SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
March 7, 2023 09:00AM
  • Mar/7/23 10:10:00 a.m.

Speaker, as you know, there are many parts to the housing crisis that people face in this province. I want to talk this morning about the soaring rents that people are facing and the crushing burdens that it places on them. Landlords right now can reset the rents at whatever the market will bear when a person leaves a unit, and that means that they do set those rents as high as they possibly can. What’s the impact? It means that young people can’t move out of their parents’ homes when they want to. It means that parents who have a new baby can’t afford to rent a new unit, because the new units will be far more expensive than the one they’re in. It means that there is a huge incentive for landlords to push out tenants so they can put in place huge rent increases.

Speaker, I call on the government to bring in real rent control, to bring in a system so that rent levels are retained at the point they were set for when a tenant was there and are not increased when someone moves out. The province needs this. People need this. The government needs to act.

206 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
  • Mar/7/23 11:00:00 a.m.

In 2005, a typical Ontario home sold for $263,000; last year, the average Ontario home sold for $932,000, more than a threefold increase in 17 years. A young family, even those making a decent income, simply can’t afford to buy a home that meets their needs and their budget. Our government is committed to fixing that. The Housing Affordability Task Force laid out a road map. The government has made some changes that incents getting affordable housing, non-profit housing and attainable housing in the ground. We’re going to continue to build off that.

But if the member opposite thinks $932,000 is an acceptable status quo to support, he’s living in a dream world.

120 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
  • Mar/7/23 11:00:00 a.m.

Again, I just want to set the facts—the member from Guelph has the least amount of housing starts in the entire province. He’s not for affordable housing. He is not for affordable housing, or he’d be pushing it. As a matter of fact, who was against housing at the University of Guelph? He shot it down. The council shot it down—right on the property of the University of Guelph.

Guess what, Mr. Speaker? I spoke to a parent, and their kids have to pay $2,500 outside the University of Guelph because there’s not enough rental, not enough housing. We have a housing crisis.

I’d like to ask the member from Guelph, where are you going to house the 300,000 people who are showing up every single year? He doesn’t have a solution. He wants to complain, but I never heard him say a word when the Liberals changed the greenbelt 17 times—

161 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border