I want to acknowledge the challenges and hardships my constituents in Don Valley East have endured over the past year. Health care has become more difficult than ever before, with fewer family doctors, longer wait times, and cancelled surgeries. The growing spectre of privatization, which has made it more difficult to seek medical attention via virtual care, is the first of many examples of how this government hasn’t delivered for my constituents or for patients. Virtual care must be equitable and accessible, but as designed, it reveals the government’s profiteering agenda.

Make no mistake about it: Privatization is like a drop of poison in a well, and it contaminates the entire water supply.

Another problem: Our environment and greenbelt are under attack by Bill 23. We all need housing, but it needs to be safe and sustainable. It mustn’t raise taxes for the benefit of developers. Bill 23 will lead to the same kind of uncontrolled, runaway development that is being proposed in my riding along Wynford Drive—13 high-rise condos in that tiny space, and no community input? My constituents must be consulted and amendments made, and runaway legislation like Bill 23 must be fixed.

But there are things to look forward to. On December 13, Ismailis around the world will celebrate the birthday of their spiritual leader and one of the world’s foremost champions of pluralism and community service, His Highness the Aga Khan. To the Ismaili community and His Highness, I wish to say happy birthday and Salgirah Khushiali Mubarak.

To the constituents of Don Valley East and the people of Ontario, I wish to share my very best wishes, from my family to yours, for happy holidays, a merry Christmas and a joyous new year.

To the members of Ontario’s Jewish community, I wish you a happy and healthy Hanukkah, and I join you in celebrating the miracle of Jewish resilience in the face of oppression. Eat some latkes for me.

I think the minister has answered that on a number of occasions. I think, again, what it comes down to, time and time again, is that the NDP just refuse—with the help of the Liberals, quite frankly—to see the challenges that we have in the province of Ontario, the challenges that we are fixing.

Of course, there is a housing crisis in the province of Ontario, ostensibly because of the policies that were brought on by the Liberals, supported by the NDP. Colleagues will remember all of those years that the NDP propped up the Liberals to ensure that the dream of home ownership that so many of us have fought for our entire lives, our parents fought for. Under both the Liberals and the NDP, that is a dream that has vanished in the province of Ontario, but because of this Premier, because of this Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Conservatives on both sides of the House, you know what? We’re bringing back that dream. We’re making sure that we’re putting in place policies that will allow people to prosper in the province of Ontario, like generations before us, and we only wish that they would get on board.

I love that the member brought up Stouffville. Stouffville is my hometown, Mr. Speaker. Of course, it is a vibrant, beautiful community. Those who were in Stouffville on the weekend would have had the benefit of one of the most beautiful Santa Claus parades that we have had in the province of Ontario.

As the people lined the streets on both sides of Stouffville, they shouted encouragement to make sure we continued on. Do you know what they said, Mr. Speaker? “Bring more people to Stouffville.” That’s what they wanted because they all had what we all fight for: the dream of home ownership. We talked about this just yesterday.

I challenge any one of them to get up in their place and say it—say it with me: home ownership. Home ownership is not a bad word. It’s something that generations of Ontarians and Canadians have fought for. You’re against it. We want it, and we will fight to make sure that all Ontarians share in that dream—

Interjections.

Again, I’m glad he keeps talking about Stouffville. He keeps talking about Markham and Stouffville. I guess the member of Parliament must be doing something right in Markham–Stouffville, so I thank you for continuously bringing that up for me.

Listen, there is a number of homebuilders who are working throughout southern Ontario to bring the dream of home ownership to the people of the province of Ontario. As I said yesterday, when my parents came to this country, all of them were living in one home in the member for Scarborough Southwest’s riding, on Dentonia Park just off the Danforth—six of them. And do you know what they wanted? They wanted a home: the dream of home ownership. The oldest left, then the second-oldest left and, within 10 years, each and every one of those brothers and one sister had their own home. It is why they left Italy: to make a better life for all of the kids they had after that.

And that’s all the people of this province want. They want the opportunity to succeed like their parents before them. The only time we lost that is when the Liberals, propped up by the NDP, took that dream away from the people of the province of Ontario. This Premier has brought that back, and we’re on the move again.

I find it so rich and so ironic, hearing from the Liberals that changed the greenbelt 17 times. You should do your homework. You froze housing.

We have 300,000 people coming to Ontario every single year. I see the young people there. I see people up here that are renting. Do you know what their goal is in life? Their goal is to own a home. It’s supply and demand, Mr. Speaker.

