There’s the rub.

No, that’s fine. I welcome heckling from this side.

There are also changes in schedule 7 to the Ontario Land Tribunal Act. This government has moved forward with legislation to change the appeal body. It used to be called the OMB, then it got called the LPAT, and now it’s called the land tribunal. Time and time and time again, the changes have always gone in one direction, and that is to make it harder for municipalities and residents to have a say in land tribunal decisions and much easier for developers to override official plans, rules, in order to get a development built.

There are two schedules here that we are looking into to get more information on and that we also have some concerns about. One gives the adjudicator of the land tribunal the right to dismiss a hearing if there’s undue delay, so we interpret that to mean that even if a third party has a valid claim, it could still be dismissed. The second thing is schedule 20, which gives the adjudicator the power to make an unsuccessful party pay costs. That has some concerns as well, and the reason why is that there are cases that go to the land tribunal that benefit affordable housing and that help with housing supply in a way—for affordability purposes.

The example that comes to mind, for me, is the city’s short-term rental rules in Toronto. The city, after years of consultation, developed short-term rental rules that would ban short-term rentals and investment properties. You can only do short-term rentals on your own property. But you couldn’t just buy up a house, kick out all the long-term tenants, and make it a short-term rental property—which continues to happen in the city of Toronto, because there’s no enforcement—so short-term rental providers took that to the land tribunal, or the OMB, to contest it. It got held up at the land tribunal for years, until eventually it got overridden or it got rejected and the city of Toronto was able to move forward with its short-term rental rules.

I wouldn’t want a situation where Fairbnb and the federation of metro tenants is fined because they’re making a genuine claim to the land tribunal about a short-term rental law that is turning long-term rental units into short-term investment properties. So that’s a concern.

The same thing is happening in Ottawa right now. Ottawa’s short-term rental rules to clamp down on investor-led short-term hotels and increase long-term rental units are being held up at the land tribunal.

We are calling for land tribunal reform, but we need to make sure that municipalities and residents have a say and that the land tribunal is a force for good, meaning that it benefits the public interest and it really addresses the issues of affordability—because sometimes it doesn’t.

So that’s where we’re at on that.

I have three minutes to go, so I’m just going to conclude with what we are calling for.

We want to see this government move forward with a comprehensive housing affordability plan that looks at building new homes as well as building more affordable homes and more supportive housing. That is key. This bill moves forward with building more homes, but I’m not seeing a lot of evidence here that we are going to see a net increase in the number of affordable homes that exist in Ontario. And I’m very concerned about the decision to get rid of protections that would allow for purpose-built rentals to be turned into condos and tenants to not be able to move back into their affordable rent-controlled units. That is very concerning.

What we also want to see from this government is a commitment to move forward with better protections for renters, so that the million-plus renters in Ontario can have an affordable and safe home that they can live in and can commit to a community in.

We absolutely need to clamp down on investor-led speculation. It’s absolutely critical. Increasing the non-resident speculation tax from 20% to 25% is a step in the right direction. I’m never going to criticize that; it’s a good thing. But we need to augment that with measures that really focus on domestic speculation as well. A vacant home tax and an annual speculation tax are measures that have worked effectively in other provinces, and I ask this government to really look into implementing those kinds of changes in this province as well.

I believe that’s all I have time for for now. If there are stakeholders, residents, community groups, experts who want to give us feedback, I encourage you to do that. This bill will be going to committee I hope, and I encourage you to sign up to speak to committee as well so that we can ensure this sweeping housing bill is as good as it can be.

I, too, would like to congratulate my colleague on doing a great job on very short notice on a very large bill. Thank you for that.

My question has to do with renters. Comment came out from city of Toronto planners, I believe yesterday, that this bill meant open season on tenants. With her experience in Toronto, being from a riding in Toronto, I’d like to know: Does she agree with the statement that this is open season on tenants? What are the red flags she sees in terms of rents going up as a result of this bill?

I want to thank the member from University–Rosedale for reading the bill. I know she is quite passionate about things like fast-tracking what we talked about, this missing middle. You see folks in the greater Toronto area, in the riding that she represents, that can’t have families because there are no units for the families to live in, and so they have to self-construct their units. She lives in a riding where they have a subway station, the Rosedale stop, and it’s flat; you could have many apartment buildings built above that.

She also lives in an area where there’s a lot of yellowbelt that can be developed. This bill talks about building those two-to-three-bedroom apartments. This bill talks about laneway housing. I wanted to ask her what her advocacy in her riding is in terms of transit-oriented development at the Rosedale station and things like laneway houses that could work in that yellowbelt that she represents in her riding of Rosedale.

