I think the member opposite is making the case exactly for Bill 23.

We’ve talked to our municipal partners, and we realized that it takes too long to get housing in the ground. We also know that municipal fees are adding an average of $116,900 to the end cost of a home in the GTA. So we know that costs are too high, we know that fees are too high, and we know that it takes too long to get shovels in the ground.

Exactly what we’re proposing under Bill 23 moves forward on those baseline costs. It allows development charges to be waived for affordable housing, for sustainable housing, for inclusionary zoning—all of the things that New Democrats talk a good game on, but then when it comes to actually voting for it, they always vote against. This is, again, a challenge with Ontario’s New Democrats. They say one thing and then do something completely different.

Interjection.

I thank the honourable member for the question.

The consultation that the government has engaged in is for a very important purpose: We have a crisis in housing in our province.

We are proposing to remove 15 areas from the greenbelt, and in exchange, we’re going to be adding over 2,000 acres. Many of those thousands of acres will be prime agricultural land that we’ll add in as part of the Paris Galt moraine and the urban river valleys. The government is taking a balanced approach.

Again, when you look at the fact that last year was our best year in over 30 years—we only had 100,000 starts. The proposal that we put forward to Ontarians to consider will allow, as a minimum, 50,000 homes to be built. In addition, we will add significant opportunities for protected land that will go back into the greenbelt. The net gain is thousands of acres.

I’m going to paraphrase from the explanatory note. This bill would introduce new legislation that amends the City of Toronto Act and the Municipal Act and enacts other legislation. The proposed changes support our bold and transformative plan to get 1.5 million homes built in the next 10 years.

The bill, if passed, together with regulations, would give heads of council in Toronto and Ottawa an additional tool to further share our provincial-municipal priorities. It would also allow the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to appoint the regional heads of council for Niagara, Peel and York regions for the 2022-26 municipal council term. This would take decisive action to help address the housing crisis in some of Ontario’s fastest-growing communities.

Mr. Harden moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 40, An Act to amend the Highway Traffic Act to provide for consequences to those who cause injury or death to certain road users / Projet de loi 40, Loi modifiant le Code de la route pour prévoir les conséquences qu’encourent les personnes qui causent des blessures à certains usagers de la route ou leur décès.