So, here’s what we know, Speaker: Our per capita housing supply lags behind our G7 and our Canadian peers, who we compete with for jobs and investment. Today, our province is nearly 1.3 million homes, rented or owned, short of that G7 average. That’s why we’re in the middle of a housing crisis.

The University of Ottawa-based smart prosperity centre found that Ontario’s pre-existing shortage is already 471,000 homes in 2021. We need over an additional million homes just to get to that average of other G7 countries and our Canadian peers. And then, as has been noted this morning, we already know that we’re going to have an influx of new immigration who we want to welcome to our province—probably 60% of that half a million new Canadians are going to come here. That’s why we’re putting forward policies, procedures, bills, regulations to get shovels in the ground.

I am not going to stand here like the member for Guelph, the leader of the Green Party, and defend the status quo. He opposes building homes, he opposes getting things done and he opposes the realization of the dream of home ownership for a generation of Ontarians.

My question is to the Premier. Last week, the Auditor General reported that the P3 contracts used to build Ottawa’s LRT resulted in more problems and less accountability. The same companies contracted in Ottawa through these shady P3s are responsible for the expensive Eglinton Crosstown P3 mess that has frustrated my community in St. Paul’s for over a decade. My community needs accountability from this government more than ever. They need assurance that the Ottawa LRT fiasco won’t repeat itself on Eglinton.

My question is to the Premier: Why are the Premier, the minister and Metrolinx choosing to conceal, instead of answer to the public—the people paying for the actual project—how long this latest Eglinton LRT delay really is going to be?

I want to thank my colleague the member for Sarnia–Lambton for that important question and for his hard work on behalf of his constituents.

Carbon storage is a technology that involves injecting carbon dioxide into deep underground rock formations for permanent storage. You take the carbon dioxide emitted from power plants, steel mills or any other industrial process that you can think of and capture it. Instead of having the carbon dioxide released into the air, this process ensures that it never gets a chance to be released in the air.

The strategy is allowing us to develop a self-sustaining sector in Ontario, create local jobs and attract investments, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I think all of us in this House, whether you’re on this side or that side, agree that we need to do our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect the environment.

This ambitious plan that we have announced as part of the Less Red Tape, Stronger Ontario Act will help our efforts to reduce Ontario’s emissions and cut red tape for businesses and industry, while safeguarding the people of Ontario and our environment.

Minister of Transportation.

There’s a lot of conversation taking place at this end of the chamber and it’s making it difficult to hear the member who actually has the floor.

Interjections.

My question is to the Premier. Former mayors of Toronto have called Bill 39 an “attack on one of the essential tenets of our local democracy and” with it “a fundamental democratic mechanism: majority rule.”

The mayors also note that with the integrity and the well-being of Ontarians on the line, people are organizing for a historic showdown. The title of this fight is “Citizens versus the provincial government.”

Interjections.

Speaker, homelessness is an extremely important and complex issue that impacts Ontarians. Last week, I was speaking with Jasmin from LAMP Community Health Centre in my riding of Etobicoke–Lakeshore. We discussed the challenges that are faced by individuals and families experiencing unsheltered homelessness, and how they become all the more heightened during the winter months.

While it is essential that assistance and programs are available to meet urgent needs, there must also be new solutions and coordination of services to support Ontario’s most vulnerable people. Across this province, there are many individuals and families whose physical, mental and social well-being are at risk because they need access to resources and local supports.

Speaker, can the Associate Minister of Housing please explain what our government is doing to provide vulnerable Ontarians with the support they need?

Our government must provide assistance to individuals whose health and safety might be at risk because of the cold. Can the Associate Minister of Housing provide details about support systems and programs available to those needing shelter?

The member opposite did a member’s statement acting like Bill 39 was passed in the Legislature. The bill is in committee. In fact, I think the opposition only mustered up three amendments to the whole bill. So never underestimate the NDP to do the least amount of work possible.