I just want to bring a bit of a Waterloo-region lens to the perspective of the conversation here. Waterloo region is slated to need somewhere in the neighbourhood of about 70,000 homes to meet targets over the next—well, looking at roughly by 2031. That’s coming up pretty quick. There are a lot of pieces of this legislation that I can really get behind, because we’re looking at ways to really move the needle forward in a much more expeditious measure.

One of the things that we talk about a lot in Waterloo region is student housing. When we look at what this does with as-of-right zoning for multi-unit housing, whether that be duplexes or triplexes, and not having to go through rezoning and being able to speed those things up—I’d love to hear some of your comments on that, looking at it from not just the people that are going to be living in these places, but students that often come to our country to experience our fantastic education system here or folks that are maybe coming from your riding to come out to one of our fantastic universities.

I would like to applaud my colleague for an excellent hour and a very comprehensive breakdown on a massive bill with huge implications. I have so many thoughts and questions, but in terms of the definition of affordable housing, I get a bit twitchy when the government defines it. I’d like the government to listen to the folks in Oshawa, who would define it, I’m sure, quite differently. Some of those folks in Oshawa and across communities are being bullied out of their barely affordable rent, especially seniors. Often these renovictions are being used to trick seniors into signing away their right to return.

I’d like to know what we see in this bill in terms of protections—there’s 135 pages; I’m sure there’s stuff in there—for seniors unable to afford rent across my community but across communities generally.

Speaker, we know that municipal fees on new developments have continued to increase and approval delays have continued to grow longer and longer. Delays on new housing developments are now 40% longer than they were only two years ago, averaging 20 to 24 months. For every month those approval delays drag on, an additional $2,600 to $3,300 is added to construction costs. Since 2020, average municipal charges levied on new housing in the GTA have increased anywhere from 30% to 36%. Municipal charges are adding an average of $116,900, or $53 per square foot, to the cost of a low-rise home in the GTA.

At a time when we find ourselves in a housing affordability crisis, who does the opposition think picks up the cost of these excessive fees and who do these costs get passed down to?

Thank you very much. I’m pleased that you raised the issue of development charges. The reason why I’ve discussed development charges is because development charges go to paying for the necessary services that current and new residents use. It’s not an abstract fee. It goes to pay for sewage, water, electricity, transit, child care, roads, parks, and it doesn’t cover the whole. It covers some of the capital costs, and then municipalities need to step up and provide that additional fee, and then the operating costs are almost exclusively covered by municipalities.

My issue is, if we are looking at reducing development fees for non-market housing, for deeply affordable housing, okay, but how are municipalities going to cover that gap? Is the province going to step in and cover that gap? Because that’s a very real issue when municipalities are budget-strapped all across Ontario. It’s a question for you.

We are also in support of increasing density near transit stations. It makes a lot of sense. It’s a sustainable thing to do. It provides more options for people. So thank you for raising that, as well.

We are already seeing an increase in applications from developers that are choosing to look at purpose-built rentals that already have good heights—12, 14 or even more storeys—and saying, “Do you know what? It is cost-effective for us to demolish that building and then build even taller.” The challenge is, what happens to those renters that are evicted? What happens to them and their affordable units? We need to make sure that we keep those affordable units.

Thank you. Further debate?

I’m so pleased you raised that question. I’ve spoken to your former planner in the Waterloo region about what Waterloo is doing right to plan, and they’ve moved forward with really sensible regulation to encourage the construction of homes for students, because that is a real need, and also for baby boomers that want to downsize into smaller units but don’t really want to move into a retirement home and are certainly not ready for a long-term-care home. There’s been a lot of thought there—as well as increasing density along transit zones. There’s a lot of sensible development happening in the Waterloo region.

We certainly need new student housing. Enabling three units within a property will help that. It’s something that we support, and we also need to augment that with better protections for students. What we see with the Residential Tenancies Act is that a lot of student housing is exempt from rent control and Residential Tenancies Act protections. There’s a real need to expand it to ensure that students have the same kind of protections as older people, people who—

I’m so pleased to rise today to debate the More Homes Built Faster Act, a bill that would, if passed, help tackle Ontario’s housing crisis and build more housing that meets the needs of people in every part of Ontario. I’ll be splitting my time with the member for Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke.

