Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

To reply, the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Well, it’s pretty rich coming from the Liberals, who basically did nothing on housing for 15 years, to now try to be the champion for farmers. For almost every budget that I sat in opposition on, the word “agriculture” never appeared in a Liberal budget—never.

So now we have a policy that actually recognizes that a farm can now have the opportunity to sever a lot for a son or a daughter—a farm that, if they decided that they wanted to provide quality housing for workers on the site, they could sever a lot.

Now we know again where the Liberals are at, just like where they were at for 15 years when they were in government: They stand against agriculture, they stand against farmers and they stand against housing in rural areas. That’s the Liberal Party.

The housing crisis is making life unaffordable in Ontario and driving young workers out of the province. This government claims to understand the issue, but their actions say otherwise. They commissioned an expert task force to address the problem, yet they’ve ignored the experts and one of their most important recommendations: to build density in our towns and cities, not to expand their boundaries outward. The province last week ordered cities to do just that and destroy neighbouring farmland.

This attack on farmers will reduce the supply of local food, raising food prices, and create more sprawl, which undermines our carbon reduction goals. Farmers are against this decision, cities and regions are against it and the government’s own experts are against it.

My question to the Premier: Who is telling the Premier that he should pave over our farmland, and are they the same people who will benefit from this decision?

The member for Haldimand–Norfolk introduced a bill to protect our farmland from development. It was supported by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and all MPPs except those on the government side. This government is being very clear: They want to pave over farmland.

Speaker, my question to the Premier: Can the Premier please explain how paving over their farmland helps farmers?

Interjections.