Cornwall isn’t just a great place to live and work and raise a family, it’s one of the most competitive places to invest as well. In the last two years, $100 million has been invested there with help from our regional development programs. Biscuits Leclerc has an $80-million project creating 76 jobs with $1.5 million of our support. This is a sweet deal for Cornwall, for Hawkesbury and for Brockville. They’ll all see upgrades to their plants as they enter new markets.

We also supported Cornwall’s auto sector through an O-AMP investment for Morbern’s $429,000 project to implement Industry 4.0 technologies.

Speaker, this is how we’re supporting businesses in Cornwall.

My question is to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Last week, the outgoing Waterloo council asked the province to defer Bill 23 until the incoming council has had a chance to review it. Councillors have expressed legitimate concerns that the bill was introduced the day after municipal elections and “seems aimed at limiting comment from incoming duly elected officials.” Councillor Bodaly also called the legislation environmentally problematic, citing flooding concerns and protections for wetlands.

Waterloo is not alone in their request to defer Bill 23. Councillors in York, Niagara, St. Catharines, Collingwood and Burlington have all passed motions requesting deferment of Bill 23 and more fulsome municipal consultations. This is a reasonable request. Understanding the full impact of this legislation is important.

Will the minister respect the request of municipalities and defer Bill 23 until newly elected municipal councils have a chance to review the legislation?

Will the minister respect the voices of the citizens of Waterloo and across this province and provide these democratically elected councils time to review the legislation that impacts their environment, their communities and budgets? It is a reasonable request on behalf of municipalities, and this minister, who has that responsibility, should at very least listen to them.

Interjections.

My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. In my riding of Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry, the city of Cornwall continues to be a hub for economic investment opportunities. Today, Cornwall is proudly home to one of our country’s largest and most advanced logistics and manufacturing operations. Many of our companies have succeeded in Canada and worldwide, but in order to remain competitive, our manufacturers and businesses need a government that works with them.

Will the minister please explain how our government supports manufacturers and businesses who are creating jobs in Cornwall and across our province?

Order. Opposition, come to order.

Member for Davenport, supplementary.

Start the clock. Next question.

Start the clock. The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to reply.

Well, Speaker, I’m not going to take any lessons from the New Democrats in terms of housing policy. Nobody is interested in their leadership race. Nobody is interested in their policies. Again, they presented these same policies during the election; they were rejected.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Interjection.

Interjections.

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We are a prosperous, growing province. It’s the best place to live in Canada, and we want to make sure that our municipal partners do their part. We’ve given them a housing pledge. We want them to buy into our 1.5 million homes plan over the next 10 years, and each and every one of them ran on a platform of building housing.

Now is not the time to defer; now is the time to get shovels in the ground faster and create opportunity across Ontario.

We need to get to our goal. Especially now that there are so many new Canadians coming because of the federal government’s decision, we need to make sure that transformation happens at the municipal level. Transformation isn’t easy. We need all of our municipal partners to do their part. They need to work with us and they need to work with the federal government on ensuring that we get shovels in the ground faster.

We’re in a housing crisis and we need everyone to be working collaboratively moving forward. Now is not the time to delay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s like a bunch of little kids realizing that they’re losing a game, and in the middle of it, they try to change the rules. You know, it’s really embarrassing.

Interjections.

People, whether they live in Toronto or Peel or Niagara or York, deserve to have their voices heard and their concerns represented by their locally elected representatives. Will the Premier do the right thing and just withdraw Bill 39 today?

Speaker, the government’s own Housing Affordability Task Force outlined that “a shortage of land isn’t the cause of the” housing crisis. “Land is available, both inside the existing built-up areas and on undeveloped land outside greenbelts.”

At our emergency town hall on Bill 23 last week, we heard from community members and experts—including a member of the original task force that drew up the greenbelt plan—who shared how dismayed they are by the government’s undermining of the purpose of the greenbelt and its permanence. In fact, there is a designated whitebelt specifically for development and growth, Speaker, but this government still continues to target the greenbelt.

Despite all the evidence, and the fact that the Premier actually promised this province in 2018 that he wouldn’t do that, and the vehement opposition from experts, from housing advocates, from community leaders and much more, why is this government opening up the greenbelt for development?

But this minister wants to talk about housing? Let’s talk about housing. Popi, a young woman in my riding who escaped unimaginable domestic violence—almost died—has been waiting, has been struggling, actually, to breathe because she lives in a basement apartment where it’s hard for her to breathe. The doctors have said that she might actually need another surgery—she’s had multiple surgeries—because she lives in a basement apartment. She has been waiting for years for affordable housing. This is just one of the many stories of those who are waiting for affordable housing.

If this bill is actually about affordability, why isn’t there anything in this bill that specifically calls for building affordable housing for people like Popi and those who are waiting for affordable housing?

Supplementary?

When our government got elected, we vowed to provide entrepreneurs with all they need to succeed. This meant eliminating mountains of the Liberals’ red tape. It meant fixing the Liberals’ unaffordable hydro and lowering taxes. Now, Speaker, entrepreneurship in Ontario is alive and well.