But before I begin the bill that we’re discussing today, I want to acknowledge and thank all the stakeholders. I want to thank all the stakeholders and I want to thank all the staff, especially Minister Clark, Minister Parsa and PA Holland for all the work they did. I know they consulted all across Ontario, in every corner, to try to find solutions to build 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years—the contributions that people made, the practical insights. In every town, every city, every community in Ontario, people are looking for the same thing: They’re looking for affordable and attainable housing that meets the needs and goals of their budgets. Whether it’s a young person starting out in the market, a family that needs space, a senior couple that wants to move to different accommodations that opens up housing markets—we need more homes. It’s as simple as that.

We have to do something in this crisis that’s developed for demographics in our province. And the house prices in Ontario, they’ve tripled in the past 10 years. They’ve tripled in the past 10 years. We all have family and friends and children who would like to be in the housing market that are finding it very difficult. The answer is simple. We’re hearing it across the board, and the members opposite agree with us. We’re not hearing anybody say that the problem isn’t supply. The problem is supply, so we agree on the premise. We need to do something to build those 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years.

Cities are getting larger. Towns are getting spread out. It’s small towns, it’s rural areas, it’s cities, it’s everywhere. We have to do something, and we are doing something. It’s getting more difficult to find housing. It’s getting more expensive. Our government is going to bring a solution.

We’re committed to creating and growing strong and safe communities. To do so, we need to build the housing that fits the needs of people and families in every community across our great province. Ontarians deserve the opportunity to find the right home in the right place at the right price, and get away from government bureaucracy that is standing in the way. That’s why, as part of the More Homes Built Faster Act, we’re investing $2.5 million in the Ontario Land Tribunal to ensure disputes holding up housing growth are resolved faster.

When I think of the Ontario Land Tribunal, I think about the great work that we’ve done to date—that our government has done to date—to move things forward. I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge Marie Hubbard, who was the chair of the Ontario Land Tribunal. She was a force. Unfortunately, she has passed. She was a visionary. She had deep experience and she amassed a team of professionals who heard matters over the last several years, ably assisted by Greg Bishop, the associate chair. Together, they built a system that is working very well, but the need is even greater. So further investment in the resources for the Ontario Land Tribunal were needed, and I can tell you that Marie would be very proud of the work that we’re doing.

I just want, if I can, to mention a little bit about Marie’s background. She was such a force. I remember meeting her for the first time. I went into her office and she had a great command of how many files were lined up, what kinds of files, the kind of work that needed to be done, what the time frames looked like, and she helped shepherd when we brought five different land tribunals together into one land tribunal. It was phenomenal. I left that meeting with her and I thought to myself—I didn’t just think to myself, I actually said to my assistant, “I want to be Marie Hubbard when I grow up. She is in such command of what she does, and she has such a handle on what needs to happen.”

I just want to read a little bit from a piece in Clarington that was posted when she passed and part of her bio: “Marie Hubbard was appointed to the Ontario Municipal Tribunal ... in 1997. Six years later, in 2003, Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant appointed” her “as the interim chair of the OMB. When the OMB transitioned to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal in 2019, Marie Hubbard became the interim associate chairperson.”

Then she went on to accept an appointment from our government, and as I mentioned, led the way in cutting the path to clear out the backlog. And we’re doing more of that good work now. We got $2.5 million to the Ontario Land Tribunal to ensure the disputes that are holding up growth are being dealt with. That comes in addition to the investment that we made in last year’s budget that provided an extra $14.7 million in resources to the Ontario Land Tribunal.

I know numbers are hard to follow, but what I can tell you is, these are sizable investments but in such a critical part of what we’re trying to do as a government. We have targets; we’re going to meet the targets. But we have to have the infrastructure in place, and under Minister Clark’s leadership, who often sets the rules for some tribunals and then I run the tribunals—they’re actually independent, but I oversee the tribunals—it’s been a really great partnership in terms of moving things forward, creating housing stock and getting us there.

Now I just want to talk a little bit about why the Ontario Land Tribunal fits into this bill and into this equation. It plays a pivotal role in the housing strategy in our action plans. It’s an impartial, independent adjudicator. It helps create more housing by resolving proposed development disputes to help break the cycle of delays caused by appeals.

Madam Speaker, people don’t always agree on how their community should develop or change, and that’s okay. Disputes often arise over land use planning issues, such as where industry should be located, where roads should be, where transit should be, where housing should be. When community members can’t resolve their planning issues or they’re having disputes with their municipal councils, if they can’t settle them independently, they can go to the Ontario Land Tribunal and they help them resolve them, either through mediation or through hearings, and it’s exactly that that we need to deal with.

