We’re now nearing the end of our spring session, and June is right around the corner. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of my colleagues in the House for their service to the province, as well as take a minute to highlight the great work that our government has accomplished in the past months.

Speaker, our government, led by Premier Ford, has made significant strides as we combat the housing crisis, improve Ontario’s health care, enhance our children’s education, make Ontario safer and strengthen our economy.

We’re building on our progress to speed up housing starts. From January to April, we saw over 27,000 housing starts, which represents a 16% increase over the same period last year. On rental, that’s almost 7,000 starts, double where we were at this time last year.

We’re also breaking from the status quo on our health care system that has stifled innovation and struggled to respond to growing challenges and changing needs.

On the education side, we’re taking action to boost literacy and math skills and ensure the province’s public education system focuses on what matters most: important, life-long skills.

We’re taking action to crack down on criminals and make Ontario safer, whether that’s on auto theft or ensuring that high-risk and repeat violent offenders comply with their bail conditions or helping address the rise of hate incidents against religious and minority groups.

As we’re continuing to spur job growth and build a strong economy for Ontario families, more than 600,000 people are working today than they were before this government.

Speaker, I promised my riding that I would work my back off on their behalf. This spring was no different. Let’s continue to get it done.

Thank you to the great member from Carleton for the question. Our province is committed to tackling homelessness and ending the housing supply crisis in Ontario.

Speaker, last week, I was pleased to announce that our government is investing an additional $24.1 million to create more affordable housing in Ottawa. The 138 new affordable and supportive units resulting from this funding are being built even as we speak. And I had the opportunity to tour the site last week, along with the member from Carleton, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and His Worship the mayor of Ottawa.

Speaker, this is a great example of how we will continue working with all of our partners across this province to make sure the most vulnerable people in our society are safe and homed.

As I previously mentioned, we’re committed to helping all of our municipal partners in their fight against homelessness. That is why our government has increased funding for the Homelessness Prevention Program and Indigenous Supportive Housing Program by a historic $202 million.

We will continue working to ensure our municipal partners have the tools they need to protect vulnerable members of their communities, because we know that when communities thrive, Ontario thrives.

My question is for the Associate Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. First, I would like to thank the associate minister along with the Minister of Housing for visiting Ottawa last week.

Everyone deserves to have a safe place to call home. That’s why it’s so crucial that our government addresses the need for more supportive housing across our province. We made a commitment to support Ontarians who are at risk of and those who are experiencing homelessness. As we work towards increasing housing supply across our province in the coming years, we must ensure that every Ontarian can find housing that meets their needs and budgets.

Speaker, through you, can the associate minister please elaborate on the measures our government is taking to increase the supply of affordable housing?

We know that homelessness is a serious concern throughout our province, and that’s why our government must continue to provide solutions that address and prevent homelessness in Ottawa and across Ontario.

Mr. Speaker, through you, can the associate minister please expand on the measures our government is taking to assist municipalities as they support the most vulnerable people in our communities?

I do want to thank the member for the question.

Newcomers and those looking to purchase their first home in our province play an absolute vital role, whether it’s in our economy, our growing, our enriching, our social fabric and our culture, and it’s our duty to make sure that we have housing available for them. As we know, we’re looking to about a half a million more newcomers coming in the very new future, and we must get that housing built.

This bill and the measures within this bill help alleviate duplication and red tape to allow more housing to be built faster. When housing can be built faster, there are less costs, and those cost savings can then be passed on to those purchasing new homes or to renters.

For example, I was touring Perth–Wellington the other day, and we saw everything from women’s shelters to purpose-built rental, mixed-use, supportive housing—mental health and addictions—all the way up to new homes and single-family homes.

We learn from many of our service providers and those not-for-profits, those people who are on the ground, who are providing those services, about what is needed. For example, in my riding, we have a community not-for-profit build for some supportive units, but we also have to make sure we have those wraparound services provided. We can’t build units and have them empty. We want to make sure those wraparound services are also provided for those people who are most vulnerable and who desperately need them.

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?

Thank you to the member for the question.

As I alluded to in my remarks, we’re establishing a transition board to work with, including the region of Peel, the four municipalities involved.

With Bill 23, I talked to many municipal colleagues in my riding—I believe it is 72, all told, in my riding of Perth–Wellington, and they always appreciate the open-door policy I have with them, working with them. When Bill 23 came before this place—they all understand that we need more housing, and that includes in rural Ontario and the region of Peel, which this piece of legislation helps to achieve, among many other things. They all know that this government will continue to work with them to get more housing built and to continue to support them where they need to be supported, whether that’s through infrastructure funding to get those—

My question is for the Associate Minister of Housing.

We know we have a housing crisis across the province. Certainly, in my riding of Simcoe–Grey, we’re seeing, with two growth nodes, both in Alliston and Collingwood, that there are incredible pressures there for housing.

But there’s also incredible population growth in our province. For the first time in our history, we exceeded 15 million people last year, and we know we’re going to be growing substantially. We grew by 400,000 new residents in Ontario last year. The federal government is planning to bring in 500,000 immigrants per year.

I’m wondering if the associate minister could please explain how this legislation, if passed, will help us to continue to grow to prepare for future growth and welcome new Ontarians looking to lay down roots in our province.

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.

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?

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.

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—