Mr. Speaker, let’s be clear. I’ve said this in the House before and I’ll say it again: Ontario municipalities are still able to collect development charges on most market housing, provided that these are increased at a reasonable and predictable rate.

At the end of the day, more homes and growing communities make sense for taxpayers. They increase the tax base. They allow municipalities to be able to provide services to their local communities at a lower cost. That’s something that our government subscribes to, but municipalities need to do the same.

My question is to the Premier.

This Conservative government is expected to spend an estimated $650 million in taxpayer dollars to build an underground parking lot at Ontario Place, only to then hand it over to Thermëa, a private Austrian spa company, in a secret agreement. In the hearings at city hall last week, we learned that this enormous price tag for taxpayers is being justified with a highly inflated estimate of 14,000 visitors per day. That’s 4,000 more than the CN Tower and the ROM combined; 3,000 more per day than Canada’s Wonderland.

My question is, will the Premier make Ontario’s agreement with Thermëa public and explain to the people of Ontario what we are getting out of this deal?

We’ve been saying here that this government has absolutely failed to meet the moment, and I think you would agree.

One of the biggest issues is homelessness in all of our communities. AMO, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, said that “homelessness is the return on provincial underinvestment.” They also went on to say, “The homelessness crisis in your community”—and all of our communities—“is a made-in-Ontario crisis that results from underinvestment and other disastrous policy choices made by the government of Ontario.” That’s from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

I know that in the city of Hamilton, we’re facing a huge budget increase because of the lack of revenues that are coming to our municipalities—it’s happening all over our province. AMO estimates that given this government’s decisions, it will cost the municipalities $1 billion. And who’s going to pay for that? Municipal taxpayers and ratepayers that are already burdened.

So can you say further how this lack of investment for municipalities is going to further make life difficult for the people in your community?