Good morning. Let us pray.

Prières / Prayers.

Mr. Clark moved second reading of the following bill:

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.

I would love to, Speaker. It’s a real pleasure and a privilege to rise for second reading of our government’s proposed Better Municipal Governance Act, 2022. At the outset of our government’s leadoff, I want to indicate to you that I’m going to be sharing my time with two great parliamentarians: the Associate Minister of Housing, the Honourable Michael Parsa; and the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, MPP Kevin Holland. Both the associate minister and the parliamentary assistant will be touching on some specific items in the proposed legislation. Speaker, it’s great to see you in the chair, and I want to welcome all the members to debate for this very, very important bill for our government.

Speaker, I want to take you back to June. Our government was re-elected with a very strong mandate to help more Ontarians find a home that meets their needs and their budget. Our ministry, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, continues to play an essential role in fulfilling the mandate, under the leadership of Premier Ford, who has made it crystal clear from day one that this issue is an important priority for our government.

Let’s talk about the housing crisis. Ontario is a prosperous and growing province—I think we can all agree that it’s the best place in Canada to live and to call home—but increased demand for new homes and a lack of supply have been driving prices out of reach for too many Ontarians who are struggling to find the right home. This is true for younger people eager to start a family in the community of their choosing; for newcomers who are ready to put down roots and begin a new life here in this great province of Ontario; and for seniors who are looking to downsize but wanting to stay near their family, their community and their loved ones. This is not just a big-city crisis. The housing supply shortage affects all Ontarians, whether you live in a rural or urban or suburban community, whether you live in the north or the south, whether you’re young or old. Our government knows that we need to tackle this problem, and we know what must be done. We have to get this under control. That’s why we remain laser-focused on policies that get more homes built faster.

We’ve introduced three housing supply action plans: More Homes, More Choice in 2019—this was our first housing supply action plan; More Homes for Everyone, which was put forward in March of this year; and our most recent plan, More Homes Built Faster, which was introduced on October 25 and continues to be debated in committee this week. And over the last four years, our government has introduced over 90 initiatives to build more housing. I think we can all agree that they’re working well, because the numbers prove us right.

Speaker, we’ve come a long way, but we know more needs to be done. We have to do more for us to reach our goal of 1.5 million new homes to be built over the next 10 years. Even though 100,000 starts last year were great, after all, we can all do the math, and it’s not going to be enough to get us to that 1.5 million homes in the coming decade.

The reality in Ontario is that we expect to grow by more than two million people by 2031, with approximately one and a half million of those new residents deciding to come to the greater Golden Horseshoe. The federal government’s recent announcement indicating that there would be an enhanced immigration target of a half million new residents per year will put even further pressure on the existing housing market. We want to be able to welcome those newcomers to Ontario, because we know how important they are to the future of our province, but we also want to make sure that they’re able to find a home they can afford. At the same time, we want to acknowledge that that same dream needs to be realized for long-standing residents of our province. That’s why the government is going to continue to take decisive action to bring the housing crisis to an end.

I want to go back and talk about More Homes for Everyone. This was the last housing supply plan that was passed by this government, in March 2022. More Homes for Everyone was a suite of concrete actions the province put forward to address Ontario’s housing crisis, from protecting homebuyers from unethical development practices to accelerating development time frames to get more homes built faster. More Homes for Everyone was built on a three-part consultation with industry, with municipalities and the public, looking at the lens of creating housing supply and affordability. These included creating the Housing Affordability Task Force, which interacted with a variety of stakeholders and developed a report with recommendations on additional measures to increase housing supply, to increase the supply of market housing, to address the housing crisis. They included meeting with big city mayors, regional chairs and representatives from rural, remote and northern municipalities. These discussions helped us coordinate and work together to build housing faster in our province.

Also, their consultation included an online public consultation on housing affordability. That consultation asked Ontarians, community groups and other stakeholders to share their input on how we can address the province’s housing supply.

To support that plan from the task force, we passed legislation that’s delivering some near-term solutions and that has made some long-range commitments.

First of all, we made the commitment to put more housing options within reach of Ontario families.

The government also committed—very transparent with Ontarians—to delivering housing supply action plans every year over the next four years, starting in 2022-23. The action plans are going to contain, and will continue to contain, policies and tools that support a number of things—multi-generational homes, gentle density, missing middle housing—and it’s going to give us the ability as a government to fine-tune and evolve our approach to ending the housing crisis as circumstances change.

