This year, I launched the first-ever member’s statement writing competition for high school students in Parkdale–High Park. Students could submit a statement on any issue they wanted. This competition is designed to empower young people and foster youth participation in politics by bringing their voice directly to Queen’s Park and speaking about issues in their own words.

The winner for 2023, as selected by an independent committee, is Ian Snider from Humberside Collegiate. Here is Ian’s statement:

“Ontario is in a housing crisis.”

Premier “Ford’s solution: Allow suburban developers to create overpriced, car-dependent suburbs. This isn’t so much a solution as a capitulation to those who caused the crisis in the first place.

“It is the increasing sprawl that has raised housing prices, especially in the city, where the poor have been priced out in favour of the highest bidder.

“The demand for walkable neighbourhoods is there, yet the government refuses to hold developers accountable to build the housing needed in Ontario: walkable, affordable, mixed-use development.

“Today, more and more Ontarians favour living in the city over the suburbs. As public transit is expanded in anticipation of new residents” Premier “Ford is unwilling to build destinations.

“As young couples are forced between living in the city and starting a family,” Premier “Ford refuses to build affordable housing. As food prices rise,” Premier “Ford lets cul-de-sacs replace farmland.

“Our neighbourhoods make all the difference in our lives. With walkability comes healthy living, a greener environment, and a sense of community. We can build our cities to support their residents, but this government is doing the opposite just for the profit of a few developers.”

Recently, alongside the Associate Minister of Housing, I had the opportunity to meet with Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga-Dufferin and staff from the Halton Catholic District School Board to learn about their tiny home youth build program. This program provides hands-on building experience for Halton region high school students who are learning construction and skilled trades, all while making an impact for families and communities in need. These student-built tiny homes can be a solution for emergency shelter, seniors, laneway homes and can be part of the solution to the housing crunch. This project is a fantastic way to introduce students to the trades, giving them hands-on work experience and exposure in real-time under the instruction of trained professionals.

Led by Allan Nason, Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School has seen incredible interest in the program, with students transferring from neighbouring schools just to participate. This year alone, there were more than 90 students on the wait-list for Allan’s construction class, with more than 50% female.

Participating students are also eligible to complete college credits in the skilled trades as part of the Dual Credit Program. A partnership with Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation are the housing partners on the pilot project, and five tiny homes are now fully site-serviced and operated by the Chippewas community.

The build program trains students in an interesting and practical way which, in turn, will lead to in-demand, meaningful jobs, building a better and brighter Ontario.

Another day, another NIMBY question from the Leader of the Opposition.

We made it very clear during the election that the Housing Affordability Task Force report would be our long-term road map. We promised Ontarians that we’d put a plan in place to build 1.5 million homes by 2031. We’re going to continue to build upon our success with all of our housing supply action plans. But we’re not done yet. We’ve got a lot more work to do with our municipal partners to get the plan in place to build those homes, and that’s exactly what this government is going to do.

Clearly, in the Housing Affordability Task Force report, it talked about the need for responsible housing growth on undeveloped land, including outside of existing municipal boundaries.

We speak to municipalities every day who are signing our housing pledge and signing on to the partnership with our government. This is very exciting.

Speaker, at the end of the day, it’s all about providing that opportunity for that young couple to realize the dream of home ownership; it’s all about making sure that when we welcome those new Ontarians to our province, we’ve got a safe, secure home that meets their needs and their budget. That’s why we’re doing the housing supply action plan.

We’re growing the greenbelt by over 2,000 acres. We’re adding parts of the Paris-Galt moraine and the urban river valleys that municipalities and conservation authorities universally have suggested be added to the greenbelt.

At the end of the day, despite the Leader of the Opposition’s NIMBYism—as we all know, building absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone; the BANANA business that we’re hearing from the leader and her members—we’re going to continue to work with municipalities, we’re going to continue to work with non-profits and ensure that more attainable and affordable housing is being built. That’s the impetus of Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster—to ensure that development charges incent the type of housing we want: more purpose-built rental, more Habitat for Humanity homes. That’s exactly what Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster Act, does, and we’re going to continue to build on that in the days ahead.

The Premier has repeatedly claimed that his carve-up of Ontario’s greenbelt is simply about providing the land we need for housing. But a new report released just yesterday found that there is more than enough land to build two million homes without punching massive holes in our greenbelt. So if it’s not about land for housing, what is it about?

Will the Premier admit that this is about paving over protected land so a select few people can make a lot of money?

Speaker, the report that was released yesterday shows what the people of this province already know: We don’t need insider schemes and torching of the greenbelt to build the housing that people need.

We need 1.5 million homes in Ontario, and it’s only getting worse. But I haven’t talked to one municipal leader—not one—one housing advocate or one regular Ontarian who thinks that the problem is that there aren’t enough mega mansions. That is not the problem.

Why won’t this government work with our municipal partners to build affordable homes on the land we already have available?

