I didn’t even know how much time I had left. I knew it wasn’t much, and that could be said in a lot of ways when it comes to me, but for the purpose of today, it’s about this bill.

To build or not to build? If Shakespeare was here, would he ask that question: To build or not to build? Well, this is one party that wants to build and will build. We’ll stand straight and into the wind for all of those that want to attack them for their decision to do what is right, and that is to build here in Ontario and, by extension, just do that: build Ontario.

When we were elected in 2018, that was the catchword: “We’re going to rebuild Ontario.” What have we done? While the Liberals, aided and abetted by the NDP, saw 300,000 and some good-paying manufacturing jobs leave the province, we brought ’em back. We brought ’em back by establishing an environment with which business could look at this province and say, “This is a great place to invest.” We’re now leading the world in investments in the auto sector because they see Ontario is a great place to invest.

But do you know what happens when you bring back people to work? Do you know what they ask you? “I love Ontario; I love what you’re doing, but I need a place to stay. I need a place to stay; my family needs a place to stay; my relatives are going to need a place to stay, and we want to continue to expand. So what are you going to do to help us?” Well, we’re not going to do what the NDP would do, which is to stand against every single bill we put forward and try to prevent housing from being built. Yet, on one hand they’ll say this: “Oh, we want to see 1.5 million homes built by 2031. Oh, yes we do. But no, you can’t do that. You can’t do that. You can’t put them here; can’t put them there.” By the time you get done with the can’ts, it’s a won’t. So many can’ts turn into a won’t. That’s the mantra of the NDP.

Yet, they’ll try to stand there and defend—“Oh, we want to do this for these people and this stakeholder and that stakeholder,” and then they wait to see if any of the cheques are coming in at their riding associations because they had something nice to say about this or that group while they were debating this in the House, all the while knowing full well that nothing was going to get built if it was under their watch.

Yesterday, the member for Thunder Bay–Superior North stood in her place and said, “supply and demand is a myth.” And I briefly touched on that yesterday; “supply and demand is a myth”. It’s about the most basic rule in economics. There have been lots of rules in economics that have been debunked over the years or proven to be weak in their theory, but supply and demand is as basic as it comes.

I was listening to the news last night and there was a real estate person on there with the reporter. The reporter was talking about real estate here in the GTA, and he said, “Well, prices have actually inched back up.” After the pandemic, prices dropped again. They had gone up through the pandemic, and then they had levelled, and then they dropped. But prices are back up, and he asked the realtor, “Why is that?” He said, “Well, it’s simple. There are fewer houses on the market, so the prices have gone up.” Now, isn’t that amazing? Fewer houses on the market, so the prices have gone up—boy, that’s hard to understand over there, isn’t it? Try to get your heads around that: fewer houses on the market, so the prices have gone up.

Well, then it stands to reason, Speaker, that if there were more houses on the market, the prices would come down. We all have to understand the considerations of inflation and everything else, but on a level playing field, the prices will come down. But every single thing we have done from the time we got here—and I’ve got to take my hat off to Premier Ford and his Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Honourable Steve Clark. He has shouldered this and kept his shoulder to the wheel right through this whole issue. Every time we come up, we’re doing more for tenants than has ever been done in this province before—ever been done. Bill 97 is another bill that protects tenants; another bill that brings in more protections for tenants than there were before.

And I heard the critic—I think it’s the member for University–Rosedale—

But anyway, she’s talking then about—so we’re bringing in a rule now so that if you’re a tenant and your building does not have air conditioning, the landlord must allow you to put an air conditioner into that building, into your room—a window air conditioner of some form into that apartment or whatever the case may be. So the landlord is going to be doing that. But the member, you know what she said? “Well, you can’t make them pay for the electricity that it takes to run the air conditioner.”

Boy, this is a great world, Speaker, I’ll tell you. I want that job. I want that place where everything I get, I never have to pay for. But you know what? In this world, it’s called fairness. You have a choice: you want something, you have to accept some of the responsibility for what it takes to get there. But no, because they have to stand there in their places.

I’ve got to believe that every night, they must have an un-pretzelling meeting—the de-pretzelization. You know how you have a debrief? Well, they have a de-pretzellizing, because they’ve twisted themselves in so many knots during the debate because they’re contradicting themselves. They’re for this but they can’t do this.

I sit here when I’m listening to this debate and I’m saying, “God, I hope they play that back before they go to bed tonight and listen to what they actually said—listen to what they actually said and then say to themselves, ‘Which part of me was saying that and which part of me was saying that? Because we’re not the same. We’re just not the same.’” Sesame Street would probably have a good cartoon to work with that: Who’s the same and who’s not? They’re not even the same when they’re the same one. The same isn’t the same because they talk two different stories when they’re up in the same debate.

It’s because they will not support whatever this government does. But I’m going to tell the folks over there—I know they don’t listen to me anyway, or they’ve never done anything I’ve asked them to do—but I do want them to actually understand this, because unfortunately you will never get to experience it: Governing is tough, but governing is real and it takes tough people to govern. It takes those people who will stand up against whatever kind of criticism is being levelled at them, because they are committed to what? They are committed to doing the right thing, even if it means that they’re going to be criticized and cajoled on social media by all of those people who spend half of their lives punching into a computer or an iPhone or something in their messaging, as opposed to actually getting out and talking to the real people in the real world on the streets who are wondering if they’ll ever have a chance to own a home or if their children will ever have a chance to own a home or if their grandchildren will ever have a chance to own a home.

You know who they’re standing with? They are standing with the Doug Ford government, which is going to make sure that the future for them is a bright one, in spite of the darkness that descends every time the NDP speaks on this issue.

I will say to the member, he’s right; I did speak on the opposition side, but they were not the same speeches, let me tell you that. They were very good, but they were not the same speeches. But I will say this: We have two different views. They want to do what they want to do to prevent building from taking place. If it isn’t the greenbelt, it will be something else.

But what it comes right down to, Speaker, is that they are standing in the way of actual progress and building for the future. If they aren’t going to build on the greenbelt, then they will find someplace else we’re not going to build.

But the reality is this: We’re actually expanding the greenbelt. Speaker, the greenbelt will be bigger after we’re done than it was when we got here, and there won’t be 17 separate reductions on the greenbelt—

I just want to remind that member that he was in official opposition for 15 years and was doing the same type of speeches on this side of the road, going after the government. I just want to remind him. I know because he doesn’t hear as well as he used to.

I agree we need to build 1.5 million homes. What I don’t agree with is that we should be building them on the greenbelt, neither does any young person that I know agree that you should build on the greenbelt. So if you’re caring about young people, you’re caring about our grandkids, don’t build on the greenbelt. It’s their future.

I also don’t agree that we should be—when you talk about farmland—ripping up 319 acres of prime farmland every single day in the province of Ontario. How are we going to feed ourselves?

We have a crisis in health care—I’m going to have a question today on it—where they’re shutting down Fort Erie emergency care.

We have a crisis in affordable housing—

I thank the member for his comments. I also heard the broad agreement to build more homes. I’ve heard that from several speakers across the aisle, which is great news, and we agree. That’s why we’re committed to building 1.5 million homes.

This is a tough task. If this was easy, it would have been done in the past and we wouldn’t have this problem. But housing, if you look at policy directives that need to happen, is up there among the toughest, in my opinion, because it requires many governments working together, industry, all sorts of different factors, and that’s why we haven’t had this problem. But we need to do it. The young generation needs it. That’s why this bill, as well as many others, will increase the housing supply. I ask the member, are he and his party willing to support this bill to get that job done?