With the GTA population expected to increase by between two and six million in the next 20 years, Ontario needs to have a plan. We will need the necessary infrastructure to accommodate more residents, and most importantly, we will need enough housing. We can’t afford delay and red tape. A population increase of this magnitude requires immediate action. Experts and advocates are calling on the federal and provincial governments to address the crisis and move aggressively to support the oncoming population increase.

Speaker, can the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing explain how the strong-mayors legislation will help expedite priority projects and housing so that we can keep up with population growth?

I want to thank the member for Eglinton–Lawrence for that tremendous question. I think it’s so very important, especially during the time of a municipal election, that we’ve got to make sure that we get that plan in place. Municipal governments play a crucial role in determining housing supply.

But the member is right. As Ontario’s population has grown, housing—new construction, the supply of housing—hasn’t kept pace. We’re now facing a housing crisis that freezes too many young families out of the market. Our proposed strong-mayor system will empower municipal leaders to work more effectively with the province on provincial priorities like building more housing.

On this side of the House, we understand that municipalities play that critical role in ensuring our success, but we have to—and I have to implore the opposition to really look at this. This is so important, that we give the mayors in our two largest cities the tools that they need to get the job done. That’s exactly what our proposed bill will do.

Speaker, through you to the member: I’ve said this many, many times in the House, that we need to work with our municipal partners to unlock more housing supply. Too many Ontarians are worried that they’re never going to be able to own the home that meets their needs and their budget. Our government has to move forward. We have to implement policies and build upon the success of More Homes for Everyone and our housing supply action plan.

I want to remind the members of the House that last year, we had the most housing starts, over 100,000. It’s the most we’ve had in our province in over 30 years.

But, Speaker, more has to be done. We need to pull out all the stops to ensure that municipalities have the tools to get the job done. We’ve committed to Ontarians in the last election that we’re going to be building 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years, so that people can realize the dream of home ownership. That’s exactly what our proposed strong-mayors bill will accomplish.

I move that the House recognize newly elected members of provincial Parliament for their contributions to public service and their communities.

But I’m back, Speaker, to talk a little bit more today and finish off just the last few remarks of my speech. I’m really pleased to have the opportunity to do so, because as it came to a conclusion the other day, I was talking about the flood that we’d had in the community of Bracebridge in 2019, when—I was obviously very fortunate to be the mayor of that community for many years. But I really wanted to talk about how the people in that community performed during such a difficult time, and how they are so representative of the people throughout our riding.

I was saying that we got a lot of good things done during our council times through the term, but then we got to 2019, and very quickly we had some changes with some unfortunate weather late in the season, and saw a flood that was quite devastating for a lot of people. In Bracebridge—it’s a unique community—there’s quite a bit of elevation to it, but also a lot of it, obviously, was built near water. So in portions of the community, things were absolutely fine—you could drive around and it was a regular day—but in portions of the community, things were very far from fine. We have an urbanized area and a lot of rural area in the Bracebridge community. A lot of properties were cut off, and a lot of people were at risk for their personal safety and the safety of their property.

It was amazing, Speaker, because so many people came together. The people who maybe didn’t have so much on the line and lived in parts of the community where everything was fine immediately dropped everything to help those in our community where things were very much not fine. It was an incredibly touching and moving experience, as the leader of a community, to see people come together like that. But this was a persistent event. It had rained after the initial rains that caused the flooding, and it snowed. People were working incredibly hard over what was a weekend—where they had the opportunity to be away from their jobs or their loved ones, to pitch in and lend a hand, but the workweek was coming, and frankly, people were burning out. There’s only so much that a group of volunteers can do, but they refused to quit, and we got some help for them from the military. I want to thank them again for the amazing job that they did.

It was easy to get down when the weather continued to be tough and make this event drag on longer than everyone hoped it would, but you would have these moments of spectacular human kindness from people who wanted to help, from people who wanted to volunteer—and not just from our community, but from other communities. Just when you were at your lowest and feeling like our community was in a perilous place, and people were getting burnt-out and tired, my phone would ring and it would be someone from Peterborough, or it would be someone from Orillia or somebody from Hamilton with a simple question: “How can I help? I’ve got a shovel. I want to sandbag. I want to help. What time do you want me there?”

Boy, it picks you up when you see that kind of good in people, and you know that there are folks out there for whom just simply sitting at home watching the news was enough of a call to action for them to say, “How can I help?” I find those words some of the most powerful words that one individual can speak to another.

As I wrap up my remarks, I just want to say that those folks, the folks in my community who asked that question, “How can I help?”, are the inspiration for me wanting to do this job, the inspiration for me wanting to represent people every day, represent everyone every day—but they’re particularly inspiring. I’ve always found that without volunteers, obviously, our communities would cease to function. We make incredibly important decisions here; I did so in my previous municipal history, but it does not compare, in many ways, to the volume of acts of kindness that happen every day amongst individuals to keep communities whole and really make them what they are.

So I salute everybody who asks another individual or group, “How can I help?” I salute those who volunteer their time to groups to make communities better, organizations better, our society better. It’s what makes Ontario an amazing place. It’s what makes Canada an amazing place.

I’ll conclude my remarks at that today, Mr. Speaker, but I do appreciate the opportunity to celebrate volunteerism, to thank everybody who does take that time to help one another, and to encourage people to take those opportunities, every time they have them, to do so.

Leading voices have warned that the lack of new housing and planning for population growth in Toronto could hamper the city’s economic future. These same voices have said that the top concern for everyone should be addressing Ontario’s housing crunch and the difficulty that many residents have buying and renting.

Many of my constituents are very concerned about home ownership for themselves and for their children. They ask why governments are not taking immediate action and cutting through the red tape that is holding up development.

Speaker, can the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing explain how our strong-mayors legislation will result in more homes and provide reassurance to my constituents about their future in cities like Toronto?