Thank you to the member opposite for the question.

Mr. Speaker, it is this government that vowed to stop bad developers from trying to make extra money off the backs of hard-working Ontarians, and it is our government that is strengthening the regulatory tools available to address this concern. These include much heftier fines for bad builders and enhanced powers for HCRA to proactively investigate potential bad behaviour by developers.

Altogether, these stronger penalties and approaches would cost unlawful developers very dearly: on a single home, from hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines to the loss of their builder’s licence. Speaker, we are making bad builders think twice before trying to take advantage of our homebuyers. Also, we are actively working to stop these incidents from happening any further through multiple different means.

Buying a new home should be a dream, not a nightmare. We continue to hear about bad builders who extort homebuyers by raising the price of homes after contracts have been signed, or turn around and cancel the contract and re-sell the home to the highest bidder. This has to stop.

Your regulator, the HCRA, has only investigated 10% of all complaints, and not a single fine has been laid. To make matters worse, because of the government regulator’s inaction, many homebuyers have had to spend thousands and thousands of dollars in court, sign NDAs and go through years of unnecessary stress, because your government regulator isn’t protecting them.

Why is this government letting this happen, and if they’re not willing to act, are they willing to reimburse homebuyers for their legal fees since they are unwilling to protect them?