My question is to the Premier.

In St. Paul’s, over 60% of our residents are renters and are struggling with rising rent and no real rent control.

Sandra is a constituent of mine who just received notice of another above-guideline rent increase of 4.2% over the next two years, which they say is to cover the cost of building repairs. Meanwhile, the corporate landlord that owns the building raked in $5.4 million in profit last year.

Why are tenants like Sandra expected to cover the cost of these repairs through an above-guideline rent increase—and not the millions of dollars in profit raked in by these corporate landlords?

Thanks, Speaker. Through you to the honourable member: We made a promise to Ontarians that we would protect existing tenants with rent control. The vast majority of renters, some 1.4 million, fall under the Residential Tenancies Act—and provide that.

During the pandemic, we were very clear. We looked at the formula for 2023, with inflation. We invoked the cap—it would have been 5.3%. We invoked the cap of 2.5%. We followed up with rolling back what could have been a 1.5% increase in the middle of the pandemic in 2021, and we froze rents, which was unprecedented in many of the provinces and territories.

We want to build upon our success. My response to the member for Eglinton–Lawrence talked about the fact that, over the last term of this government, we’ve seen an unprecedented amount of increase in rental construction. We want to build upon that, but at the same time—

This is the same government that said no to a rent freeze this year, during a pandemic.

Back to the Premier: AGIs were supposed to help small landlords cover unforeseen costs to keep tenants safely in place. However, reports show that it’s not small landlords benefiting. In fact, 84% of units impacted were owned by wealthy, profitable, corporate landlords, like those that own 440 Winona—another building in our riding that was just hit with another outrageous AGI. This misuse is why I put forward the motion asking to ban above-guideline rent increases and help struggling tenants catch up during and after the pandemic. This government said no to me, but most importantly, they said no to St. Paul’s and Ontario.

So I’ll ask again of this Premier and his caucus: Will this government stand up to corporate greed and ban abusive above-guideline rent increases—

I thank my colleague for the question.

Speaker, our government has provided more protection for tenants than any government in the past 70 years. The minister has alluded to the decision—the measures we put in throughout the pandemic, now, and even to protect tenants next year.

It’s important to talk about the fact that when we talk about housing and protection for tenants, supply is very important.

I’m really interested now to see that the opposition is finally talking about housing again.

We have continuously been there for tenants. When we were putting protections in Bill 184 through this ministry, we raised the fines to $50,000 for individuals who were breaking the law, $250,000 if it was a corporation—various measures to protect tenants.

What did the opposition do? They have continuously voted against every measure that protects tenants in this province. So while they vote against it, we will continue to be there for every single tenant in—