More Homes for Everyone was a plan that included measures to reduce red tape, to reduce bureaucratic inefficiencies that are plaguing development approvals, and to help municipalities move priority projects forward. These measures include our new tool, the new Community Infrastructure and Housing Accelerator. That tool helps municipalities expedite approvals for housing and community infrastructure like hospitals and community centres. Our plan also made changes to streamline site plan requirements and approval processes that support consistency throughout the province, while taking the politics out of planning.

Now I’m going to talk about More Homes Built Faster. It is still in front of the Legislature. On October 25, we tabled that legislation. It was the next phase of our plan to address the housing supply crisis. As I said, it’s in committee now, but those policies would, if they ultimately are passed, represent our boldest, most transformative efforts yet to cut through red tape, to cut through unnecessary costs, to stop bottlenecks that are standing in the way of housing supply that Ontarians need and deserve. The policies would provide the groundwork for growing housing supply by reducing the bureaucratic costs and red tape that are delaying construction, ultimately pushing housing prices higher; promoting the building of more homes near transit and creating more gentle density housing; protecting new home buyers and consulting on ways to help more renters become homeowners; and using provincial lands to build more attainable homes—something that I hear and I know my colleagues hear every time we have a consultation outside of the city of Toronto.

The proposals, if passed, would lay a very strong foundation which we need to build those 1.5 million homes that Ontarians desperately need. We know that if we don’t address the barriers that cause housing delays, and we know that if we don’t deal with the costs of building homes, to try to lower them so that the price of a home is reduced for the average buyer—these barriers have to be changed, and they include land access in urban areas, due to the complex land use policies, on top of very lengthy planning approvals for new housing.

While gentle density works in some cases, there are other times that bringing more housing, jobs, retail, public amenities close to transit is beneficial for our community—and our province’s Transit-Oriented Communities Program will help that. It will help build more housing to address soaring home prices and provide more options for Ontarians. The program is just part of our plan to build new, complete, mixed-use communities near and around public transit. We’re proposing to unlock new municipal funding tools so that municipalities can collect the fees and charges needed to participate in transit-oriented community projects. With more housing built closer to transit, more people can get to and from school and work much faster. We know that living closer to work saves money, allows people the opportunity to spend more time with family, and makes Ontarians’ lives easier.

It doesn’t matter what consultation we put forward; we have tremendous support from Ontarians for building upon the success of this program.

We’re proud to be working with municipalities to deliver transit-oriented communities. It stands to reason that creating housing near transit stations delivers a myriad of benefits. We are increasing ridership, reducing traffic congestion, reducing emissions, stimulating economic growth. These projects are also very important because they create much-needed local services and convenience, and increased job opportunities, to improve residents’ quality of life. It means housing closer to where people work, play and shop. And it means less time in traffic, less time commuting, and more time with the people we love.

But to get there, our government needs to remove barriers and build more homes, which brings us here today to Bill 39, the Better Municipal Governance Act. I’m pleased to have presented this legislation in the House yesterday and to have it prioritized by the government today. The legislation builds upon our Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act, which was recently passed by the Legislature, and which the Associate Minister of Housing will expand on in a few minutes.

The Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act, along with the associated regulations, gives the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa the ability to drive policy changes, to select certain municipal department heads, and to bring forward budgets. The changes would help our municipal partners deliver on our shared priorities. And our government has made it clear that increased housing supply is one of those shared priorities.

Our government knows that empowered mayors can help the province and their municipalities work together on housing and other initiatives that are critical for their communities.

We just had a municipal election on October 24. In every council chamber and every election campaign, housing rang as either the top priority or near the top, in every corner of our province. So it makes sense that we build upon our Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act with this next phase in Bill 39 this morning. The new legislation would build on the tools in that first bill, the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act, by proposing further changes to the Municipal Act and the City of Toronto Act. If this legislation is passed, the heads of council in the city of Toronto and Ottawa would have increased powers to align their municipal decision-making with provincial priorities—priorities like building 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years, supporting the infrastructure for those new homes, and expanding the footprint of transit-oriented communities so that more people can live, work and play near convenient public transit. These mayors would also do this by proposing municipal bylaws that align with those provincial priorities, which council could then pass if more than one third of the members vote in favour.