We support a network of Regional Innovation Centres, small business centres and Futurpreneur Canada.

In Cornwall, we fund the small business centre with almost $500,000 annually. We provide $85,000 for their Summer Company and their Starter Company Plus programs, and that helps students and young entrepreneurs turn ideas into businesses. And we provide almost $33,000 in Digital Transformation Grants; it went to local businesses to help them get their businesses online.

Speaker, this is just the start that entrepreneurs in Cornwall need to succeed.

Thanks for the question. I’m going to start with the first part of her question, which was her meeting regarding the More Homes Built Faster Act.

That bill, which is making its way through the Legislature, if it passed, contains about 50 actions that the government has put forward to tackle our housing supply crisis, right from requiring an opportunity for gentle densification within urban and rural communities moving on to something that I think is very exciting, and that’s our attainable housing program that I’m working with the Minister of Infrastructure on.

The modifications are part of our commitment to Ontarians. We looked Ontarians in the face in the June election and said, “If you re-elect us, under the leadership of Premier Ford, we are going to move the Housing Supply Action Plan—in terms of policies, procedures, legislation—every year of a four-year term.” We’re acting on that.

As well, the member opposite knows that that Housing Affordability Task Force is our long-term road map that will help guide us with the other changes we’re going to make. It’s a very simple yet very transformative exercise—

I want to correct her record, Speaker. She talked about the greenbelt—and the proposal that we’re consulting with Ontarians right now would, in effect, add 2,000 acres to the greenbelt and would provide an opportunity to build a minimum of 50,000 homes. Why is that number appropriate? Well, it goes back to an answer that I gave earlier in question period. The best year in this province’s history—in over 30—was last year, when we had 100,000 starts; that is even higher than the 69,000 homes that were built, on average, per year for the last 30 years. So 50,000, at a minimum, is very important. The proposal that we’re consulting on provides that opportunity but also an opportunity to grow the greenbelt by over 2,000 acres. It’s good public policy.

I want to thank the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington for his leader-ship in southwestern Ontario promoting the skilled trades.

Speaker, our government has an ambitious plan to build, working together with Ontario’s leading construction unions and builders.

Last week, I joined leaders representing 14 private sector unions from across our province, including Marc Arsenault, business manager for the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, who represents over 150,000 hard-working tradespeople who are building our future. Alongside our Minister of Finance and the Solicitor General, we announced an additional $40 million for our Skills Development Fund. We’re expanding the fund to include training for high school students for the first time in Ontario history. We’re on a mission to get more young people into our skilled trades.

I’ll have more to share in our supplementary.

Our Skills Development Fund is investing $3.5 million to support four building trades province-wide training initiatives. These programs will help nearly 2,000 young people launch rewarding careers in the skilled trades and put them on a path to union-sponsored apprenticeships. Training like this is how we’re preparing the next generation for six-figure salaries, delivering our ambitious infrastructure plans, including building 1.5 million homes by 2031. Within two years, we funded 388 training projects and trained nearly 400,000 workers for in-demand jobs across every sector.

Mr. Speaker, to build an Ontario that leaves no one behind, labour, government and business must work together. We need all hands on deck, and we’re not slowing down.

Speaker, a recent 3M Canada survey shows that although 96% of Canadians believe that the country’s workforce needs more skilled trades workers, 76% also said they would never pursue a career in the skilled trades. This is worrisome news for Ontario. Skilled trades are vital for our economy.

Current projections show that by 2025 one in five new jobs in Ontario will be in the skilled trades. Our government must continue to act by addressing the ongoing labour shortage in the skilled trades.

Can the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development tell the House what our government is doing to get more people working in the trades?

I am pleased that our government is making the necessary investments in our skilled trades system. That said, we must make sure that these good, meaningful jobs are within reach of everyone. Unfortunately, the apprenticeship process has lacked diversity, as demonstrated by the low percentage of apprentices from under-represented groups. A diverse workforce is an important asset for Ontario’s economy. Ensuring diversity is essential for many reasons, including promoting individuals’ different strengths and skills, which leads to better outcomes and problem-solving on the job site.

Can the minister please explain how the Skills Development Fund will provide opportunities for those wishing to pursue a career in the trades?

Mr. Speaker, what an odd question for the member opposite [inaudible] party to pave over and to evict farmers from the greenbelt was the Liberal Party of Ontario. And they did it in my riding, Mr. Speaker. A family that had been farming for over 200 years was evicted so that they could create a park—a park that never opened. That is the legacy of the Liberal Party.

Now, he gets up in this House and talks about increasing costs of food. Well, how about those farmers who have a carbon tax that you support each and every day in this place? That is what is causing the price of food to go up. That is what is costing our farmers. We said it the day we got elected, didn’t we, colleagues? We said, “A carbon tax would cost the people of Ontario in everything they did.” We took the federal government to court. We asked them, “Join us to stop a carbon tax that will hurt our farmers, that will hurt people of the province of Ontario.” They laughed at it and instead supported their federal—

My question is for the Premier. The government has chosen and the Premier has chosen to flip-flop on their promise to allow over 7,000 hectares of the greenbelt to be developed, much of it high-quality farmland.

