Well, I thank the member for Ottawa Centre. We’ll have to see about that meeting with my mother-in-law. I’ll say to that meeting, not so fast. Anyway, I always appreciate his questions. I understand his passion, and I respect him for that. But at the same time, he doesn’t understand how we’re actually going to get it done. We’re going to get more housing built—more affordable housing, more housing for everyone—by eliminating the unnecessary red tape, eliminating the obstacles, the barriers that keep us from doing things in a timely fashion.

We don’t have 30 years to build 1.5 million homes. It doesn’t matter whether they’re affordable or not. If we don’t get them built, they don’t exist. We have to get them built, and we’ve got to move some things out of the way to ensure that we don’t lose sight of that goal. We can’t get caught up on NIMBYism or BANANAism or whatever. We need to make sure we get the homes built, and we’re going to get it done.

Getting things built is the key. I didn’t reference it in my speech, but I know sometimes that my friends from the NDP—when you mention the word “developers,” I see smoke coming out of their ears because they get so upset with the word. They attach the word “developers” with some kind of evil. But it’s developers who are going to build those homes.

We have to work with developers. We have to work with builders. We have to work with planners. We have to work with municipalities. We have to work with the people. Everybody has a role to play in ensuring that when we hit the 10-year mark, we actually have 1.5 million—maybe even more. If we’re going to accommodate the growth in this province, if we’re going to be able to accommodate the needed people to keep this economy rolling along like it is, keeping us the engine of Canada, we’re going to need those houses built for those folks.

This bill, like every bill that this government brings forward—its genesis is based on where we know Ontario needs to be, where Ontario needs to go, and building more homes to accommodate the people, as I began to say in the last response, to be able to support the people who are going to provide the economic activity of the future, to fill the vacant jobs. We have about 400,000 jobs today already that aren’t being filled. We have to be able to fill them, and we have to be able to build those homes so the people will have them.

I am quite comfortable that our government did what it always—we know we did. Most of the homes that are going to be built are going to be in Ottawa and Toronto. We know that—the biggest number. We reached out to the people and said, “What can we do to help remove the gridlock in these two cities?” For a start—a strong mayor. A strong mayor will help us get those homes built. That’s what we need to do.

I want to thank the member from Newmarket–Aurora. I appreciate her input on this. She has basically said what we’ve heard from so many corners of the province. You heard it in your riding, as well.

As I said—and what the minister has said repeatedly, because we have to reinforce this so people understand—it’s the combination of the steps that we have taken and are taking. The More Homes for Everyone Act, the More Homes, More Choice Act, and the combination of changes with regard to zoning—all of these kinds of things that we are doing as a government, when you put them all together, are creating the environment that is necessary so that we can meet those goals of building those homes over the next 10 years, so that people like your children will be able to afford a home. If there is more supply, the prices will be more commensurate with people’s incomes of the day.

The people of Ontario absolutely supported our view on June 2. We talked about building more homes, and we are going to build more homes, with or without you.

Third reading debate deemed adjourned.

By now it’s clear the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act is not a bill about housing; don’t let the title fool you. This bill is designed to give the provincial government more power in municipal affairs, not build more homes. As I came to find out through my readings of the bill, the text fails to mention housing even once. This is just unacceptable, Madam Speaker. Ontarians need affordable housing options now more than ever, and it seems that buying a home is simply becoming a pipe dream under this government’s power.

My first proposed amendment to the bill was a duty to ensure housing is built. It read: “The head of council has the duty of ensuring that the amount of new housing built within the city in each year is proportionately sufficient to meet the goal of building 1.5 million new units of housing in Ontario by 2031.” It went on to require the government to assess the number of new homes being built and provide a progress report to ensure transparency in order to reach measurable goals. As they say, that which gets measured gets done.

But my amendment was deemed out of scope. How will the government be held accountable without a system in place to track their lofty goal of building 1.5 million homes in 2031? With the way that this bill is written, the government has zero obligation to report back about how many homes are actually being built. That will let Ontarians down and continue to accelerate the housing crisis we are in. This bill will do nothing concrete to build 1.5 million homes by 2031.

I am also concerned about the types of housing we are talking about. Nowhere does this bill mention any details of this. Do we intend to build more co-op housing, affordable rental housing, laneway and garden suites, duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, stacked townhomes, supportive housing, missing-middle options? Or are we just intending to build single-family detached homes, taking up a huge environmental footprint and housing one single family? We know full well—or we had better know—that the latter, single-family detached homes, will never, ever solve this housing crisis. So are we including a plethora of housing options anywhere and everywhere, and are we making them as of right?

What is this bill actually doing to address the serious problem of vacant homes? My second amendment to the bill would require the government to take inventory of vacant homes and have a duty to reduce this list by 50% every four years. This amendment was obviously deemed out of scope and principle again. We need creative solutions to this affordability crisis, and the government has a responsibility to look at all options, including how we can fill these vacant homes. There is a four-bedroom home in my neighbourhood that has been vacant for close to 30 years. We cannot have homes sit empty in a housing crisis. Why not utilize all the housing that we already have available?