But I can tell you, the last people we should be listening to is the previous government that destroyed housing, that just voted against every housing bill that we’ve had. You destroyed housing—

Interjections.

On November 25, 15 top architectural firms and urban planners wrote an open letter to the Premier—I hope he read it—showing how Bill 23 will not help people achieve the dream of affordable home ownership that this government says it will.

The letter says, “It will inhibit the construction of affordable housing...; dismantle regional planning and urban design considerations; undermine ... environmental protection...; and limit public participation in how we build our communities ... ”—for example—“by reducing the affordable housing requirement in inclusionary zoning from 20% to” just “5%.” It will reduce fees that cities use to pay for housing inspections. None of that sounds good for Ontarians.

The Premier’s own housing task force did not say we need to swap land in the greenbelt to get housing built.

So, my question to the Premier: Who is telling him that paving over the greenbelt is the solution to the housing crisis? And are they the same people who will stand to profit from this decision?

Under the leadership of Premier Ford, we’ve got a housing plan. Here’s what we’re fighting for—and the Premier is right. We’ve got young people, both in front of me and behind me in the galleries. A recent report released from the charitable organization Generation Squeeze, a 56-page report—and this is something I want everyone to listen to because this is what we’re fighting for. This is the crux of the issue: “In order for millennials to buy a home in the province, the report says average home prices need to drop by $530,000, more than 60% of the market value last year, for them to afford a mortgage that covers 80% of the value....

“‘It takes 22 years of full-time work for the typical young person to save a 20 [per cent] down payment on an average priced home,’ the report reads,” which is 17 years longer than when we were their age.

Speaker, this is the fight. This is what we’re fighting for: to make sure that young people realize the dream of home ownership. Under the leadership of Premier Ford, we’re going to get it done.

I’m very concerned about Bill 39, and we did vote against it returning to committee. The reason why we are so concerned about Bill 39 is because it consolidates political power in the hands of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the Premier at the expense of everyone else—you, I, the citizens of Toronto, Ottawa, Peel and more. It is a fundamentally concerning bill.

Bill 39 has nothing to do with solving the housing affordability crisis and helping people find a home that meets their needs.

If this government was serious about addressing the housing affordability crisis, we would have seen rent go down over the last four and a half years—but it hasn’t; it has gone up.

If this government was serious about addressing the housing affordability crisis, we would see housing prices go down and be more affordable for first-time homebuyers—but they haven’t; they’ve gone up.

If this government was serious about addressing the housing affordability crisis, we’d see a plan to address homelessness—but we haven’t.

The Auditor General said you had no plan in 2021. Now 2022 has come by, and you still don’t have a plan. The homelessness crisis has gotten worse and worse and worse.

No, this bill is about helping the Premier’s wealthy developer friends. That’s what this bill is about. This bill is about bulldozing local decision-making power so the Premier can wield more raw power. It is an affront to democracy.

I’m going to explain the bill to you. It’s a very short bill—three short sections. They’re all bad.

The first schedule, schedule 1, City of Toronto Act: Apparently, the mayor of Toronto asked for this in secret after Bill 3 was introduced, probably before the election on October 24—and this government gave them the power, which is really abhorrent. The power you gave them is extremely disturbing because it flies in the face of representative democracy and everything that we hold dear about democracy. It allows Mayor Tory to introduce and pass legislation with just one third of city council support—eight votes. That takes away power from everyday citizens. It takes away power from city councillors. It means that we will create and pass legislation which is not as good as it should be, because it will not go through the deliberative process, the discussion that needs to happen in order to create good legislation. It is a shame.

Schedule 2 is also terrible. It’s the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve Repeal Act.

Interjection: Shame.

This schedule eliminates laws and gives the green light for the Ontario government to pave over a large section of class 1 farmland.

Report after report after report that is coming out in the media is telling a very disturbing story, and the story is this: A large chunk of this land is owned by some of the PC Party’s wealthiest, highest donors.

When you look at the alignment between what is being carved out of the greenbelt and given the green light for development, and you align that with the amount of land that the De Gasperis family owns, it is—maybe it could be a coincidence, but it really does look like collusion. That’s what it really looks like. And it’s being handed over. What this looks like—or what it could look like—is that this family bought this land, very cheap, that was protected with easements to remain as farmland permanently, and then, maybe, they were the only ones who were given the heads-up that this land was going to be green-lighted for development, giving them the opportunity to make untold profit, because they’re then given permission to sell off and develop this land. That’s what it looks like.