Our government is working hard to ensure that the Ontario Land Tribunal has what it needs in terms of resources and technological capabilities. The investments we’re making that I referenced, the $2.5 million and the $14.7 million, are going to the back office, they’re going to adjudicators, they’re going to processes. Putting the five into one has made that possible, to make it seamless.

But there’s more to be done, Madam Speaker, which is why at every step the government has taken, we’re moving to making housing that’s affordable and attainable, more accessible in the province, for it to be built and for it to be expanded. We have to give it the tools it needs, and we’re doing that; we’re doing exactly that.

We need to improve, enhance and modernize the way the tribunal functions so that it’s geared to solving disputes faster, more efficiently and fairly to meet the supply needs that we have today. It’s a critical player in creating more housing, Madam Speaker.

I just want to say that in terms of efficiency—as a practising lawyer I practised real estate law and development law for 20 years. I had an OMB file that lasted 10 years, and do you know what the issue hung on? Whether a horse is a pet or livestock. Ten years, Madam Speaker—shocking. Well, that is no more because we’ve taken steps to make sure that the tribunal that hears these important matters allows projects with merit to move forward, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

The message we want to send is very clear: The Ontario Land Tribunal is there to help resolve disputes constructively and efficiently. It is not to be used as a delay tactic. We’re also seeking to clarify the OLT’s powers to order an unsuccessful party to pay a successful party’s costs. That is not unheard of in any other forum. It’s an important part of making sure that those that oppose come to the table and stay at the table—or they don’t come to the table at all. This approach would help discourage parties from bringing appeals to the OLT that don’t have merit. This is supposed to be a merit-based process, Madam Speaker, and I can tell you the changes we’re making are going to make a difference. It will give us the ability to consult and talk about how we prioritize what’s heard before the Ontario Land Tribunal, to make sure that the things that matter to Ontarians the most—to allow us to achieve our goal of 1.5 million homes in 10 years.

As the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Minister Parsa and MPP Holland have all talked about, we have to do this because the opposition will not do this. They have not done this. And the only way we are going to get there is to create the systems that allow everybody to achieve the goals of homeownership, attainable housing, to make sure that we are creating safe and wonderful communities for all of our constituents in Ontario.

Madam Speaker, I’m watching the clock. I’m going to cede the balance of my time to my friend MPP Yakabuski.

Reserves.

The member from Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke.

Housing?

I want to thank the Attorney General, as well, for his address today. And of course, he is bang on in everything that he said. I want to remind people that each one of us, we were—it’s not that long ago we had the election in June. Every one of us, no matter what our riding is, when issues were talked about during the campaign—housing, housing, housing, from all corners of the province. What was one of the key issues, what was one of the crises that Ontario was facing? Housing. And then just the other day, we had our municipal election. And what were municipal candidates talking about?

So what it says to us in no small way is that this is an issue that no one can deny is a critical issue for Ontario at this time. And our government ran on the platform that we are going to build 1.5 million homes in the next 10 years in Ontario. That’s building upon the 100,000 homes that were built last year, which is a record not seen in over 30 years in the province of Ontario. But 100,000 homes a year for 10 years? I think we can all do the math. That doesn’t get us there. I say this to the opposition, and I say this respectfully: Laying back and hoping for something to happen will not get it happening. Taking only one section of housing and saying that that’s the priority will not make it happen. We have got to be singularly focused, laser-focused on making sure that housing is the priority in this province.

I want to thank Minister Clark, Minister Parsa and PA Holland for following through—and Premier Ford for his leadership on this—and acting so quickly. This piece that we have before the House today, Bill 23, is transformative legislation. This is the ultimate game-changer when it comes to the housing crisis in the province of Ontario.

I hope that the opposition understands that and stops focusing on some issue that is not specifically addressed in the bill and gets behind this, because you will be evaluated on your position on housing in this province.

Let’s remember: The whole province knew that housing was a key issue in the campaign. They made a choice as to which party they believed would actually get the job done, and that’s the Progressive Conservative Party under Doug Ford and our minister Steve Clark.

