Once again, thank you to the great member for the question. Municipalities across Ontario are getting on board, helping to deliver on their housing pledges and to increase supply. But once again, the opposition continues to vote against the best interests of the people across this province. They acknowledged we were in a housing supply crisis, although they can’t seem to agree if it’s real or not, but then voted against our latest housing supply action plan to get more housing supply built. They take to the streets with signs saying they support tenants’ rights, but then they voted no to the single largest renter protection legislation we’ve introduced so far.

It’s our government that’s reducing red tape, we’re freezing costs, we’re giving municipalities the tools needed to build the communities of tomorrow, because we know the NDP—that, once again, no development party—are against getting anything done.

We’re going to continue to work closely with municipalities to address their unique challenges, but we’re going to maintain our laser focus on supporting families and job creators across this province. And I’ll have more to say in supplementary.

Our “helping tenants” package is going to double penalties for unlawfully hiking rents. We’re strengthening those protections against renovictions and we’re giving tenants more rights, including the ability to have air conditioners in their units.

However, if it was up to the NDP, we would have no housing supply, no rental property. It’s this government that’s getting housing built, with the highest yet purpose-built rentals this year. We’re going to continue to do that for the people of Ontario so that we can all benefit.

My question is for the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery. Ontario is welcoming a record number of newcomers from around the world, including to my riding of Brantford–Brant. It is important that these individuals and families have access to the services they need as they settle into communities across our province.

I hear about concerns from individuals who are arriving, particularly those from Ukraine, as they have difficulty navigating the registration process for critical government programs. The challenges that they are experiencing are due to the limited services that certain local centres can provide.

Everyone deserves to have convenient and seamless access to government services. Can the minister please explain how our government is ensuring access to government services for all Ontarians?

Across our province, the demand for different types of services varies according to each community’s needs and population. Whether it’s long wait times or having the necessary requirements to obtain a service, we know that this can lead to frustration and delays.

Ontarians should be able to resolve their issues and concerns at their first point of interaction with the government. The people of Ontario expect that our government will find solutions to fix the problems and challenges that they encounter.

Can the minister please elaborate on the specific actions that our government is taking to improve the delivery of government services for the people of Ontario?

My question is to the Premier. Tenants at 1276 Webster Street and 1280 Webster Street, many of whom are elderly and on a fixed income, need provincial intervention immediately. Members of London city council wrote a letter urging Minister Clark to take immediate action to prevent the owners from renovicting vulnerable tenants and pushing them into precarious situations and homelessness. Talking points about ineffective, reactive Conservative legislation about fines won’t keep these good people housed.

It’s simple: You have proactive legislation—rent control and tenant protection legislation—on the table that we could pass today. Will this government stand up for seniors and others on Webster Street and pass NDP legislation to reinstate rent control immediately?

Will this government pass legislation to re-establish rent control and plug the hole of vacancy decontrol? Yes or no?

I thank the member from Brantford–Brant for his question. I’m pleased to share with him that on June 14 we are launching the new health card transaction harmonization pilot project to enhance the Ontario experience by better aligning public and private service centres.

Speaker, ServiceOntario is focusing on delivering essential government services for not only refugees and newcomers from Ukraine, but also residents returning to the province and the homeless population, who currently cannot be registered at our local private service provider locations.

This ServiceOntario pilot project launching in our great member’s riding of Brantford–Brant will provide, through appointments, outreach services that meet the demands of new OHIP registrants and ensure that residents are able to access the services they need conveniently and accessibly.

In addition to the harmonization of services at existing service centres, my ministry is establishing ServiceOntario express locations to provide accessible core services and build a more sustainable in-person presence, with streamlined processing and minimized wait times. The health card transaction harmonization project is already supporting approximately 26,000 people through seven private service centres for health card services for international agri-food workers.

With the help of great members like the one from Brantford–Brant, who advocate for their communities, we are not stopping the work to make a trip to ServiceOntario easy, accessible and, of course, quick.

The ayes are 97; the nays are 0.