What is so disturbing is that this government loves to wrap themselves in the flag and say, “We’re doing this to solve the housing affordability crisis,” but the government’s own Housing Affordability Task Force was very, very clear; the government’s own Housing Affordability Task Force says access to land is not the reason why we have a housing supply shortage and why we have a housing affordability crisis. That is not the issue here. The real issue is, what can we do with the land that is already zoned for development? That is the real conversation we should be having here—instead of paving over precious greenbelt land and farmland. It is extremely concerning.

The final part of the bill, schedule 3, is also short but terrible. There are two parts to it. One, the government has decided that democratically decided regional chairs are not so important, and in fact, it’s going to be the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing who gets to hand-pick the regional chairs for Niagara, Peel and York. That’s an absolute consolidation of power. The second thing I find so concerning is that, in the second part of schedule 3, this government gives themselves the authority to extend strong-mayor powers to any municipality they want through regulation. That is extremely concerning. It says it right here: Any mayor that they want, just through regulation, can have the power to pass budgets with just one third support of city councillors.

Interjection.

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.

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.

Where to start with this horrendous bill? I will start with addressing my counterpart across the way, with his mention of building housing. We’re all there on building housing. Let’s do it now—shovels in the ground, as you like to say. You say this bill is bold; I would say it’s timid. Housing: three units per site—come on, do four. Look at surface parking. There should be no surface parking in downtown Toronto. Like Manhattan, do parking underground. Build up the avenues. Look at our own provincial lands. Why aren’t we looking at LCBO sites? Build them up—working with churches, looking in our own backyards. Actually be bold and build housing. This bill will not build housing.

You’re always looking at building housing in the wrong places. You’re looking at farmlands when you know darned well, in the city of Toronto, there are—we have a letter from a bunch of planners. I’m sure you memorized this letter from 50 planning professionals based in Ontario and across the country with extensive leadership and experience—one, our own former chief planner, Paul Bedford, for the city of Toronto. He has huge credibility and a great reputation. There are 700,000 units in the pipeline in Toronto. That’s almost half of your 1.5-million housing goal. So why not be looking at urban centres, existing neighbourhoods? Why go into the farmland? You have heard repeatedly from other groups—especially the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, representing 38,000 farmers. They’re saying that class 1 farmland is instrumental—only 5% of Ontario’s landscape is arable land. The Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve is the only agricultural preserve in Ontario. Why would we go in there when we have other places to go for housing? It’s ridiculous. Give their letter a read. They talk about how instrumental it is for farmers; 1,600 farmers will be affected directly by this. You’ve seen the letters.

The process was horrific. Again, it was a day and a half—not even; half the day was for the minister. We heard from Parks Canada. Indigenous communities were not engaged. In a time of truth and reconciliation, why are we not walking the talk; why are we not doing better?

I’m sharing the time with my independent member down here, so I will be quick.

You’ve all received umpteen emails. You’ve seen the rallies. You are reading the tea leaves wrong on this. You have woken up every Ontarian. You cannot go into the greenbelt—

This is the wrong bill. This is the wrong place to build housing.

I’m passing the time over to my colleague.

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—

The Associate Minister of Housing to continue the debate.

I’d like to thank both the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the Associate Minister of Housing for sharing their time with me today, and also for the tremendous leadership they have provided me during my first six months sitting in this great House.

It’s my pleasure to rise for the third reading of our government’s proposed Better Municipal Governance Act. I’m proud to be speaking on behalf of a government that takes bold, urgent and decisive action on such an important priority as the province’s housing supply crisis. Our government has made housing such a priority because we know that too many Ontarians are finding it too hard to find the right home and things are getting even more challenging for them.

This problem cuts across geography and age. It is in the north—where my home riding of Thunder Bay–Atikokan is located—it is in the south, the east and the west. It plagues young people and newcomers wanting to put down roots in a community of their choosing, and it impacts seniors wanting to downsize and find a home near family and loved ones. It impacts new home buyers as well as people wanting to rent. It’s not just a big-city, urban problem, but it’s a rural and suburban problem as well. I’ve seen it in my home riding of Thunder Bay–Atikokan, and I know members on both sides of this House have seen the same. I think you can agree, that’s too many people seeing their dreams of home ownership dashed.

The legislation we are speaking to today is one of the many bold actions our government is taking to address the housing supply crisis. I’d like to take a few minutes to remind some members of this House of some previous initiatives we’ve taken—because this bill builds on dozens of pieces of legislation, regulations and policies introduced by our government over the last four years to help build more housing.

I’d like to point out that our municipal partners have been with us in this journey from the beginning.

In May 2019, our government announced More Homes, More Choice, our first housing supply action plan—