Now, Ontario is blessed with some of the best and most productive farmland in the world. In 2018, when this government was elected, the average weighted price of corn in Ontario was just about $197. This year, Mr. Speaker, it’s over $331; it’s a 67% increase. Soy has gone from $472 to $745—57%; barley from $244 to $390, a 63% increase. When you pave under farms, crop prices go up. That means higher prices at the grocery store—

Interjections.

Now, Mr. Speaker, Fordflation—

Interjections.

The minister, after delaying for more than a year, has decided to add 50% more land to the boundary. He’s adding—

Interjections.

After delaying for a year, after driving up housing prices in Ottawa for a year, why does this minister feel that the residents of Findlay Creek and Greely and Stittsville should have to endure higher property taxes while sitting in gridlock because of the lack of infrastructure?

Interjections.

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Start the clock. The government House leader to reply.

The supplementary question.

Start the clock. Minister of Municipal Affairs to reply.

Bill 23 contains, as I said earlier in question period, about 50 initiatives that the government has put forward to really supplement our housing supply action plan. We went to Ontarians with a clear plan, that they accepted, to build 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years. We’re implementing that plan with bills that we’ve already passed in this session, bills that are before the House, bills that will be debated today in the House and have been debated today in the House. All of those measures, put together, will help get shovels in the ground faster.

In terms of some of the issues that the member talked about, we believe we need to work collaboratively with conservation authorities. We believe that their work is of value and they should concentrate on those measures like flood mitigation, which really was part of the foundation of their creation originally. We think we can work collaboratively, ensure that those checks and balances are in place, but at the end of the day we’re in the middle of a crisis and we need to get shovels in the ground and build more housing.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Interjection.

Interjection.

On his second comment regarding the city of Ottawa’s official plan, just like all official plans, we’re in the middle of a housing crisis. We have to ensure that those residents of Ottawa, including the ones that are represented by our exemplary member for Carleton, need to have that opportunity to realize the dream of home ownership. Official plans are the most important tool that municipalities have to make sure that we put shovels in the ground and create that opportunity for people in Ottawa so that they can realize the dream of home ownership. You can’t have a council that ignores planning advice on putting land within the urban boundary. That just doesn’t—

My office has been overwhelmed with phone calls and emails from organizations and residents of Thunder Bay–Superior North expressing their deep concern at the environmental damage that Bill 23 will bring. I will read an excerpt from one of those constituents:

“By far the greatest and most significant threat facing Ontario today is the threat of climate change and loss of biodiversity. Sacrificing wetlands to provide more housing start locations is a very short-sighted solution to an immediate housing issue but will result in much more significant long-term impacts on the future of the Earth for us and for my children and my grandchildren.”

Will the Premier remove the parts of Bill 23 that undermine regional conservation authorities’ ability to protect wetlands needed for everyone’s survival in the face of climate change?

Bill 23 is a direct attack on the well-being of all communities for the short-term benefit of those who will profit from building where they should not build. I can tell you, the builders will be long gone when the consequences of these bad decisions come knocking.

Again, I ask: Will the Premier restore the ability of conservation authorities to fulfill their mandate to protect the integrity of local watersheds?

Mr. Speaker, let me just start off with the recognition that students are in class this morning, which is exactly where they belong. I want to express gratitude to all the parties for working together to ensure stability for children. I want to thank our workers, who provide critical support for the children of this province. I want to thank parents for their incredible patience.

I will note that what guided the government in our negotiation was keeping kids in the classroom. That is what matters most to our Premier and our government, and we’ve delivered that in partnership with both the union and the trustees of the province. We did so by presenting a fair deal for all parties, and the greatest beneficiary of this outcome is our kids, who have stability, finally, for the coming school year.

With respect to investment, I will note to the member that the funding has been increased this school year to the highest levels ever recorded. This September, there’s a $650-million increase for children in the province. We’ve increased staffing by 7,000, and we’re going to continue to do more to ensure that children have a quality education and that they learn, right to June.

In addition to increasing funding in publicly funded schools, we are also providing direct support to parents because we know they are best positioned to invest, support and care for their kids.

Ontario has one of the cleanest electricity systems in the world, with over 90% of our power generation creating zero emissions. Nuclear power and hydroelectricity are the foundation of our energy system strength, as they provide low-cost, reliable and emissions-free electricity. We know that Ontario’s energy advantage is good for our environment and is the envy of jurisdictions in Canada and around the world. That said, Ontarians want to know how our clean energy production can benefit our economy.

Can the Minister of Energy please tell the people of my riding how Ontario’s clean electric grid system benefits our economy?

Widespread electrification of our transportation network and industries is undeniably a good thing. In his response, the minister mentioned the comprehensive electricity plan, which has assisted in returning manufacturing jobs back to our province. Ontarians are, however, concerned about the cost of this program. Can the minister please elaborate on this plan and why it’s necessary?