The government claims this bill is meant to remove barriers in order to build more homes. Why not simply use the provincial powers we have to do this? Why do we need this strong-mayors bill? As a former Toronto city councillor, I know first-hand the effects that the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act will have on our municipal governments in Toronto and Ottawa, should the mayors choose to use the powers outlined in the text. Allowing a mayor to have the power to choose the chairs of all committees and boards is a slippery slope. These chairs should represent the needs of the city as a whole, not be appointed because they’re friends with the mayor—not to mention allowing them to veto bylaws when they so choose. This threatens municipal democracy. People vote for a city council to represent them and the needs of their riding. We need to keep this sanctity. We owe it to voters in these cities.

In Toronto, we have also seen the strong-powers idea isn’t needed to advance housing projects. Just this past June, the Toronto city council unanimously approved the result of the 2021 Open Door Affordable Rental Housing call for applications. A total of 17 affordable rental housing projects, representing approximately 920 affordable rental homes, were approved. Furthermore, in July of this year, Toronto city council approved more than 24,000 new homes, including 2,060 affordable and 2,413 purpose-built rental units, and 775 rental replacement units. Once again, this bill is not needed and is absolutely not about advancing housing projects.

When I was city councillor in Beaches–East York, I spearheaded laneway suites, a game-changing planning policy that allows people to age in place and adds to the Toronto rental stock. It was an effort to address the housing crisis. I worked tirelessly with fellow councillor Ana Bailão, city staff, local architect and planning experts, community groups, facilitators and Toronto residents. Evergreen Brick Works and Lanescape were instrumental in the creation of our plan.

Our public engagement was over the top. We reached out all across the city to engage with everyone, to hear their thoughts and to learn their ideas. We hosted walks and talks, both ward-specific community consultations and city-wide events, surveys, local canvasses—you name it, we did it. The highlight of our outreach was actually hearing from people who had never participated, ever, in a democratic forum and were now chomping at the bit to have their say in this outside-of-the-box housing idea.

By and large, residents were supportive of laneway suites, especially families eager to promote intergenerational living. City staff had many concerns and questions initially, but we looked at examples from other municipalities across Canada already successfully providing laneway housing options, and we found answers and solutions to their inquiries. We came up with a solid plan and reached out to all members of city council repeatedly to ensure they were in the loop and to garner support.

Thanks to our creative and collaborative approach, the city of Toronto’s first-ever laneway housing policy passed unanimously at city council, a rare feat indeed. Laneway suites were just phase one of the plan to offer more housing options in Toronto. Now the garden suites policy has just passed through city council too.

And I did all of this without a strong-mayors bill. It can be done, it has been done, and it can continue to be done. Housing can be built with current council configuration, and housing can be expedited with existing provincial policies. We simply have to utilize them.

Sure, this bill works for our current government, but what does the government expect to happen if a NIMBY mayor were to be elected, one who isn’t interested in advancing housing projects? Where do the shovels in the ground go then, Mr. Speaker—Madam Speaker; sorry. It’s so great to see a woman in that chair.

If this bill included my proposed amendments, we would have a way to hold any and every mayor accountable for building more homes.

The public too is confused by the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act. I was in committee when the government brought many stakeholders down to Queen’s Park to discuss this bill. These stakeholders were from various building associations, municipal associations, planning associations and more. People took time out of their busy schedules to have their voices heard on a bill they thought was aimed at building homes. But why, Madam Speaker, did the government waste the time of stakeholders and government resources if housing is outside the scope of the bill?

We’re in a housing crisis in this province. There are simply not enough homes for those who need housing and want to live here, especially in the biggest and busiest cities, Toronto and Ottawa. The Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act fails to address the actual housing problem. This was made clear when my amendments were deemed out of scope and principle by the committee on heritage, infrastructure and cultural policy. They claimed housing was out of scope for this bill after using the time of stakeholder and government resources to create the illusion they want to build more homes. That is not their intention. This bill is meant for the provincial government to have a strong hold on municipal affairs, and it affects our democracy. I oppose this bill. I will be voting against it.

Madam Speaker, I urge the government to put forth a housing bill with real, tangible goals that will actually aid the housing crisis in this province and truly get shovels in the ground.

Thank you to the member from Beaches–East York. I was just going to ask her a similar question I’ve asked already: When you look at this bill, the title talks about housing; the bill does not. Who do you think will benefit from the passage of this bill, and who do you think could be hurt by the passage of the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act?

Thank you very much, Speaker. I want to thank the new member for Glengarry–Prescott–Russell for his address today. I recognize the tack that the opposition is on, but the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing has repeatedly said how this is one of the tools in our tool box, along with More Homes, More Choice and More Homes for Everyone, previous bills—that we are putting together a plan and a package that will lead to the building of those 1.5 million homes in the province of Ontario to support the growth in population, which is expected to be about six million more over the next 10 years.

So if the member could elaborate and maybe help the opposition understand what our plan is—that it is not simply one silver bullet, as the minister said; it is a combination of a number of steps that we have taken and continue to take. If the member could elaborate on that, I’d appreciate it.