I rise today to recognize and appreciate the immense contributions of the non-profit sector in Ontario. The non-profit sector plays a vital role in our communities by providing essential services and resources to those in need, supporting social causes and enhancing the quality of life for everyone.

I’d like to extend my gratitude to the staff and professionals of the non-profit sector. They are the community champions who have dedicated their time and effort to make a positive impact on our society. They have worked tirelessly to provide much-needed support and assistance to the most vulnerable members of our communities.

I thank the government for supporting Non-Profit Sector Appreciation Week, and I appreciate all the members here going around in their communities thanking each of them. Definitely they deserve our appreciation. I commend their unwavering commitment to making a difference in the lives of Ontarians. Their selfless dedication and hard work deserves recognition and appreciation.

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—

Back to the Premier: Despite what we’re hearing, these things are just continuing to get worse, not better. Since April of last year, your government has withheld $6.4 billion that could have gone to address this life-and-death critical issue. Your government supported my private member’s motion to make this a priority, and since then, we have not heard or seen anything.

When will this government act—this is a life-and-death issue—to ensure Ontarians get emergency help when and where they need it?

The petition is titled: Tell Ford to Double Social Assistance Rates.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas there are over 900,000 Ontarians who are forced to rely on social assistance;

“Whereas Doug Ford’s Conservatives promised to raise Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) rates by only 5%, and have provided no additional support for those who receive Ontario Works (OW);

“Whereas inflation is at a 40-year high and people on fixed incomes are forced to make sacrifices every day just to survive”—I apologize, but the font is very small here;

“Whereas both ODSP and OW recipients live in legislated deep poverty, a meager $58 increase to ODSP and no additional support for OW recipients will do virtually nothing to improve the lives of people living on social assistance;

“Therefore, we the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately double social assistance rates, so that people can live dignified, healthy lives.”

I definitely support this petition. I will wholeheartedly sign it and send it down with George the page.

When it comes to oversight or accountability, transparency, I have a lot of concerns, as most Ontarians do, around these big infrastructure projects. When the government keeps shoving them into that P3 closet where we don’t have an opportunity to know what’s going on in there, we just have to wait until it gets handed back and if it gets handed back with the delays and the costs.

We’ve seen that as being part of this government’s approach, so everything they have been doing is kind of like handed away from government to a contracted service provider or consortium or a bunch of financiers. I’m sure they know better than government. I actually have more faith in the ministry workers, frankly, a lot more than it would seem this government does.

Do I have concerns? Yes. I don’t think this government has the same definition of “accountability” or “transparency” that the rest of Ontarians do.

I don’t know that any government member should be asking questions about accessing clean drinking water. They have a responsibility where that’s concerned. But I will answer the question that he asked about “do I understand?” Yes. This is about the minister taking the adequate time to consider the comments. As I said earlier, if there is a big project and municipalities and all folks are rowing in the same direction and there aren’t the community comments, the minister does have the opportunity to go to cabinet if, in this case, he wants to make things go faster. That’s what has happened in a case that the PA mentioned earlier. Do I want the minister to thoughtfully consider any of those comments—it’s a chance to consider them? I do.

On a case-by-case basis, then make the case, don’t write a blank cheque. People in Ontario don’t—

On page 10 of their task force report, they said, “No, we can do this without the greenbelt.”

The government’s own words had the criteria that in order for land to be even taken out of the greenbelt, it had to meet those criteria—and one of them was about it being serviced or adjacent to service. I know, in Durham, they don’t meet that criteria. According to the government, they have said, “If it doesn’t meet the criteria, it will be returned to the greenbelt.” So if I trusted them, I would know that land like that, like in Durham region, would be returned to the greenbelt. Feel free to prove me wrong.

I don’t know what else she asked. She can ask again.