I appreciate the comments from the Solicitor General.

An effective response for my community in London would have been stable, permanent funding for the COAST program. That is a program that pairs police officers with mental health workers, social workers and nurses so that they can respond effectively to the crisis of mental health and addictions that we are seeing in our city. We have a crisis that has triggered a whole-of-community response to address the escalating levels of mental health and addictions and homelessness. That permanent funding for the COAST program, which is what my community has been asking for for several years, would have gone a long way to improving community safety in London.

In London, we have 2,000 people on the by-name list, who are unhoused. We have 6,000 households, representing 11,000 individuals, who have been waiting, sometimes for a decade, to get into rent-geared-to-income housing, and in the meantime, they’re living in substandard housing; they’re couch-surfing. They are not able to get into that kind of housing stability that’s going to help them move forward and build their lives. Housing is where it has to start.

Through you, Madam Speaker: I, like the member opposite, really appreciate—I appreciate the level of strength she has within her community.

We had an announcement of $36 million for the Homelessness Prevention Program. I did a little research. Her riding, actually—London-Middlesex—received $22 million with respect to homelessness prevention. These are important things that actually help us build communities and create a good environment for our residents.

I was going to ask her another question. Thornhill is a very large mass and we’ve got a lot of area in our riding. The Fire Protection and Prevention Act allows multiple deputy fire marshals to be appointed to ensure a timely response to crucial matters. This will save lives—more area, more fire marshals.

Will the opposition support these changes by voting yes to our bill that will amend this issue?

This particular bill is talking about the Strengthening Safety and Modernizing Justice Act. As much as I can appreciate that the social determinants of health and the social determinants of safety include housing as well—the opposition knows very well that we’ve put forward several bills on housing, historic bills.

We’ve also put forward a homelessness prevention strategy which is working very well. In my region of Peel, we recently announced a $42-million investment in the homelessness prevention strategy. I want to ask the member, is she is aware of the funding that was announced in her region? Every single region across Ontario has received dollars for the homelessness prevention strategy. So what was the number in her region?

I want to assure the member across the way that I am very much informed about what is happening in my community.

There was an initial investment from the province that, following the budget, was supplemented by an additional $8 million for London-Middlesex; $1 million of that went to Middlesex, leaving London with an additional $7 million. That is funding that came after the city had developed the health and homelessness whole-of-community response. It is funding that needs to be supplemented to a much higher degree if the city is to be able to move forward with this model, innovative program to actually deal with the health and homelessness crisis that we are facing in the city of London.