Speaker, I know these proposals are bold, but they reflect the severity of the housing crisis that is facing Ontarians today and the need to cut through the harmful “not in my backyard” attitudes. Perhaps we might hear some of those attitudes in a few moments from members of the opposition; we might even hear the feeling that I think we’re in Ontario now, and that’s the feeling not of NIMBYism, but of BANANAism—“build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone.” Again, I’m not going to expand on that. Perhaps there are others in the House who will do that today.

We’re taking decisive action, as a government, to address the housing crisis as the province considers how best to expand strong-mayor tools to more of Ontario’s rapidly growing municipalities.

We’re going to appoint provincial facilitators to conduct an assessment of the two-tier regional governments in Durham, Halton, Niagara, Peel, Waterloo and York. These regions are large, with populations of around 500,000 people or more. They represent some of Ontario’s fastest-growing communities, where increased housing supply is desperately needed.

This assessment will help us determine the best mix of roles and responsibilities between the upper- and lower-tier municipalities in those regions, particularly in the context of the strong-mayor system. This is going to allow municipalities to support our efforts to get shovels in the ground faster so that they can build the housing needed to support their growing communities.

Interjection.

No, we don’t.

I think, Speaker, I might be hearing some NIMBYism coming from the opposite side.

The legislation that we’re proposing would provide the minister, me, with the authority to appoint the regional chairs in Niagara, Peel and York. If these proposals are passed, I intend to reappoint the existing regional chairs. My view is, by reappointing these three chairs, the government can draw on their knowledge and their expertise to work with the provincially appointed facilitator and really provide an accurate assessment of how the regions can best work with the province to adapt the new strong-mayor powers. As you know, Mr. Speaker, Premier Ford has already indicated that the government is looking to expand strong-mayor powers to other municipalities that are shovel-ready, that are committed to growth, and that are also committed to cutting red tape. This proposed continuity at the regional level would help the government determine the best way to do it in the current two-tiered system. Our goal is to ensure that these enhanced powers are rolled out in a manner that reflects local priorities and local concerns, and that draws on the expertise and support of the existing regional chairs, so that municipalities can hit the ground running and provide the housing that Ontarians need without any more delay. I think that’s so very important.

As I said earlier, Ontario is expected to grow by more than two million people over the next 10 years. Over two thirds of this growth is expected to take place in the greater Golden Horseshoe, and we need those near- and long-term solutions to address the housing shortage. Our proposed changes in the Better Municipal Governance Act complement the More Homes Built Faster Act, our housing supply action plan, and will help Ontario address the housing crisis by building those 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years.

We’re working very hard, Madam Speaker—it’s nice to see you in the chair—to ensure that cities, towns and rural communities grow with a mix of ownership and rental housing types that meet the needs of all Ontarians, right from single-family homes, to townhomes, to mid-rise apartments.

We also, as a government, remain committed to supporting our municipal partners as they work with our government to increase housing supply. If we’re going to be successful, we need to ensure that municipalities have what they need to deliver on our shared provincial-municipal priorities. That’s what we’re doing with Bill 39 today.

I want to thank you for listening to my portion of the morning debate. And now, with his approval, I’ll turn it over to the Associate Minister of Housing to continue the debate.

I recognize the Associate Minister of Housing.

I recognize the member for Thunder Bay–Atikokan.

I would like to start my remarks today by thanking both the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the Associate Minister of Housing for sharing their time with me today as we speak about this next important bill in our government’s plan.

It is my pleasure to rise for the second reading of the government’s proposed Better Municipal Governance Act, and I will echo the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing in saying that Ontario is the best place in the world to call home, yet finding a home is all too challenging for too many people.

I am proud to be speaking on behalf of a government that recognizes this problem and is continuing its work to provide real, timely solutions. We know that if we reduce delays and get the cost of building homes down, we can lower the price of a home for the average buyer, because delays in building housing drive up costs. Delays are contributing to the housing supply shortage, even as we try diligently to make up the time we lost when the pandemic first hit.

Throughout the province, we need to significantly increase the speed of new housing building to meet the demand and lower costs for Ontarians. Study after study has found development approvals and appropriate zoning are often delayed or hindered because of opposition from some members of municipal councils. Some projects are abandoned altogether. Even if the project finally gets the go-ahead, the damage has already been done, and it’s ordinary Ontarians in search of a home who are paying the cost.

A study released in September by the Building Industry and Land Development Association reports that costs can increase substantially each month a permit is stuck in the approval system. They found development application timelines in the GTA have gotten 40% longer over the past two years, and that each month of a delay in a typical high-density project amounts to $2,600 to $3,300 in additional construction costs per residential unit.

