to support new construction.

Speaker, we disagree on many things here, but I think it’s clear to all members that the status quo on housing isn’t working.

I listened to one of the city’s meetings on Bill 23, and I was shocked to hear a member of the Mississauga planning and building department question whether Ontario really has a housing crisis and question whether 120,000 new homes are needed in Mississauga. One of the residents, Jonathan Giggs, said that he did not think he ever would hear something like that coming from a city planner.

Speaker, as I said, we’re moving forward with Bill 112, granting the city’s request for independence, with the expectation that they will work together, in good faith, towards meeting their target of at least 120,000 homes over the next 10 years. As well, we expect that they will work together with their transition board to protect the public interest throughout this process, as section 5 of Bill 112 requests.

As Mayor Hazel McCallion reminded us in one of her final letters, back in January, which supported Bill 39 and our recent changes to the greenbelt, acting in the best interest of the people isn’t always popular. She wrote: “To meet our current challenges, we need to allow more homes to be built where it makes sense and where there’s existing services, infrastructure and transit. And I hope that the mayor and council will consider this.”

As the minister said, the transition board would be appointed quickly, including experts with a wide range of experience in municipal government, finance and operations, labour and service delivery, and, of course, housing. The board will provide advice on all of these issues, and it will help ensure fair outcomes and respect for taxpayers in Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon.

As the parliamentary assistant said, the region of Peel’s infrastructure has a net book value of $11 billion. As the region is dissolved, the board will help to ensure that these shared assets and revenues will be treated fairly for all three municipalities, and it will help to ensure there is no disruption to front-line services and workers. In fact, I expect this process will actually improve front-line services. As the minister said, the board will rely on the results of the third-party audits that were announced earlier this month. If the audit finds duplication and overlap—and I expect they will—in, for example, back-office supports at the city and the region, the board may recommend that this funding would be better used to expand front-line services to support growth. At the same time, we expect that the experienced region of Peel employees can help to meet the growing needs of the cities of Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon.

The board’s recommendations, which will be due next year, will help the government to move forward with another bill to ensure the transition can proceed by January 2025.

In closing, I want to thank the minister and his team for all the work they’re doing to help position Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon for future growth and to help ensure that everyone in Ontario can realize the dream of home ownership, with access to safe and affordable housing that meets their needs in the communities they want to live in.

Again, I urge all members to support this bill. I know today Hazel McCallion is looking over us and listening and supporting this bill, Bill 112. So I hope all of you will support it for her, as well.

Questions?

I want to thank my seatmate for his excellent remarks. I know this bill is very near and dear to his heart, not only because of who the bill represents, but what it does for his constituents. He did a really great job in his speech to actually articulate what his constituents are telling him—even seniors who are saying they’re really going to miss their loved ones who are travelling to other provinces because that’s where they can afford homes. I certainly hear that in Simcoe county, as well, which is part of this review. So I’m going to ask him, what else is he hearing from members in his riding about how this bill is going to help some of that ability to develop more land so that we can build more homes and certainly are able to retain more of those people so they can live and work here, as opposed to living in other provinces?

I want to thank the member for that question.

As the member alluded to, we are going to be putting in a transition team as soon as this bill does pass—and I hope it will pass.

We had the three mayors here last week. We had the mayor from Caledon, the mayor from Brampton and the mayor from Mississauga, as well as the regional council here in support of this bill. So, together, we will do what the people of our municipalities would like.

Speaker, the word “consultant” is missing from this bill, and there’s nothing requiring this government or the transition board to consult with Peel residents or businesses about a restructuring process that will have a huge and lasting unknown impact on their taxes and services.

There’s a schedule 8, which is actually an enforcement piece that this government found necessary to put in. It’s enabling the minister to apply to the Superior Court of Justice for an order requiring a person or entity to comply with the provisions of the act or regulations made under this direction. If this has been so widely supported by the Peel municipalities, why is this section needed, enforcing them legally to comply?

I want to thank the member from Barrie–Innisfil for that question.

Yes, it is difficult now to buy a home in the city of Mississauga. My family immigrated to the city of Mississauga—at the time, it was Port Credit, and then it ended up becoming the city of Mississauga in 1974. My parents paid $15,000 for their home, and today, that same home is worth $1.7 million. Young families cannot afford that. That’s why we have to build more supply.

Supply and demand has always been my thing. I come out of the automotive industry, and we always talk about supply and demand. The more supply you have, the prices do come down.

For young families, I know there’s hope for them as we’re building supply in the city of Mississauga for them to hit our goal of 120,000 homes that we do need in the city of Mississauga for them.

In 1974, we had Port Credit, we had Cooksville, we had Huron Park, and we made it the city of Mississauga, under the region of Peel. Today we are going alone without the region of Peel. It’s like a parent with their children—it’s time for the child to move on, and Mississauga is a grown adult so they have to be on their own—

I think we chose Peel because we looked at the three municipalities therein, Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon—that they would be able to go on their own and be able to sustain what we have right now, with all the services that we have. It’s not going to be easy. That’s why we need three mayors who will be there working constantly to do this. I hope all three mayors will work together and be able to deliver this, and I think they will. But it’s going to take time. I know January 2025 will be the time when all cities will be on their own. I just recommend that they work together and be able to separate and do the right thing for the people of Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon.

Like I said, we have the transition team that will be set up after this bill is passed, if it is passed in the House.

I’ve consulted with my constituents, as well, in Mississauga on this bill, and a high percentage of them are in favour of Mississauga going alone.

As well, I spoke to people in Brampton and Caledon, and having their own city is what they want.

It’s not going to be easy. I’m not saying it will be easy, because there is a transition. But like we said, we guaranteed that the services will remain until 2025 and then every city will be going on their own.

Like I said, I spoke to constituents, and they are happy about this move going forward.

Housing has been an issue in Mississauga. Like I said, if you notice the numbers, when Hazel was there, she was building 12,000 homes a year, and now it has declined since she left office in 2014. We need homes. We need homes for our children, for the future and all these immigrants who are coming to the province of Ontario. We have 450,000 people arriving at our door every year, and these people are going to need homes.

In my speech, I was reading about a family who is leaving Ontario because they cannot find an affordable home in this province.

I look at our own development in Lakeview, where we just did our MZO—that 16,000 new homes will be built in that area. Out of those 16,000 homes, 1,600 will be affordable and attainable homes for the people. I want to thank our minister for putting that bill forward, as well, to pass an MZO for that community—

I think of this in terms of Sudbury—Sudbury was amalgamated, as well, during Mike Harris. If it was going to be reopened again, you would want to ensure that there’s transparency and be able to hear from the people who are going to be affected—not just the councillors, not just the mayors, but the people who actually live there. When I read this, what I read into it is that the minister is going to appoint five members, and they’ll be paid, and their expenses will be covered by those municipalities. They will have very broad powers to do what they want. They don’t have a requirement to consult, and they don’t have a requirement to publish their findings. So I’m concerned the government may have overlooked the requirement for this—to have this transparency so that municipalities know what’s happening and what’s going on. Am I misreading this? Is this missing in here? It seems like they have very broad powers and they have a slush fund bank account they can do anything they want with, but no accountability to the places where they’re going to be making these decisions.

Thank you, Speaker. It’s nice to see you in the chair this afternoon.

Thank you to my colleague from Mississauga–Lakeshore for his remarks. I was just wondering if he could expand a little on some components I raised in my remarks—and he alluded to it in his previous answer. Our government is taking the tough but necessary decisions to get more housing built, and I would classify this bill as one of those options. So I was wondering if he could expand, being a member from Mississauga, on how this will help.

Thank you very much.

Report continues in volume B.