My question is for the Premier.

Municipalities are reeling from the alarming passage of Bill 23 on Monday. The lack of consultation and the absence of respect and facts have resulted in a deeply flawed piece of legislation that will undermine housing affordability, increase homelessness, and compromise the integrity of the greenbelt ecosystem.

Last week, the member for Kitchener–Conestoga claimed that seven Waterloo region municipalities were “sitting on over $200 million ... of reserve funds from development charges that have already been collected.” Specifically, he went on to say that the township of Woolwich was sitting on $6.5 million of DC charges that they didn’t know about. In fact, all of the DC reserve funds are allocated and are in the municipal five-year economic forecast. You just have to learn how to read, I guess.

The drastic reduction in development charges will—

Interjections.

The drastic reduction—

Interjection.

Why is the government implying that these funds are not being used and that municipalities are negligent in their duties?

Woolwich Mayor Shantz set the record straight:

“Based on the pace of our growth ... we will actually require additional funding to be able to do all of the forecasted work. We are staying with the best practice approach that, as much as possible, growth should pay for itself.

“We do not want existing taxpayers to pay that heavy burden. That’s neither fair or appropriate.”

Mayor Crombie herself said that Mississauga will lose $885 million over 10 years in development charges because of Bill 23. She said that it’s equal to losing 20% of their capital budget.

Why is this government undermining municipalities and their ability to facilitate affordable housing?

My question is for the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

I recently learned of a wonderful grant to a local theatre group called the Tweed and Company Theatre, a fine organization that has benefited from support provided by the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The support they received likely won’t make headlines in the news, but that funding will have an immense impact on ensuring the sustainability and the expansion of this fine organization’s productions.

I’m always impressed by how much can be accomplished when non-profit organizations receive the funding they greatly deserve.

Can the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport please tell us more about the resources available, so that other community organizations across the province can realize the same benefit?

Mr. Speaker, because of our Premier’s leadership, we have been able to deliver a better deal, with $3 billion on the table more, and an additional year of funding guarantees that will ensure child care remains more affordable and accessible for all Ontario families.

It’s fundamental that we remind the people of Ontario that had the New Democrats and Liberals had their way, we would have omitted literally 30% of operators in all of our communities that are depending on government to come up with a sustainable, inclusive program that reduced costs.

On average, by Christmas of this year, we’re looking at $12,000 per child. This is a monumental step forward.

The member opposite is right; we will need more ECEs to fulfill the 86,000 spaces this government is working to create. It’s why we have a plan. We’ve launched a specific advisory group that has been established over the fall of non-profit, for-profit and technical experts coming together to ensure we’ve got the requisite staff. We continue to increase wages, and we continue to roll out a program that has 92% of operators enrolling, because they believe in this program.

The people of Ontario are depending on this government to get the job done.

Mr. Speaker, we’re going to hire thousands of additional ECEs in our province because we will need more people to staff the 86,000 more spaces this government will create—more access, in addition to more affordable child care. It rose by 400% under the former Liberal government—an indefensible record.

This government and our Premier know we can make child care affordable for families for future generations, and we’re going to get the job done.

My question is to the Premier.

London Health Sciences Centre has an innovative plan to redirect patients suffering from mental health episodes to a new emergency room, but Ontario refuses to help or provide funding unless the already cash-strapped city of London ponies up $300 million of the total cost—$300 million. My question to the Premier: Why are you forcing the city of London to pay when health care funding is a provincial responsibility?

Cities lose revenue with Bill 23, cities lose democracy with Bill 39, and now Premier Ford, who is sitting on billions, wants to download responsibilities onto municipalities and taxpayers to fund provincial health care.

My question: Why is this government downloading huge costs onto municipalities like London when they’re underfunding health care by almost $900 million?

I want to thank my honourable colleague from Carleton for the question and also for her strong advocacy when it comes to housing on behalf of her constituents.

I was in the member’s city last week, alongside my federal and municipal counterparts, to announce a $90-million housing investment across the city of Ottawa to support the construction of more than 270 units. These units will meet a variety of accessibility and affordability needs, ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments.

I look forward to continuing our partnership with all levels of government, as well as the non-profit and private sectors, to ensure that all Ontarians, including the most vulnerable in our communities, have a safe place to call home.

To add to my previous answer: The funding will support five projects across the city of Ottawa, including the project that our government is supporting which is located at 159 Forward Avenue. This will be a four-storey building with a total of 49 units, 30 of which will be designated as affordable, and the remaining 19 will have rents that are on par or below average market rent. As I’ve said from day one, we’ll continue to do everything we can to support projects like this one, because they prioritize and support the most vulnerable.

With lack of supply and housing prices out of control for many Ontarians, we’ll continue to work, again, with all partners, all levels of government, to increase supply and support housing in every corner of our province.

Thank you for the presentation this morning. I know that less red tape—one of the things I always talk about is the number of long-term boil-water advisories in the north. I wish we removed the red tape of funding all the boil-water advisories. Sometimes, our First Nations can be identified as red tape because we have rights that are trampled on.

I just want to find out if you’re aware of any free, prior and informed consent that was done for First Nations and to ensure this bill move forward?