I’ll remind the members to make their comments through the Chair.

Supplementary question.

Thank you to the hard-working member from Oxford for that question. In fact, wasn’t there a good announcement yesterday in Ingersoll, in the member’s riding, creating good jobs and bigger paycheques in his riding? So congratulations to your hard work, not to mention the Minister of Economic Development and the Premier as well.

Look, it’s a very important question for over 200,000 seniors on fixed incomes. It’s really important that we provide support in this environment where inflation—we haven’t seen inflation like this in 40 years, not since I was a wee kid. What we did to help those 200,000 people out was to double the Guaranteed Annual Income Supplement—

Interjection.

We’ve increased it from $166 to $1,992 per year this year. This is providing necessary and important relief to the many seniors who helped build this province.

Mr. Speaker, I was at the seniors’ Poinsettia Tea event at the Pickering recreation centre on Sunday, actually—

Interjection.

It was great to have people out again, great to see the many seniors in our community get together. That’s why we’re helping many of the seniors and many people, not just in Durham but right across the province.

We took off the tolls on the 412 and the 418. We expanded the Low-income Workers Tax Credit so there would be more money in their pockets in this environment. We’re proposing, as I mentioned earlier, in the fall economic statement, to extend the gas and fuel tax cut for next year, and one I’m extremely proud of is that we increased the earning exemption for people on the Ontario Disability Support Program from $200 to $1,000 for those who can and want to work so that they can have more money in their pockets.

My question is to the Minister of Finance. With rising costs due to global inflation, many people in my riding of Oxford, particularly low-income seniors, are concerned. High food prices affect household budgets and can restrict people from being able to purchase the items they need. The impact of rising prices is felt first and hardest by the most vulnerable, including low-income families, workers and seniors. In those challenging times, the government must provide additional relief for the cost of living and prioritize help for those who need it the most.

Can the Minister of Finance explain how our government will ensure financial support for seniors and those most in need?

That said, the issue of affordability is not exclusive to low-income seniors alone. Across the province, all Ontarians expect to see initiatives that help make life more affordable.

Speaker, can the Minister of Finance please tell the House what other ways our government plans to support the people of Ontario during this period of economic uncertainty?

The fall economic statement in 2018 targeted a rent control piece for one purpose and one purpose only, and that was to incent new, purpose-built rental construction in the province.

What happened, Speaker? Last year, in 2021, we had the highest level of purpose-built rental construction since the early 1990s.

In addition, during the pandemic, the government did a number of things, working very closely with the Attorney General. We froze evictions to ensure that at the height of the pandemic our most vulnerable had a safe, secure place to call home.

Speaker, I don’t want to couch my words. Make no mistake, the government is not going to go back to the times when there was no purpose-built rental construction in Ontario. We want to build upon the success of that 2018 amendment to ensure that there is an incentive to build more purpose-built rentals.

In the supplementary, I’ll talk about other measures that this member and her party voted against.

Speaker, as we approach the holiday season and the final weeks of the year, it is particularly concerning that the Feed Ontario Hunger Report shows skyrocketing food bank use, including a 64% increase in first-time visits. Overall, 587,103 adults and children accessed a food bank in Ontario between April 1, 2021, and March 31, 2022. That’s an increase of 15%, and just this week, Canadian food experts projected food prices will rise 5% to 7% in the first half of 2023.

So it’s clear that things are not getting easier for families. While the Premier and his government admit that stubborn inflation and a lack of affordable housing are impacting Ontarians, there is inaction in leaving the province’s most vulnerable out in the cold, and they are hungry.

Speaker, my question to the Premier: With the Christmas holiday fast approaching and the price of groceries for a family of four going up by over $1,000, what is the government’s plan to address these rising costs? And—like so many families in my riding of Scarborough–Guildwood—why is it that this government is letting families depend on food banks so heavily?

Last week, I met with residents in my riding of Scarborough–Guildwood after they reached out to me for help, and what I heard, Speaker, was heartbreaking. Kamala told me that while there was a 5% increase for ODSP, it does not come close to a livable income when she faces soaring inflation and when rates were frozen for so long, since 2018.

Theresa explained to me that her main source of stress each month is getting groceries, because the rate increase doesn’t apply to OW recipients. In fact, she told me that she spends hours lining up at the food bank to make ends meet. She pointed out that many OW recipients are people with disabilities trying to access ODSP and forced to live on $733 a month.

