I have the privilege of welcoming to the Legislature today two strong constituents from the riding of Niagara West, Ken and Bev Byberg. Welcome to Ontario’s Legislature.

Good morning. It gives me great pleasure to welcome to this House members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, including John Di Nino, president of ATU Canada; Marvin Alfred, president of ATU Local 113; Crystal Cadeau, Frank Malta, Renee Coutinho, Eric Tuck, Chuck Fitzpatrick, Hariqbal Bal, Jacques Racine, Jay Khawaja, Jack Jackson, Jamie Larkin, Andrew Salabie and Amandeep Gill. Welcome to your House.

Speaker, to the Premier: Will he join the minister and admit the Conservatives’ plan is failing?

Yet again, this government is focused more on themselves and their friends than on real Ontarians, because if they would listen to real Ontarians, they would realize that they have to do a whole lot better than this. People can’t afford places to live, Speaker. And what is this government telling them? They won’t fix their failing housing plan; they would rather build luxury homes on the greenbelt; and that their insider friends are more important.

Speaker, back to the Premier: Will you at least bring back real rent control to get Ontarians some relief?

Back to the Premier: How is this going to help somebody who can’t afford their rent this month?

From a multi-generational family of community leaders—especially today, on the eve of Passover—I welcome Stacey Granovsky and her son Boaz Granovsky. Welcome to the Ontario Legislature.

I am pleased to welcome the following representatives from the University of Guelph here today: Dr. Charlotte Yates, Dr. Gwen Chapman, Dr. Malcolm Campbell, Mellissa McDonald, Shannon Weber, Amy Aitchison and Megan Alberts. Please join us this evening in the dining from 5 until 7:30 for the reception. Thank you.

I’d like to welcome Jan Westcott and the crew from Spirits Canada here today and invite them to the reception this evening. We will all have fun there.

I am pleased to have two groups to introduce today. The first is folks from the Ontario Autism Coalition who are joining us this morning: Kate Dudley-Logue, Amy Moledzki, Bruce McIntosh, Karen Rene Bojti, Michele MacAdam, and of course everyone knows Michau Van Speyk.

Also from Ottawa this morning joining us are Dr. June Webber and Gerry Barr. Welcome, everyone.

That concludes our members’ statements for this morning.

Again, I guess I don’t have to point out the irony that the Leader of the Opposition now wants to build more houses, has somehow joined us in recognizing that there is a housing crisis in the province of Ontario—a crisis that was built up after 15 years of inaction by both the Liberals and the NDP systematically making it impossible for people to actually build homes and for people to actually afford homes, Mr. Speaker.

What the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing is doing is taking out all of the obstacles that make it harder to build homes in the province of Ontario. That has been the absolute goal of everything that we have been doing since day one in this place.

I congratulate the Leader of the Opposition for finally understanding that we have obstacles in the way of building homes for the people of the province of Ontario who so desperately want to have that first home, whether it’s to own the first home, their first rental. So I congratulate the Leader of the Opposition for finally recognizing we’re in a housing crisis and hope she’ll vote with us to actually deal with it.

At the same time, we know that there is a housing crisis in other parts of this province, and the reality is that we have to move out of the way red tape and the obstacles that have been causing this crisis, obstacles that the Leader of the Opposition and her party, in co-operation with the Liberals, put in the way of the people of the province of Ontario for over a decade and a half.

I appreciate that she agrees with us there is a housing crisis. I hope that she will join with us as we eliminate the red tape to get more homes built.

I’d like to extend a warm welcome to my friends Jim Corcoran and David Navia. Many of you may know them; with the stress of the Legislature, you may have been to Ste. Anne’s Spa in beautiful Grafton, Ontario. Welcome to the Legislature, Jim and David.

Though they couldn’t be here today, we want to wish the women’s Team Canada all the best in the world championships. The IIHF World Championships start April 5. They’d love to be here, but they’re going to be a little busy. All the best to the ladies.

I would like to welcome my friend and one of my team, Mr. Michael Lo Giudice, as he is coming back from Italy after five years; he graduated post-grad. Congratulations. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce a special guest from the Hammer, Eric Tuck, who is the president of ATU Local 107. Welcome to Queen’s Park, Eric.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to extend a warm welcome to my friends at the Ontario Autism Coalition who are joining us in the chamber this morning.

Thank you.

The next question.

The next question.

My question is to the Premier.

Premier, we have found that this government has forced municipalities to redraw their urban boundaries and rezone over 35,000 hectares of farmland and greenbelt land to permit sprawl—35,000 hectares in Peel, in Ottawa, in Hamilton, in Halton, in Durham, in York, and possibly Waterloo. They are all being forced to permit expensive, low-density sprawl on farmland, even though your government’s own Housing Affordability Task Force said very clearly that access to land is not the barrier that’s stopping this government and Ontario from meeting its housing target of 1.5 million homes.

