It’s a great pleasure to welcome a number of constituents from my riding of Simcoe–Grey today: from the Wasaga Beach Ministerial Food Bank, Christina Armstrong, Wendy Blemings and Patricia Miscampbell; from the Ontario Association of Osteopathic Manual Practitioners, I’d like to welcome President Nancy Spence; and it’s a great pleasure to welcome Logan Hockley, OPP special constable and Wasaga Beach resident.

I’d like to welcome McDonald’s Canada to the House today. They’re here on their advocacy day and if people are interested in some “McFun,” they’re hosting a reception at 5 o’clock this afternoon in the dining room.

Today, I’d like to welcome Ms. Abby Katz Starr, president and CEO for Unionville Home Society. Also, today, she is here for AdvantAge Ontario advocacy day. Thank you.

I would like to introduce Clare Flynn from St. Catharines’s Brock University. Clare has been helping out in my QP office for the past couple of weeks.

Also, I have some very honoured guests that I’d like to introduce to the House today: Melodi, and Shawn Bennett, the founder of the Valhalla Project. The Valhalla Project works to assist in training service dogs for first responders and military service members that suffer from PTSD.

I also want to welcome to this House a special guest star today, my good friend Siren. Welcome to your House.

I’d like to welcome Samantha Dangubic, Martin Listur and Alejandra Ruiz Vargas from the Fred Victor organization; Nthabiseng Ditshweu and Michelle Bilek from the Peel Alliance to End Homelessness and Peel Poverty; Laverne Blake from Ernestine’s; and Gagan Jot Singh from Nellie’s. Welcome to your House.

I’d like to recognize Anna Morgan from Ernestine’s Shelter, Keith Hambly from Fred Victor, Mina Mawani from Dixon Hall, Brian Harris from St. Felix, Sarah Davis from Cornerstone Housing for Women, and Ray Eskritt from Harmony House. Thank you so much for coming today.

That concludes our introduction of visitors for this morning.

The supplementary question.

The Leader of the Opposition.

Good morning. Bonjour, monsieur le Président. Premièrement, j’aimerais souhaiter une bonne Journée internationale de la Francophonie à toutes et à tous.

Speaker, the Premier likes to say the Integrity Commissioner cleared him 1,000% over his greenbelt grab. But do you know what the Premier won’t say? Whether or not he told the commissioner that developers were charged admission to the stag-and-doe.

The commissioner has said that his clearance at the time was “only as good as the information provided to me by the member or their staff.”

My question is to the Premier: Did he disclose all of the details about these events to the Integrity Commissioner?

Expert after expert has proven that we have more than enough land to build affordable homes for people without paving over the greenbelt for overpriced luxury mansions. But this government doesn’t like experts when they get in the way. Last week, we learned that this government quietly muzzled the Greenbelt Council so they couldn’t speak out against the Premier’s land grab.

My next question to the Premier is, what was his government so afraid the council would say?

In 2018, this Premier promised Ontario that he would never touch the greenbelt. He swore up and down that he would protect it. Conservative promise made; Conservative promise broken.

Now we risk losing vital farmland, a massive carbon sink and a key protection against flooding, all so that a few well-connected insiders can make a profit.

Concerned Ontarians, including those of us in the official opposition, have called on the federal government to intervene. So my question is to the Premier: Will his government do the right thing and stop this unnecessary greenbelt grab, or do we need to wait for the feds to protect the land that he won’t?

In Toronto, on average, three unhoused people died every week last year—three a week. That’s 187 lives lost because this government didn’t have the plan in place to ensure they had a safe and stable place to live. Speaker, if you’re homeless in Toronto, your life expectancy is now half that of a housed person. That is not normal.

My question is to the Premier. Will he bring back real rent control and invest urgently in the supportive housing we need to help prevent even one more life from being lost?

And it’s not just Toronto, Speaker; from Essex to Milton to Kanata to Timmins, we now have a homelessness crisis in every corner of this province.

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario points to this Conservative government’s terrible policy and chronic underinvestment. Why is the government sitting on $6.4 billion while people are falling into desperation without safe and stable homes to live in?

I’d like to welcome Mike Cartan, who is here today as part of the Feed Ontario delegation and who is the father of my constituency assistant, Leah Cartan. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

The Premier has been working with the commissioner on this, and the commissioner will continue his review of that. At the same time, we are going to continue to focus on the things that Ontarians have asked us to focus on, and that includes ensuring that we build more homes across the province of Ontario, ensuring that we continue to make important investments, like the investment that we saw with Volkswagen.