Again, Speaker, I support Mayor Tory. Mayor Tory’s request for this amendment to the strong-mayors legislation is something our government supports, because we want to ensure that Mayor Tory, who received a strong democratic city-wide mandate in the October 24 election—he wants to get shovels in the ground, and he wants to support our goal to build 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years, unlike the NDP, Speaker, who won’t even utter the words “home ownership” in the Legislature. Shame on you.

My question is to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Last Thursday, we heard from 18 witnesses about Bill 39. Fourteen of those 18 witnesses spoke against the bill. They represent the overwhelming public outcry against this government’s unprecedented attack on local democracy. The Association of Municipalities of Ontario made this very point, saying, “Bill 39 will disenfranchise elected councillors and potentially destabilize and undermine the authority of municipal government.”

AMO is not alone in its understanding of this matter. It has been expressed clearly and repeatedly by countless media outlets, leading scholars, political commentators, and others who care about democracy and good government. Minister, will you listen to Ontarians and withdraw Bill 39?

The Ontario Line is 75% over budget. That’s why we said no.

Accountability isn’t all we need. For 10 years, small businesses in midtown and Little Jamaica have been devastated by the LRT’s construction, with more businesses shutting down for good than I can count. Small businesses are a community. The latest LRT delay, pushing the open date to late 2023 at the earliest, will be the last straw.

While many of our small businesses didn’t get help during the pandemic, this Premier gave nearly $1 billion—$1 billion—to corporations and businesses that didn’t need it or didn’t qualify. Some of them weren’t even in Ontario, Speaker.

My question is back to the Premier. Will you be providing substantial financial support for our small businesses so that they can weather this storm that this government has created?

I thank the member opposite for the question. Speaker, the delays that are plaguing the Eglinton Crosstown LRT are frustrating for everyone, for people living along the line and for businesses that are there. As the member opposite knows, we inherited this project from the previous Liberal government, which mismanaged the project from the start. Right now, Speaker, our focus is on making sure that the Eglinton Crosstown LRT is safely operational as soon as possible.

Let’s be clear, we are continuing to make progress on our priority projects for the GTA: the new Ontario Line and the three extensions. But to get those projects built in a different way, we passed the Building Transit Faster Act, an act that’s designed to address a lot of the issues that the member opposite is raising. Mr. Speaker, that member and the party opposite voted against the Building Transit Faster Act. They voted against getting shovels in the ground and getting transit built faster. I think the question that should be asked in this House is why they voted against such an important piece of legislation to get transit built faster.

Mr. Speaker, let’s be clear: We have been there for businesses along the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. We have provided supports for those businesses that have been impacted by construction. Metrolinx has been collaborating not only with the city of Toronto but also with local BIAs to establish a joint committee that’s responsible for determining where these funds should go.

Mr. Speaker, we know that this has been a difficult go for the people along the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. That’s why we’re so determined to do it differently.

Our government recently announced an environmental assessment proposal that will help secure a critical minerals project in northwestern Ontario. This critical minerals project will bring job opportunities and secure Ontario’s future as a leader in the generation of clean, sustainable electric vehicles.

While we hear from the opposition that our government does little to protect the environment, it is evident that our government’s actions demonstrate environmentally responsible leadership.

Can the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks please explain how this environmental assessment approval will support northwestern Ontario?

There is tremendous potential in the north, and many positive outcomes can be achieved as our government continues to promote Ontario’s mining sector.

My question is to the Minister of Mines. Can he please elaborate further on the importance of this mining project in northwestern Ontario and how it will support our government’s Critical Minerals Strategy?

I refer it the Standing Committee on Procedures and House Affairs.

Resuming the debate adjourned on December 5, 2022, 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 introduced her earlier; she wasn’t here but she is now. My constituent Cheryl Crompton is here on the government side. It is her birthday today, and I hope you will all join me in wishing her a happy birthday.

Happy birthday.