Instead of recklessly paving over farmland and the greenbelt, can this government commit to a housing plan to increase density and build the homes we need in areas already zoned for development?

I want to thank Leader of the Opposition for the question. The former employee in question pleaded guilty to breach of trust, fraud and money laundering, which are all Criminal Code offences. The OPP will continue to investigate and enforce any acts which violate the Criminal Code. We expect everyone who works for the government of Ontario to uphold the highest standard of professional ethics. Mr. Speaker, we will accept nothing less.

Again, Mr. Speaker, it almost seems like there has been a conversion with the NDP. They now believe that we’re in a housing crisis and that we have to do something about it, despite the fact that for over 15 years they supported the Liberal Party, which put obstacle after obstacle after obstacle in the way of building those new homes. Now we’re hearing from the NDP that it’s getting more costly to live in different parts of the province of Ontario.

We started, again, back in 2018, reducing costs for people, cutting taxes for the people of the province of Ontario. They voted against every single one of those initiatives. We put real regulations in place to protect tenants across the province of Ontario. We have rent controls and we have more purpose-built rental housing being built in the province of Ontario than at any time over the last decade and a half.

What they can do, Mr. Speaker, if they want to go that extra mile for the people of the province of Ontario, they can call Jagmeet Singh in Ottawa and put on the table that the federal Liberals will do the right thing and pause a 14% increase in the carbon tax, which took place on—

Look, nobody believes the NDP’s now recent conversion, believing that we have to do better with the taxpayers’ money. Nobody believes that. Nobody believes the NDP when they say that they’re going to do more on public safety, because they always vote against it. Nobody believes the NDP all of a sudden has had a conversion that there’s a housing crisis and we have to do more to build homes across the province of Ontario. Nobody believes that, Mr. Speaker—unless they vote in favour of the budget; unless they vote in favour of Bill 60, which the Minister of Health has brought forward; unless they vote in favour of the red tape bill that we brought forward. Then, maybe, the people of the province of Ontario will start to believe what the—

We keep hearing this from the opposition: “During COVID, they had a fund.” Well, of course we had a fund, because unless the opposition had Nostradamus working on their side, none of us knew what COVID-19 was going to throw at us. We had to be able to respond quickly, and we did, despite the fact that they voted against increased funding for our hospital sector, despite the fact that they voted against tenants, despite the fact that they voted against a multitude of initiatives that helped us get through the pandemic better than any other jurisdiction in North America and, in fact, the world. They voted against it. We got it done, and now we’re moving—

We need more homes. Do you know why we need more homes? Because we’ve got thousands of people coming to the province of Ontario. Do you know why? Because we’ve taken the obstacles out of creating jobs and building wealth in the province of Ontario. Thousands of jobs are coming back to the province of Ontario, and billions of dollars of investment that left are now coming back, so we need those 200,000, and we need more.

I would say this to the opposition: Just a couple of days ago, supported by the NDP in Ottawa, the federal Liberals have decided to plant 400,000 trees on farmland across the GTA. I wonder if the member opposite would help us do the right thing and call Jagmeet Singh and say, “Don’t support the 400,000 trees that they want to build on farmland across the GTA.” It’s the wrong thing to do. It’s wrong for the people of the province of Ontario. We need more housing, and will you stand up for more—

On Sunday, residents rallied in Waterloo and their message was clear: Approve the region of Waterloo’s official plan which they participated in, protect the countryside line and crucial wetlands, and stop the needless carve-out of the greenbelt. Citizens know that there is no need to pave over farmland for sprawl.

In fact, a recent report from the Alliance for a Liveable Ontario says that Waterloo region already has the capacity to build nearly 230,000 new housing units within the current boundary.

To that end, will this government reverse the cuts to municipalities by repealing Bill 23 and work with democratically elected municipalities instead of fighting them?

Speaker, back to the Premier: Managing public funds and ensuring that every single dollar is invested in the services and programs that people need is a core responsibility of any government. But this week we finally saw the end of the saga of a senior bureaucrat who was siphoning off millions of dollars in public funds, including funds marked for pandemic support. To the Premier: How did this government fail to notice $47.4 million going out the door?

In reviewing what went wrong in this case, were these hastily created funds identified as a risk of fraud?

The judge in this case called what happened a “fraud perpetrated ... on everyone ... who lives in this province.” While the perpetrator is headed to prison, there are very important questions that remain unanswered here.

We know the government has increased the amount that they stash away in contingency funds by fivefold since they took office. They’re shuffling billions away from public scrutiny. What assurances do Ontarians have that we won’t end up seeing more lost public funds as a result of this?