I want to take a moment to congratulate the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade and the Premier, who have brought yet another important investment to the province of Ontario which will see thousands of jobs coming to the province of Ontario. This is a province that is moving in the right direction. We are one of the leading jurisdictions when it comes to the automotive manufacturing of tomorrow and when it comes to batteries. It is a whole-of-government approach, which includes the Minister of Mines, the Minister of Energy, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the finance minister, the labour minister, the education minister and the Solicitor General, and all of government working—

This is the same, of course, Liberal and NDP coalition that ripped thousands of acres away from farmers in the Rouge National Urban Park, Mr. Speaker. When we were bringing the Rouge National Urban Park federally, they wanted to take farmers off the land—kick them off—and they wanted to reforest that entire area. In fact, the previous Liberal government evicted a generational farmer so they could create a park that, 15 years later, only recently opened. That is the record of the opposition.

We are going to continue to ensure that the people of the province of Ontario have access to homes, Mr. Speaker. Generations have come to this province with the dream of home ownership, and, because of the work we’re doing, thousands and millions more are coming because they know they have the hope of a job. Mr. Speaker, with us they’re going to have their first home.

We appreciate the work of all of our members on all of our committees that affect the Ministry of Municipal Affairs—all of the stakeholders, including those members of the Greenbelt Council. For months, I attended those meetings and I worked collaboratively with the council and will continue to do so as we move forward.

But again, the Leader of the Opposition is fundamentally not talking about the problem in this province. The problem in our province is there are not enough homes to meet people’s needs. There is a generation of sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters that have no path to home ownership. New Democrats will always stand against that. This government will continue to put plans, bills, regulations in place that get shovels in the ground. That’s our commitment to the next generation.

In fact, Speaker, let’s lay it on the table. New Democrats want to tax affordable and non-profit housing. That’s what they continue to stand up for. On this side of the House—and our members in front of me—our government will continue to believe that non-profit and affordable housing—

Interjections.

I’m proud to be with a government that continues to stand up for municipalities during the pandemic, that continues to increase the Homelessness Prevention Program that New Democrats voted against, the social services relief fund increase that New Democrats voted against.

It’s pretty rich coming from the Leader of the Opposition when she says one thing, but then when it’s time to vote, we all know what’s going to happen: New Democrats always vote no, every single time.

Thank you to the member from Elgin–Middlesex–London for his important role in bringing Volkswagen to his riding of St. Thomas. Rob, you did spectacular work.

Last week, we landed an historic investment from Europe’s largest automaker: This is Volkswagen’s first overseas EV battery manufacturing plant, right here in Ontario. Speaker, they had sites all over the globe to choose from, but they selected Ontario because they saw that we are transforming Ontario’s automotive supply chain to build the cars of the future. They saw that we lowered the cost of doing business in Ontario by $7 billion annually, and that brought $17 billion in auto investment. They saw that we’re building an EV auto sector, and they wanted to be an important part of that. This Legislature says, “Welcome, Volkswagen.”

Interjections.

From our talented workforce, our clean energy, to Ontario’s comprehensive EV ecosystem, our abundance of critical minerals, our message has been clear: Ontario has everything companies need to succeed.

Speaker, this investment is a major vote of confidence in Ontario’s position as the global EV supplier to the world.

My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. For years, hundreds of thousands of auto and manufacturing jobs were chased out of our province by the previous Liberal government, leaving Ontario unprepared for the electric-vehicle revolution. Simply put, Ontario was in no position to build the cars of the future. That’s why our government must take aggressive action to rebuild our province’s auto sector and attract investment, all while growing the economy and creating good paying jobs.

Last week, we were absolutely thrilled to hear the historic investment announcement from Volkswagen in my riding of Elgin–Middlesex–London. Can the minister please provide more information about this game-changing—in fact, generational-changing—investment and what it means for this province?

Securing a major deal such as Volkswagen’s decision to pick Ontario—as he says, over 40 sites in North America that we competed against—for this electric-vehicle battery plant didn’t happen by accident. Clearly, much planning, effort and co-operation took place in advance to get to this point.

Speaker, can the minister please elaborate on what steps were taken to promote Ontario as a favourable destination for Volkswagen and how he got the job done?

The final supplementary.

The next question.

Restart the clock. Supplementary question.