I heard today—I may not have it 100% right, but usually I’m 93% or so—that Mayor John Tory, re-elected to his third term, in Pembroke, actually said that he is going to use the strong mayors act to ensure that he gets housing built in Toronto. You see, our minister has thrown it out there to people like John Tory that 285,000 homes in the next 10 years, in addition to their current plans, is the expectation from the province, in Toronto. These are not small numbers. You’re not going to get there by being shy, and you’re not going to get there if you just think the status quo, without ruffling some feathers, without making some changes—there is an old saying that you can’t make an omelette if you don’t crack some eggs. Well, we’re cracking some eggs and we’re changing things. We’re making sure that municipalities understand that this is not a debate; this is an absolute necessity. Two million more people coming to the greater Golden Horseshoe in the next 10 years—you heard that from Minister Clark this morning. We’ve got to be able to put them somewhere. If you’re going to have housing—and affordable housing is housing—you’ve got to start somewhere, you’ve got to build more. There’s no other way around it.

I hear the NDP talking about, “Minister Clark is planning to reduce or eliminate development charges.” Minister Clark is trying to remove the impediments, the barriers, the burdens to getting more housing built. Well, folks, development charges are one of those burdens. What does it do? It adds tens of thousands of dollars, in some cases, to the cost of building a home. If you’re adding tens of thousands of dollars, that home becomes less affordable. As Minister Clark said, municipalities have in the neighbourhood of about $8 billion in development charge—

Governments don’t build homes. Builders, contractors, developers build homes. We’ve got to ensure that we have them on board so that they can get the job done, with help and direction from the provincial government, working in concert with the municipalities all across this province—including the federal government, which has to be a partner in this as well. We’re not going to get to 1.5 million homes if our plan is, “Oh, no, we better not do that because this group doesn’t like it” or “You better not do that because those neighbourhoods”—folks, this is not an easy task, but you’ve got to have the stomach for it, and this government has the stomach for it. We’re going to ensure that job gets done.

I don’t have a lot of time left.

A lot of people will see this as primarily an urban, city issue. The bulk of those homes, as you saw from the chart, will be built in the greater Golden Horseshoe and the 29 municipalities that have been identified by the minister.

But we want to build more homes in rural Ontario, too, and I will continue to have discussions with the minister and the ministry about ways we can encourage more building of homes in rural Ontario as well, ensuring that the burdens that exist are minimalized or dealt with, because we have people who want to move to the great parts of this province—such as Renfrew county, where, I want to say, the minister was very helpful in making some changes with regard to the official plans that will help to encourage more homes being built. But there is work to be done there as well, and we’re going to continue to work with the minister in that regard.

Let’s get back to the point here: We need 1.5 million—and I’m not even sure that that’s going to do it, but that’s the number that we’re doing. And we’re going to have a housing supply bill each year of this mandate. We are not resting on our laurels, bringing in this piece of legislation and saying, “The job’s done.” No, the job is actually just beginning. But we need all members of this House, on both sides of this House, to recognize and accept that this is a critical point in Ontario’s history and a critical point for the ability of families to afford a home. If we’re going to bring down the prices of those homes—supply, supply, supply. If you don’t have any supply, then the price for the limited supply that you have only goes up.

So I ask the people on the other side: Stop the politics. This is a critical time in Ontario. You know this is the right thing to do. This government is moving in the right direction to solve this crisis. Let’s get on board together so that we all get it done.

Questions?

Thank you, our members from this side, for explaining to us the importance of this housing crisis. Actually, when I’m going around in my riding, everybody is just coming to us, telling us about the problem of affordable housing.

But I also know there are some, especially at the municipal level—a lot of them will be saying, “Not in my backyard.” How are we going to overcome that and make sure that we can achieve our goals?

My question is to the member from Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke—

Interjection.

Interjections.

You talked about the relief from development charges for developers. That’s your plan to sort of goose the housing supply. But can you tell me what you’re going to do to protect taxpayers who are going to end up with this additional burden? If it’s not being paid by the developers, it’s going to be paid by your local taxpayers. So is there any other solution that you have other than putting this on the backs of already strained and stretched municipal taxpayers?

Thank you very much, Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity. Like the opposition critic for housing, I did take some time to read the bill last night. It was very long—123 pages—and it intersects and amends 13 acts. It’s not easy to digest, certainly. But I do recognize, as I was reading the bill, that a few things were coming to mind. One of them was the fact that the government is reframing this whole affordable housing crisis as a supply crisis. Certainly this bill is trying to get to that, but I don’t think it gets to the affordability piece.

What the bill does do, interestingly enough, is gut certain things. You’re gutting the conservation authority, you’re undermining food security by not protecting farmland, and you’re taking away critical revenues for cash-strapped cities.

The bill also ignores the fact that there’s a rising cost of construction, a labour shortage, land values and other building regulations that are stopping the construction of affordable housing. How will your bill address those concerns that I’ve just raised?