Speaker, will the government preserve the $100 work-related benefit and will they provide a similar rate increase for people on OW, as they have done for ODSP?

Speaker, the member knows I’m not going to comment on a case that was before the Landlord and Tenant Board. It’s a tribunal and it’s impartial, and there’s no role for me to respond for that.

But what I will say is, over and over again, every time this government places a policy on the table, whether it be through regulation or legislation, that member and New Democrats vote against it. Whether it be the 2018 initiative that resulted in a record amount of purpose-built rental being constructed, whether it be Bill 184, the Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community Housing Act, they voted against it. And even in Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act—one of the best incentives is that DC exemption for family-sized rental accommodation, 25%. Again, every time the government puts forward an incentive to build more rental accommodation, that member and the NDP vote against it—every single, solitary time.

Back to the minister: Last week, residents of Sunnydale housing complex in Waterloo were notified of a 5.5% rent increase happening on January 1. SpiceCart, the owner of Sunnydale, received an exemption from the Landlord and Tenant Board to raise tenants’ rents over 2.5%. Many Sunnydale residents live on fixed incomes and are vulnerable, and quite a few are new refugees to our region. Given the lack of affordable housing options in the region, this is a cruel thing to do.

Why does this government refuse to bring in stronger rent control protections, which would protect tenants of Sunnydale and renter households across the province?

Speaker, I beg leave to present a report from the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy and move its adoption.

Under the previous Liberal government, Ontario’s emergency management system was not up to date. Stockpiles of personal protective equipment were depleted or expired when they were critically needed. The province was left with the serious challenge of finding new PPE when worldwide production shortages occurred. This was unacceptable. My constituents in Richmond Hill were very concerned.

Our government must ensure that Ontario is never again placed in a situation where critical supplies of personal protective equipment must be sourced from other jurisdictions.

Can the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery please update the House on what action our government is taking to safeguard our access to critical PPE supplies?

While our PPE stockpile remains a critical part of our government’s plan to stay open, we know that a whole-of-government approach will be required to address any future needs that could arise. Can the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery please elaborate on how the government is strengthening our emergency response planning?

My question is to the Premier. The Auditor General revealed last week that $158 million was diverted from highway improvements on Highway 17 and Highway 11 in northern Ontario. I want to know why.

I want to see improvements to our highways. I want to see this investment of $158 million return to those highways in northern Ontario. I want to see safe roads. I want to see the member from Mushkegowuk’s bill actually supported by this government, to bring the highway services down to the eight-hour standard, to make our roads safer on our highways in northern Ontario. That’s what I want to see on our highways.

I’m asking this government: Are you prepared to make the investments that were initiated for northern Ontario return so that we could have safe highways, as everybody else deserves in this province?

Well, the Ministry of Transportation was very clear that the projects that were identified in the Auditor General’s report as deferred have actually all moved forward, either in the planning stages or due diligence stages or the construction stages. The member opposite knows very well that our government has been committed to road safety and construction in northern Ontario.

We’re moving forward the twinning of Highway 17 between the Manitoba border and Kenora. We’ve been working on building 14 new rest stops and rehabilitating 10 rest stops to make sure that we can provide safety for our drivers as they’re going along our northern roads. And we’re moving forward with an innovative new highway pilot called the “2+1” project—a project that came from the Northern Transportation Task Force and was recommended by people who live and drive in the north and who take road safety there so seriously.

We are very proud of the record that we have on keeping our northern roads safe and on rehabilitating and building our highways there, and we’re going to continue to do that.

Our government is committed to building in the north, and we’re committed to road safety in the north. That’s why we brought forward a completely new standard for highway and winter maintenance, a 12-hours-to-bare-pavement standard, the best and highest standard anywhere in Canada. We have made significant investments in equipment, we’re bringing innovative, new solutions to keeping our roads safe, and we’re going to continue to work to find the best standards and to do the best we can by the people in the north.

I just wanted to ask the Legislature to join me to welcome Denis Mainville from Royal Canadian Legion Branch 547 in Belle Ewart. Welcome, Denis. Thank you for your service.