This government can give each other as many gold stars as they like, but I would like to ask them to listen to the people in the galleries today, who are representing the folks that are experiencing this right now. We know they know that this Conservative government is failing Ontarians when it comes to affordable housing. Their inaction on homelessness isn’t just a moral crisis; it is an economic failure. It is costing every one of us more in emergency room visits, in shelter services, in lost economic participation. Speaker, this government has abandoned its goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2025.

My question to the Premier is, will he recommit to this goal and invest the funds required to get it done?

Back to the Premier: Mr. Pranesh Das, a single parent who has been living in a basement apartment for a decade with his adult son and teenage daughter, has been waiting since 2014 to get a response on their RGI application with TCHC. His children grew up, started high school and university, his wife passed away, all while being stuck on a wait-list and being under-housed. This family is losing hope. I really hope that the minister won’t give me his talking points or how he’s going to rip apart the greenbelt.

My question is: With the budget day coming up, will this government financially commit to increase the stock of deeply affordable housing and social housing for all Ontarians like Mr. Pranesh Das?

My question is to the Premier. Last week, the city of Toronto’s long-awaited housing plan came out. In that report, it said that the housing plan is at “high risk” because of this government’s controversial Bill 23. Toronto is now on track to lose $1.2 billion in development fee revenue earmarked just for shelter space and affordable housing. They’re losing that revenue at a time when Toronto’s housing affordability and homelessness crisis is getting worse.

Minister, what exactly is your plan to help Toronto solve the housing affordability and homelessness crisis?

The only people who are committed to getting it done are the Ontario PC party. Let’s remember, when we increased the Homelessness Prevention Program, they did not support that. New Democrats did not support that. When we created the by-name lists, which the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness recognizes is fundamental to being able to identify and to be able to deal with the homelessness problem in our country, they did not support that. New Democrats said no. We continue to provide the necessary dollars.

I’ve said this in the House, and Minister Smith was the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services when we made that first Social Services Relief Fund announcement right here in the Legislature three days after the pandemic was called. Those dollars in our most vulnerable helped food banks, helped PPE, made sure that our most vulnerable in the middle of that pandemic were supported.

We’re going to continue to work with our partners, but we need the federal government and we need New Democrats to support us when we ask—

But, again, what we’re talking about is affordable housing, non-profit housing. I spent last week touring developments that would ultimately save hundreds of thousands of dollars to create more housing opportunities for our most vulnerable. This is the type of housing that we want to incent, and that’s why we’re providing that development charge relief. So for the member to say what she just said in the House, I invite her to say it outside.

We’ll take your question at face value. We’ll reach out to Toronto Community Housing, which has all the operational decision-making for your constituent. But the fact of the matter is this: The NDP supports taxing affordable housing. They support increased taxes for affordable housing. They support increased tax on non-profit housing.

We need to build more non-profit housing for Toronto Community Housing. We need all 47 service managers and our two Indigenous program administrators to work with us to get shovels in the ground faster. They’re committed to doing that. But again, Speaker, there’s one partner that’s on the sidelines, and that’s the NDP.

I just want to take this opportunity to correct the member. This government, when it consolidated its three homelessness programs into the Homelessness Prevention Program, not only took those dollars but added an additional $25 million, which was distributed to our 47 service managers. We also made a significant investment to our Indigenous program administrators by adding additional supportive housing in the Indigenous Supportive Housing Program. What the member is talking about simply is not true. The dollars show that this government continues to increase spending—

Interjection.

To the minister: In five years of Conservative government, housing insecurity and homelessness have increased, food insecurity and food bank use have skyrocketed. Meanwhile, the minister just stood over there and sang the praises of his government. I don’t think that’s something you should be proud of.

My question is to the Premier.

In the first quarter of 2023, 51 families in my riding were supported by the Welcome Centre Shelter for Women. Of the 166 total family members, 61% of them were children or youth. Executive director Lady Laforet says the biggest predictor of our future homeless population is the children accessing shelters today. Shelters continue to hear announcements of record funding increases to supports for children and youth who have experienced violence and who are entering the shelter system, but the front lines aren’t seeing it. In the 20 years that Lady has worked in the system, she hasn’t seen a single cost-of-living increase to the Homelessness Prevention Program.

My question is this: When will the Premier and his Conservative government stop the photo ops and empty funding announcements and actually do something to end the cycle of homelessness and provide these families with the supports they need?