Planning experts, municipalities and the government’s own task force—despite his creative quoting from that report—have said that land availability is not the problem.

Again, will this government—and I’d love the Premier to be able to answer this question—listen to the experts, use the land we already have available, and reverse the decision to remove 7,400 acres of protected greenbelt land?

Can the Premier explain how, after four years of his leadership, things have only gotten worse?

I thank the leader of the official opposition for the question. Mr. Speaker, I would like to see one day the leader or the members of the opposition get up and actually stand up for Ontarians and support us in building more homes across the province.

We should be looking at our numbers. In 2021, in 2022, a record number of housing starts in our province—no thanks to the opposition. I mentioned this last week, when the previous government was in power, they held the balance of power. The lowest housing starts came in the three years when they had the opportunity. They could have made housing a priority for Ontarians. They didn’t. It took this Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, under the leadership of the Premier, the caucus members on this side and in the middle to say, “No more. Housing is going to be a priority for Ontarians. We’ll make sure to deliver it to them. We’re not going to let down anybody.”

As I said before, and I’ll say it again, no government in the past 70 years has provided more protection for tenants in this province than this government.

We paused rent increases during COVID. We made sure that tenants had protection when they needed it. The rent increase guidelines that the member is referring to in 2021 last year was capped at 1.2% increase. This year, because of our actions, we capped that at 2.5%, well below inflation. If it wasn’t for our actions, the rent increase guideline would have been at 5.3%.

So let me make that very clear: Once again, it’s this government that will stand up for the people of this province, will protect tenants and make sure—what the opposition wants is for people to be pitted against one another. That’s not going to happen. We’re going to work with our partners to make sure that we have more units in this province, and we’ll continue—

Again, it feels like this government is living on a different planet than most people in this province, because I can tell you, you get a full-time job in this province right now and you’re at a food bank. You’re at a food bank.

How does this government expect people to get by when they create crater-sized loopholes in the only measures that keep apartments affordable? Go out there and talk with tenants, I beg you. When a tenant leaves a rental unit, there’s no limit to how much that rent can increase for the next tenant. You know what that means? It means double-digit increases. People in Hamilton saw rent increases of 26% between tenants; in Ottawa, 17%; in Toronto, a 29% increase, Speaker. Those are for the same units.

Does the government understand that they have created a system that takes away affordable housing options?

Community Living Essex told us that the wait-list for affordable housing in their region has ballooned to 5,400 people. Last year, the city of London had a wait-list of 6,000. Niagara was reporting numbers of over 9,000 households.

Municipalities are pulling every lever, but they cannot solve this housing crisis alone. Will the Premier commit today to fixing rent control loopholes and making meaningful investments in public housing?

The Associate Minister of Housing last week in the House categorized where we’re at in the state of rental housing in the province. Because of our policies, as most in the House know, we had in 2021 over 13,000 new rental starts in Ontario, the highest since the early 1990s—1992, for example. Last year, as Associate Minister Parsa talked about right here in question period last week, we had over 15,000, which is the highest amount of rental starts in Ontario’s history.

But, again, Speaker, I talked earlier about Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster and what we were able to do. Affordable rental and housing developers in Oshawa reported that through Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster, they were saving over $500,000 in development charges and associated fees. What’s that going to do? It’s going to feature 24 affordable rental units, 26 affordable ownership homes. These are the policies that we’re building upon—

Speaker, here’s the fundamental difference between the government and the NIMBY party across: We do not believe here in the government that non-profits and affordable housing providers should be charged exorbitant fees and add those onto the cost of a project. That’s the difference.

We listened to our municipal partners. Every single council that the member opposite has just quoted ran in the fall election on building more non-profit, affordable and rental accommodation. Exactly these policies that are in Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster are going to incent those types of housing. That’s the plan that the government’s put forward.

I appreciate that the opposition party will support NIMBYs and BANANAs 100% of the time. I understand that, but we owe it to Ontarians to ensure that we’ve got—

We’re always going to stand on the side of providing affordable housing opportunities, attainable housing opportunities and rental. We need more purpose-built rental in the province, and our policy to incentivize development charges on these family-sized rentals, the deeply affordable rentals that we need in our communities, that’s the policy we’re always going to stand up for. The NDP can always—

The supplementary question?

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Supplementary question: the member for Waterloo.

The next question.

The opposition keeps talking about our More Homes Built Faster initiative, but again, they’re very selective in sections of the report. So to answer the question, I’m going to read exactly what’s in this report, on page 18:

“Reduce the costs to build, buy and rent.

“The price you pay to buy or rent a home is driven directly by how much it costs to build a home. In Ontario, costs to build homes have dramatically increased at an unprecedented pace over the past decade.”

Speaker, again, our government is committed to ensuring that non-profit housing, purpose-built rental—we want to make sure that everyone that wants a home that meets their needs and their budget. Again, this is what motivates me—these young people in the gallery. I want to ensure that they have a home that meets their needs and their budget.

We’re committed to build 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years—