Deferred vote on the motion that the question now be put on the motion for third reading of the following bill:

Bill 36, An Act to implement Budget measures and to enact and amend various statutes / Projet de loi 36, Loi visant à mettre en oeuvre les mesures budgétaires et à édicter et à modifier diverses lois.

I thank the great member for Richmond Hill for her question and the great work she is doing in her community.

Speaker, under the leadership of Premier Ford, this government remains laser-focused when it comes to the health and safety of Ontarians, and this is why we have built a robust PPE stockpile to protect front-line and other critical workers, while ensuring our province is ready for any future emergencies.

We have shipped over 700 million pieces of PPE since the start of the pandemic, and we have procured and distributed over 157 million rapid antigen tests, over 97,000 HEPA filter units. And thanks to the Premier and this great Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, I’m proud to say that 93% of the forecast PPE procurement for the next 18 months will be with Ontario or Canadian-based manufacturers.

Speaker, our government will continue its data-driven approach, ensuring we avoid the mistakes made by the previous governments and are well prepared in the future. All of this will further help us to ensure our province stays open and continues to—

The ayes are 74; the nays are 31.

Bill 39, An Act to amend the City of Toronto Act, 2006 and the Municipal Act, 2001 and to enact the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve Repeal Act, 2022 / Projet de loi 39, Loi visant à modifier la Loi de 2006 sur la cité de Toronto et la Loi de 2001 sur les municipalités et à édicter la Loi de 2022 abrogeant la Loi sur la Réserve agricole de Duffins-Rouge.

Supplementary, the member for Waterloo.

The division bells rang from 1151 to 1156.

On December 5, 2022, Mr. McGregor moved that the question be now put.

All those in favour of Mr. McGregor’s motion will please rise one at a time and be recognized by the Clerk.

Mr. Bethlenfalvy has moved third reading of Bill 36, An Act to implement Budget measures and to enact and amend various statutes.

Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? I heard some noes.

All those in favour of the motion will please say “aye.”

All those opposed will please say “nay.”

In my opinion, the ayes have it.

Call in the members. This is a five-minute bell.

The division bells rang from 1201 to 1202.

All those in favour of the motion will please rise one at a time and be recognized by the Clerk.

Be it resolved that the bill do now pass and be entitled as in the motion.

Third reading agreed to.

The House recessed from 1205 to 1500.

There appear to be 12 members standing. We are now going to have an immediate report-stage debate on the motion.

Twelve members having stood in their places, we will now have a 30-minute report-stage debate, as I said earlier, on the motion for the adoption of the report on the bill, pursuant to standing order 38(b). In this debate, each recognized party is allotted 12 minutes, and the independent members are allotted a total of six minutes.

Further debate?

I’m going to remind the member to make her comments through the Chair.

It’s always an honour to rise in this House and represent the wonderful people of Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill, who have given me an opportunity to be here and to represent them.

Speaker, before I go any further, I want to thank the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing for his relentless work when it comes to solving the housing crisis in the province that we’re facing. Let’s go back to four and a half years ago, when our government was elected. All along the way, it’s this minister, under the leadership of this Premier, who has been talking about the housing crisis in our province. Every single measure that we have put forward, the opposition has voted against. They will come in here and talk about housing; they’ll vote against housing. They will come in here and talk about affordable housing; they will vote against affordable housing. They’ll talk about the need to have more housing; they’ll vote against the supply of housing in the province of Ontario. It doesn’t matter what you put forward—you can clearly see the difference between us.

That’s why, after the last election, the people of Ontario increased the number of seats for this government and gave us a bigger mandate to come back here and solve the crisis that we’re facing because of 15 years of inaction by the previous government. And it’s important to note and it’s important to remind the people of Ontario that it was the NDP that held the balance of power for three of those years. They could have made housing a priority for the people of this province, but did they, colleagues? They didn’t. They let the people of this province down.

Every single time, when you stand in this House and talk about the priority of housing, I want to ask my honourable colleagues, where were you when you had the opportunity? Where was this anger and outrage when you could have held the previous government to account? You could have made them—

Mr. Speaker, my family immigrated here, to this country. You’ve heard the government House leader, with passion, talk about what housing means to a new Canadian when they come in. We come with hopes and aspirations, with dreams. All come here to this country with a dream of having the opportunity, through working hard, to own a home one day. That was my family—all along the way, my parents both worked very hard, and finally, after many, many, many years, they had the opportunity to buy a small home, and as a result, we were then given that opportunity.

