The bill enacts the Anti-Money Laundering in Housing Act, 2022. The act requires the minister to develop and implement a landowner transparency plan so that numbered corporations, trusts and partnerships will be required to reveal their true, individual, beneficial owners in a public land registry. The purpose of this act is to clamp down on money laundering, tax evasion and fraud, which is taking place in the real estate sector in Ontario.

Ms. Hunter moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 9, An Act to amend the Health Insurance Act and the Health Protection and Promotion Act in respect of addressing gun violence and its impacts / Projet de loi 9, Loi modifiant la Loi sur l’assurance-santé et la Loi sur la protection et la promotion de la santé en ce qui concerne la violence armée et ses répercussions.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontario’s social assistance rates are well below Canada’s official Market Basket Measure poverty line and woefully inadequate to cover the basic costs of food and rent;

“Whereas individuals on the Ontario Works program receive just $733 per month and individuals on the Ontario Disability Support Program receive just $1,169 per month...;

“Whereas the Ontario government has not increased social assistance rates since 2018, and Canada’s inflation rate in January 2022 was 5.1%, the highest rate in 30 years;

“We, the undersigned citizens of Ontario, petition the Legislative Assembly to increase social assistance rates to a base of $2,000 per month for those on Ontario Works and to increase other programs accordingly.”

I support this petition. Since this petition was given to me, the rate of inflation has gotten worse and the Ontario government has only increased social assistance rates for ODSP by 5%, which means they’re still below the poverty line, so this petition is still relevant. I give this petition to page Lucia to take to the Clerk.

I’d like to thank Dr. Sally Palmer for providing me with these petitions. It’s a petition to raise social assistance rates.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontario’s social assistance rates are well below Canada’s official Market Basket Measure poverty line and woefully inadequate to cover the basic costs of food and rent;

“Whereas individuals on the Ontario Works program receive just $733 per month and individuals on the Ontario Disability Support Program receive just $1,169 per month, only 41% and 65% of the poverty line;

“Whereas the Ontario government has not increased social assistance rates since 2018, and Canada’s inflation rate in January 2022 was 5.1%, the highest rate in 30 years;

“Whereas the government of Canada recognized through the CERB program that a ‘basic income’ of $2,000 per month was the standard support required by individuals who lost their employment during the pandemic;

“We, the undersigned citizens of Ontario, petition the Legislative Assembly to increase social assistance rates to a base of $2,000 per month for those on Ontario Works and to increase other programs accordingly.”

I wholeheartedly support this petition. I will affix my name to it and give it to Elya to bring to the Clerk.