Thank you to the member opposite. This morning, we’re specifically speaking about the fall economic statement. No doubt, the issues that you raised may not specifically be in this particular bill. However, we have, for example, Bill 23 that the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing has brought through, which certainly encourages the building of affordable housing. In fact, we’ve lowered or reduced development fees, for example, on not-for-profit housing, on affordable housing. That will certainly help make housing more affordable to those in need. That’s certainly one of the aspects that we are doing to make life more affordable for the people of Ontario.

The member knows that nothing could be further from the truth. We were elected on a very strong platform to ensure that the people of the province of Ontario were well serviced by their government. What that means right now is that the people of the province of Ontario know that we are in a housing crisis. The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing has brought forward a very thoughtful program that would allow us to work in consultation and in co-operation with the city of Pickering to ensure that we can bring homes to the people of this province.

I look around me at my caucus here and I wonder how many of them are first-generation Canadians whose parents came here with one dream, and that dream was to have a better life for their family and for their kids. Part of that dream, I know from my parents, was to have their first home.

The opposition would take that dream away from the over 500,000 people who are expected to come here each and every year. Mr. Speaker, we won’t do that. We have a responsibility to the people of the province of Ontario to ensure that they can meet their dreams like countless generations have. They want to take that away from people; we’ll make sure that they get it.

Speaker, through you to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing: Last week, the minister failed to explain why he was allowing his ministry to be lobbied by his former chief of staff Luca Bucci, who left the ministry in April, less than eight months ago. The government House leader wouldn’t even let the minister answer.

Maybe the minister will answer this: Before Mr. Bucci became CEO of the Ontario Home Builders’ Association, or since, did the minister or any other government official share information with Mr. Bucci, information not available to the general public, that could be used by a member of the Ontario Home Builders’ Association to further their private interests?

On September 15, just two months before the minister announced plans to remove certain properties from the greenbelt, one of these properties sold to a company controlled by developer and PC donor Michael Rice. The real estate listing advertised the property as a “prime land banking opportunity,” as if expecting the value of this greenbelt land to rise.

The seller was the developer Schickedanz Bros., who sold the property for nearly nine times what they paid for it in 2000. Speaker, Bob Schickedanz was president of the Ontario Home Builders’ Association on September 15, at the same time Luca Bucci was CEO of the Home Builders’ Association.

Did the minister or any other government official share information with Mr. Bucci that could be used by the buyer or seller of the Schickedanz property to further their private interests, yes or no?

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.

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?

I want to thank my honourable colleague for this very important question and for all the great work she does in her community.

Speaker, I want to point out that Ontario, under this government, is the primary funder of all homelessness programs, with 86% of the funding coming directly from the province. Earlier this year, we developed a new Homelessness Prevention Program to simplify and streamline operations to allow service managers to help more people find a home and spend less time on paperwork. We also increased this program by $25 million this year, bringing the total close to half a billion dollars annually.

Speaker, I recently visited Scott Mission here in Toronto and the Ottawa Mission before heading north to visit Urban Abbey and Grace Place in Thunder Bay to see first-hand the great work that’s being done to support those who are facing housing challenges.

Mr. Speaker, I’ll say it again: We will continue to be there and we will work with all partners to make sure we don’t leave any Ontarian behind.

Speaker, I would like to point out that a few municipalities across our province have opened up warming centres for those who are looking for a place to stay, and we need to continue to work together to be there for all those in need of support. I encourage Ontarians who need more information, or assistance, to dial 311.

Speaker, this government will simply not leave anyone behind. We’ll continue to work with our partners, like the Salvation Army, amongst others, to ensure that every Ontarian has a warm and safe place this winter season.

I met with OMA recently and learned of the devastating family doctor shortages that we’re seeing across the province. In my community, in midtown, at 1366 Yonge Street, we have a wonderful medical centre that offers many services across the spectrum. There’s a pharmacy at the bottom. It helps many of our seniors have ready, accessible, community-based medical services. This is, of course, being torn down to build what we suspect will be, once again, luxury condos that no one can afford.

I’m wondering if the member could share if the fall economic statement says anything, really, about building real affordable housing and if it says anything about dealing with the crisis we have in front-line health care workers, like our doctors, like our nurses, like the very people at 1366 Yonge Street, who need their medical centre to stay alive and well.

Thank you very much to the members for their presentation. I think we can all agree that homelessness has reached a humanitarian disaster, especially in the province of Ontario. We’re seeing encampments grow in big cities as well as small communities and communities of in-between sizes.

And yet we know that the housing crisis that the government has spoken about is going to be addressed through some of their measures, but I believe that the housing crisis that largely remains unaddressed is the affordable housing crisis, so therefore, those who can afford less than the $2,000 average rent that we’re seeing in some areas. I’m curious to know, why is the government cutting $85 million from the homelessness program compared to what they spent last year?

Thank you to the member opposite for bringing forward the feedback you’re hearing from constituents and their questions. I would say to your constituent, and as I’ve spoken with my constituents about these issues, it’s the importance of cumulative changes and ensuring that our government is taking actions in a number of different areas to make life more affordable. That gas tax cut has an impact on the cost of food, on the cost of transportation and also on the ability of your constituent and my constituent to be able to get from A to B in a reasonable time frame. So whether it’s the gas tax cut, whether it’s also fighting the increases that we saw under the ideological Fair Hydro Plan, as it was called—but really the unfair hydro plan—of the former government and the changes that we’ve made to stabilize hydro rates to ensure that someone like your constituent is able to see a reasonable hydro bill as opposed to a very high hydro bill—and also taking action to build more housing, to ensure that rent rates are stabilized in order to ensure that there are more savings that are put in the pocket of your constituent.

We know that we need 1.5 million homes in the province of Ontario. We know that the status quo wasn’t making that happen. And when our government took action to make the changes, to make it happen, she voted against it. My question to her would be, how can you vote against legislation that would have solved the housing crisis?

That’s where I think the big contrast between what we saw under the former Liberal government—again, propped up by the NDP for many, many years—was where they spent billions and billions and billions of dollars, and at the end of it, what did we have to show for it? As the Minister of Finance has said, we had a health care system that was in crisis. We didn’t have long-term-care homes built in the province of Ontario. We didn’t have new hospitals. We didn’t have new roads.

And that’s, I think, a fundamental difference under this government. Our government is ensuring that each and every dollar that’s being spent for the taxpayers of this province is going into ensuring we have good infrastructure that is focused on economic recovery and jobs for today and tomorrow.