The system, the previous government and, by extension, the opposition now have absolutely let down the people of this province—not only now, but future generations. If we don’t do something about it now, imagine what it’s going to be. If you think it’s bad now, think about what it’s going to be like five years and 10 years from now.

That is why we said to Ontarians—we’re transparent with Ontarians. We told them housing is a priority of this government. We talked about it during the campaign, in the last provincial election. We said to Ontarians, “We’re not going to let you down. We’re going to do everything we can. We’re going to work with all levels of government, with partners.” Gone are the days when people are pitted against one another and nothing gets done. Under this government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, we’re going to collaborate with everyone. We’re going to work with local municipalities, we’re going to work with the federal government, we’re going to work with non-profits, we’re going to work with the private sector to build more homes all across the province so that we don’t let any Ontarians down. That is a promise that we made, and of course we’re going to keep it.

Through one initiative that the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing has put forward, we are looking at a minimum of 50,000 homes being added to the province. Of course, we’re going to be looking at that. We’re going to look at any way to increase housing.

Mr. Speaker, there’s a balance. Our strong stance when it comes to protecting the environment—you’ve seen it. We’re the leader in the country. Unlike what the opposition thinks, there’s a balance to everything. You can do more than one thing. And that’s what we’re doing. That’s what the Premier has asked us to do. We have two ministers responsible for housing in this province of Ontario. Why? Because the Premier sees a need. It’s a priority for us to make sure that we get the job done for every single Ontarian in this province.

I do want to talk about one thing: Colleagues, there is a procedure—all of you are familiar; we just got the report back—where, after we debate a bill, this then goes to committee. All along you’ve heard it—during question period, outside of here. Every opportunity that the members of the opposition have gotten, they have criticized this bill. Right? Correct me if I’m wrong. And yet, colleagues, when it came to committee, how many amendments do you think the NDP put forward?

Interjections.

Exactly. They have the authority to politicize bureaucrats by having the authority to hand-pick the heads of departments instead of having a more collaborative, non-partisan process to decide who these public servants are going to be. And any municipality—any mayor now also gets the authority not just to veto a piece of legislation but also to introduce legislation and get it passed with just one third.

This government, in short, in schedule 3, is giving themselves the permission to introduce minority rule in any municipality they want, whenever they want, just through regulation; it doesn’t have to come back through the Legislature. That is an assault to democracy. It is a shame.

I’m not the only one who’s concerned about this bill. We went to committee. We got 20 minutes of the minister’s time, with some questions on the first day. And then on the second day, we had just 18 people speak. You sped it through so fast. There are over 14 million people in Ontario. You’re rewriting how democracy works in this province, and you gave just 18 people the opportunity to speak—it’s really shocking—but speak they did, and the written submissions that we received and the comments that we received in committee, overwhelmingly, expressed horror at what this government was doing. We had CCLA. We had former mayors. We had thousands of citizens. We had the Anglican Diocese of Toronto. We had the Canadian Environmental Law Association. We had Ecology Ottawa. We had David Miller, Friends of Kensington Market, the Federation of North Toronto Residents’ Associations, the Federation of South Toronto Residents’ Associations, Friends of the Golden Horse-shoe, David Crombie, John Sewell, the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, AMO.

And I know you have all had hundreds, thousands of emails into your inbox about Bill 23 and its sister bill, Bill 39, over the last few weeks. I get those emails too.

You’ve had thousands of people, cumulatively, protest at your offices. It’s December. It’s cold. And yes, they’re still coming out because they’re so concerned about this bill. It is very concerning.

I want to read some of the comments that people expressed.

AMO represents 444 municipalities. They did a survey of Bill 3, which is an extension of strong mayors—Bill 3 and Bill 39 are very related. It’s almost like you forgot, like John Tory called you up and said, “Hold on, what about this,” and you said, “Oh, yes, you’re right. We’ll do Bill 39 too. Thank you. Oh, and that? Okay. We’ll make another bill.” AMO—77% of mayors are opposed to strong-mayor powers. Who asked for this bill, aside from John Tory? And 90%-plus of councillors are opposed to strong-mayor powers. Then, when it comes to Bill 39—they haven’t done a survey yet, because this bill got rushed through so quickly, they haven’t had time—the AMO board is unanimously opposed to this bill. They reached consensus. Yet, still you proceed. No amendments, ram it through committee—“good, good, good.” It’s not good. And your arguments keep changing all the time, so I know you’re hearing it from your constituents, too—they don’t think it’s good either. When you guys start changing your message, it means that something is not going so well—

This is a disastrous bill. It is a terrible, terrible, terrible bill, and it’s got nothing to do with solving the housing affordability crisis.

