We have an affordability crisis in Niagara. Seniors and families are struggling. In Fort Erie, there is a 13-year wait-list to get an affordable one-bedroom housing unit if you’re a senior—13 years. Seniors are cutting pills in half or skipping a dose. They can’t afford their medication and groceries.

I get calls every week from seniors concerned with the cost of home heating. Under this government, Enbridge rates have doubled in the last two years. Grocery prices have skyrocketed. Last year, food prices rose at the fastest pace in 40 years. Loblaws, owned by the Weston family, earned more than $500 million in fourth-quarter profits. They earned a million dollars a day last year in profit. That’s price gouging. One in five children live in poverty in the province of Ontario. Conservatives have done nothing to combat corporate greed.

This crisis is putting enormous pressure on our front-line social services in Niagara. Non-profits in my community have seen drastic increases in the need for housing supports. Demand for food banks has never been higher.

We need investment in affordable housing and public, not-for-profit health care. I proposed solutions to this crisis, but the Conservatives say no. It has become unaffordable to live in Doug Ford’s Ontario, but I’ll keep fighting for affordable housing to protect our families and our seniors, and fight grocery price gouging by the Weston family.

I think the Premier has been very clear on that. He continues to work with the Integrity Commissioner. But let’s get really to what the Leader of the Opposition is saying. The NDP, of course, do not want us to continue to build housing for the people of the province of Ontario. Because for the NDP, what they would rather is that the rich are less rich as long as the poor are poorer. That’s what the NDP is all about.

Let me tell you what new housing means for the people of Stouffville. For the people of Stouffville, the new housing that the minister introduced means that we are building homes in a community that has the infrastructure to do it, a community that has schools, a community that has churches right by it, a community that has two brand-new GO train stations, a community that has a community centre right next to a downtown core that is desperate for people to fill the jobs in our service industries and right close to farms that are so desperate for people to work on the land. That’s why they bring in temporary foreign workers.

It is a growing community that wants new housing, and a group of people are coming to this country who demand it. We need them, and we will be there for them.

My question is for the Associate Minister of Housing. For too many Ontarians it remains a major challenge to find the right home. Recent reports reveal that Mississauga is one of the most expensive cities to live in Canada with the average housing price remaining close to $1 million. Affordability and the housing shortage are serious concerns for the people in my riding of Mississauga–Erin Mills, and this is a problem impacting other regions across our province.

Ontarians are counting on our government to support them in achieving their dream of home ownership. We must continue our robust efforts to build more homes faster and tackle the housing crisis. Can the associate minister please explain what our government is doing to create the conditions necessary for building more affordable housing across our province?

As global inflation continues to impact the cost of living for Ontarians, we are also seeing the rise in rent prices in our province. Housing experts continue to anticipate that the cost of rent could continue to raise in the coming months. For example, in Mississauga it costs over $2,000 per month to rent a one-bedroom unit.

Our government must take urgent action now to increase the availability of rental units in order for the hard-working individuals and families in Ontario to have a place to live. Speaker, can the associate minister please explain how our government is increasing the options for affordable rental housing?

I want to thank my honourable colleague from Mississauga–Erin Mills for the question and also for the great work he does on behalf of his constituents every single day.

A few months ago, I toured Z Modular, which is a factory in Kitchener, Ontario, that pre-builds modular housing units right here in our province. They manufacture shipping-container-style boxes which you can customize or stack to build modular homes. You can pick the layout and materials you want included and have it delivered to your property with 90% of the project completed off-site, which results in 50% faster project completion.

Thanks to the member from Hastings–Lennox and Addington, I also had the opportunity to meet with GPS 3D Modular, which uses a green precast concrete modular system to build up to 10 storeys high. These are innovative solutions; these are the ones that are going to help us get out of the supply of the housing—

While on tour at the Z Modular facility, they explained to me how they not only create detached housing, but they can also scale up projects to create buildings for residential use. They are currently working on projects in Lucan, Ontario; St. Clair College; and Port Elgin. And they’re working on affordable housing projects all over the province.

Z Modular and GPS 3D Modular are using modern technology and manufacturing processes similar to what the Ford Motor Company did in the early 1900s to make it more affordable to purchase a vehicle, but now to make it more affordable to buy homes. These are great solutions that will help us alleviate some of our housing crisis issues. I hope the opposition supports us as we go forward, as we try to tackle the housing—

Applause.

I guess the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing doesn’t like that title. I embrace it. I’m happy for it—

The point is this: You can’t move this province in the wrong direction. I got persuaded to run for office in 2017. I had people I loved and trust corner me. I had been able to get out of these conversations for much of my life, but in this moment in 2017 they cornered me—students I worked with at Carleton University, people I know in the great city of Ottawa—and they said, “Joel, we need you to run as a candidate because we know we can hold you accountable and we know your number one goal is to make sure we do right by the planet. We know that’s your number one goal.”

And it is my number one goal. There is no other reason I go into this place, do the prep work, engage with colleagues opposite, take blows opposite and offer some of my own; there is no other reason I come into this place but for the spiritual experience of knowing that at this moment in time I had a seat in the House that could take action on the climate crisis. There’s no other reason.

Interjection.

The government is embracing the electrification of transport—great. You’re negotiating with industry partners on helping those industry partners be greener—great. But for the love of God, in the question and response we have for 10 minutes, let’s talk about not moving our province in a dirtier-energy direction. Let’s talk about not moving our province into more congestion, more smog, further sprawl of homes, not giving our agriculture sector the opportunity to take advantage of arable land to grow the amazing food that nourishes and sustains us. Let’s not trade that off. Let’s embrace Ontario’s strength.

This is a province with so much richness and so much wealth and so many opportunities, and it comes from its people and its natural environment. We can be a world leader. We don’t have to watch while states in the United States, countries in Europe and Asia—China—leap past us on growing renewable energy in a systemic way; leap past us on expanding public transit in a way that happens quickly and affordably through a public provision system; leap past us on educating and harnessing the talent of young people and giving them not just a seat at the table but grabbing the steering wheel. I can’t wait to retire, to be honest, sometimes. When I get into environmental conversations with young people, they are so much further advanced than I ever was at their age.

So what can we do to move away the red tape from those change-makers and make this bill better?