I’d like to thank members of my constituency and others for bringing forward this petition to protect the greenbelt.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the Premier has persistently promised over the last four years not to develop the greenbelt; and

“Whereas the Premier has plans to build Highway 413 that would pave over 400 acres of the greenbelt, including over 2,000 acres of class 1 and class 2 farmland; and

“Whereas the government now has plans to open up over 7,400 acres of the greenbelt to his pro-sprawl developers;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To instruct the Ontario government to immediately commit to cancelling Highway 413 and immediately halt all plans to develop the greenbelt and to instead invest in livable and affordable communities connected by transit that protect the nature that protects us, the farmland that feeds us, and mitigates climate pollution.”

I wholeheartedly support this petition. I will sign it and ask page Oriana to bring it to the table.

I’d like to thank the member for Thunder Bay–Atikokan for that excellent question. He’s right: Too often we hear this false choice. Environmental protection and economic development go hand in hand, and that’s a belief of this government. In fact, that worrying false dichotomy presents a fundamental lack of belief in Ontarians and in the potential of the men and women in the north.

Speaker, there is no net-zero without mining. In the north, the corridor to prosperity means the critical minerals we need to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels.

Just this past week, I approved, with my powers under the Environmental Assessment Act, Generation PGM’s Marathon mine project. This approval is a guarantee that this vital project will go forward for the people of northern Ontario.

Ontario is leading Canada, showing that by working with businesses, not taxing them, we can realize the potential of the north, work hand in hand with Indigenous partners, and ensure that Ontario is at the forefront of decarbonization.

I’m going to quote MPP Wong-Tam when they had the title of city councillor, because I think it really sends a message on how the NDP operate: “Good luck trying to build your tower or your condo if we don’t give you the road occupancy permit. Good luck if we don’t give you that permission to remove that single tiny little tree. It is simply not going to happen.”

We’re going to support Mayor Tory, who received a strong, democratic, city-wide mandate. I’ve said in this House that every other councillor combined—the mayor still had 36,000 more votes. He wants to make the strong-mayor powers work. We want to work with him. A third of the growth in the next decade is going to come in our two biggest cities, Toronto and Ottawa. We have to give those mayors the tools to get shovels in the ground faster. That’s exactly what Bill 39 does.

Thank you to the member from Thunder Bay–Atikokan for your question and for the great work you’re doing in your riding.

Mr. Speaker, Generation Mining’s Marathon palladium project supports our Critical Minerals Strategy by creating a source of palladium, a mineral vital in the production of clean technologies, right here in Ontario. This market is important because Russia has cornered the market and is a primary global supplier of this mineral. Our strategy is combatting this and ensuring our allies have access to these resources by creating the right conditions for companies to do what they do best: build mines and create jobs.

Just listen to what Jamie Levy, CEO of Generation Mining, had to say about our government’s support for their project: “We appreciate the support of the province throughout this process. This important critical mineral project will bring economic prosperity to the town of Marathon, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, and the regional Indigenous communities by creating 900 construction jobs and 375 mining jobs.”

Mr. Speaker, our Critical Minerals Strategy is working.

The ayes are 29; the nays are 67.

Under the leadership of this Premier, we are delivering the largest transit expansion in Canadian history, all while investing in high-quality, high-paying, homegrown jobs. In the last three years alone, Mr. Speaker, our government has invested almost $500 million to support Thunder Bay workers at the Alstom plant. We currently have nine open contracts with Alstom for projects across the province. We’ve recently ordered 60 new streetcars and the refurbishment of 94 GO train coaches to maintain 300 good manufacturing jobs at the Alstom facility.

As part of our largest transit expansion plan in Canadian history, the city of Toronto has been provided with the opportunity to redirect more than $5 billion in its state-of-good-repair funding to the existing TTC network, which will then include the purchase of new streetcars and new subways. Mr. Speaker, this means real opportunity for the province of Ontario, and the member opposite’s party voted against that deal.

Part of the deal with the federal government and the city of Toronto and York region involve the redirecting of $5 billion of funding to the state of good repair. The NDP and the Liberals voted against that deal. That is the way we’re going to continue to send more orders to the Alstom plant in Thunder Bay to make sure that those high-quality, good-paying jobs are there for years and years to come. But, Mr. Speaker, we’re putting forward the plans and the members opposite keep voting against them.