If this government was serious about solving the housing affordability crisis, you would bring in better rent controls so Ontarians out there living in new homes aren’t faced with a 15% rent increase come this Christmas, come January 1; this government would actually address the homelessness crisis and the mental health crisis, and build affordable housing and supportive housing to meet the need—not some scattershot approach that maybe you’re doing, plan-less.

Have a plan. Implement it. People need homes. Homes are for people.

This bill has nothing to do with providing homes to people; it’s got everything to do with consolidating power to help yourselves.

No. No.

I can tell you right now, Mr. Speaker, that’s what the NDP will do—the NDP will come in and will—

Interjections.

You cannot have it both ways. You can’t come in here and talk about housing but vote against it. You can’t say housing is a priority for you but then put no solutions forward. That’s what the NDP will do all along the way.

On this side of the House, we’ve been clear. We said we’re pro-housing. We want to build more homes. We want to make sure we don’t let down the people of this province.

Interjection.

Interjections.

When it comes to the number of people in this province, right now, we are seeing study after study, and we are being told—and we know this already. If you look at the last municipal election, every single candidate who was running for office heard the same thing: Housing is a huge priority for Ontarians.

If my colleagues across had actually listened in the last provincial elections, they wouldn’t be shrinking in the corner across right now. That’s the difference between a party that actually listens to the people and actually finds solutions for the people of this province and parties that don’t. That’s the difference between us and the opposition. We’re looking at bold solutions. We said we were going to take action. We weren’t going to sit on our hands and let this crisis get worse and worse over time—and it will. As I said at the beginning, it is going to get worse. If you don’t do anything about the problem—we found out in the last 15 years—it is going to get worse.

So we have put forward solutions, whether it was the first bill that we put forward—which had many solutions that would not only expedite approval processing times but that provided a lot of protection for tenants as well. You’ve heard my honourable colleagues across talk about protection for tenants. Colleagues, do you think they voted for that bill that actually provided a ton of protection for tenants? No. They voted against that bill.

We know that what we put forward, we know that the great work of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, under the leadership of Premier Ford, and every member of this caucus—we know it’s working.

Through the bills that we have put forward, in 2021, we saw a record number of housing starts in our province, over 100,000 housing starts in our province. Just to put that in perspective again, the last time we had this many housing starts was back in 1987. And it’s important to note that of the 100,000-plus we’re talking about, 13,000 of them were purpose-built rental units. That is so important to talk about. Why is that so important? Because that 13,000 was a record number; the last time we had this many was back in 1991.

Interjections.

So the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing has been clear, the Premier has been clear—every member of this caucus has been clear with Ontarians that, yes, housing is a priority for us.

This is why, through the bills that we’ve put forward, we’ve talked about making units more affordable for Ontarians. Mr. Speaker, a single-family home in the GTA adds a cost of about $116,900 to an average home in the GTA—you tell me if that’s affordable; $100,000 for a condominium in Toronto. Those fees are staggering, which is why more and more people in this province are not able to afford homes. And we’ve already seen that there are municipalities that are talking about further increasing those charges on the people, at a time when life is unaffordable, at a time when we are lowering the cost of living on all fronts. You saw the Minister of Finance, through the fall economic statement, putting measures to reduce the cost of living for Ontarians. At a time when we need to make life more affordable, we cannot look at a major purchase for a family, the largest purchase a family will ever make—you cannot make that more expensive. You have to look at ways to make life more affordable. So that means—looking at the bills that we’ve put forward—discount units, remove fees to make units more affordable for Ontarians.

Mr. Speaker, you have seen leadership under this Premier, you have seen leadership under the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, for four and a half years. I am proud to be part of this government.

My message to every single Ontarian is, I know they let you down, I know they supported them; we won’t. We have your back. You will have the dream of home ownership within reach—