In fact, the Ontario Association of Architects also looked into the cost of delays and concluded that the total cost of site plan review application delays could range between $300 million and $900 million every year in Ontario. Think about that, Speaker. This drives up costs for builders, for renters and for homeowners alike.

While our new housing supply action plan currently before the House addresses many of the barriers that cause housing delays, the changes we are proposing in the Better Municipal Governance Act take additional steps. Municipal councils play a crucial role in determining the housing supply. For example, they must approve the zoning changes necessary to increase the density in a given area. We believe that our proposed changes will help municipalities better meet the needs of their rapidly growing communities and help to drive increased housing supply in some of Ontario’s biggest and fastest-growing municipalities.

Speaker, the legislation we are speaking to today is one of the many bold actions our government is taking to address the housing supply crisis. Let’s take a few minutes to remind some members of this House of some previous initiatives we’ve taken to address the housing supply crisis.

Let’s go back to May of 2019, when our government announced More Homes, More Choice, our first housing supply action plan. That plan included a full spectrum of legislative changes to increase the supply of housing—housing that is attainable and housing that provides buyers and renters with more meaningful choices on where to live, where to work and where they can raise their families. That plan cut red tape to make it easier to build the right types of housing in the right places. It did all that so we could get much-needed homes built more quickly. From ownership housing to rental housing, whether built by private developers or non-profits, our first action plan and its accompanying legislation helped to give people more choice. It also helped bring costs down from what they would be otherwise. It aimed to make housing more affordable and helped taxpayers keep more of their hard-earned dollars.

We reviewed every step of the development process, every policy, every regulation and every applicable piece of legislation. We did that to eliminate any unnecessary steps, any duplications and any barriers. But we knew that addressing the housing supply crisis required a long-term strategy. It needed a long-term commitment and collaboration at all levels of government. With those thoughts in mind, our government again acted. In December, our government created the Housing Affordability Task Force, which was made up of industry leaders and experts, to recommend additional measures to increase the supply of market housing.

As the task force stated at the beginning of its report, “For many years, the province has not built enough housing to meet the needs of our growing population.” The task force noted that many “efforts to cool the housing market have provided only temporary relief to homebuyers.” They said, “The long-term trend is clear: house prices are increasing much faster than Ontarians’ incomes.” They stated, “The time for action is now.”

That is why, at around the same time, we convened with our municipal partners at both the Ontario-Municipal Summit and the rural housing round table to seek their input into the province’s housing supply crisis. We also heard from more than 2,000 people through a public consultation that we held to gather even more input.

Nonetheless, while we have been creating a record amount of housing, there is still a severe shortage of supply. Rental housing and affordable home ownership are even further out of reach for hard-working Ontarians. We knew more needed to be done. It was clear that without an increase in housing supply to match the housing demand, housing prices will keep going up and affordability will worsen. That’s worth repeating. It’s a supply-and-demand issue that we need to address and we are addressing.

We took all the information we gained from our many consultations and created our second housing supply action plan called More Homes for Everyone, which was what launched earlier this year. We wanted to build on the success of More Homes, More Choice. More Homes for Everyone outlined the next steps we’re taking to address Ontario’s housing crisis—steps such as accelerating approval timelines and protecting homebuyers from unethical business practices.

We also took further steps to make it easier to build transit-oriented communities. As many members of this House will recall, transit-oriented communities are our government’s vision for higher-density, mixed-use developments that are next to or within a short walk of transit stations and stops.

As the Associate Minister of Housing previously stated, we also introduced the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act, which received royal assent in September. That legislation gives the mayors of Ottawa and Toronto more tools to deliver on shared provincial-municipal priorities, including increasing the supply of housing. The changes will help strengthen mayors’ ability to reduce timelines for development, standardize processes and address local barriers to increasing the supply of housing in Toronto and Ottawa.

As you will know, Speaker, last month, we introduced the More Homes Built Faster Act in the Legislature. Our goal is to introduce almost 50 new changes to legislation and regulations that will support our newest plan to speed up housing creation in Ontario. These policies would, if passed, represent our boldest efforts yet to cut through red tape, unnecessary costs and other bottlenecks that are standing in the way of the housing supply that Ontario needs. They would create ways for missing middle and low-income Ontarians to enter the housing market.

The policies would provide the groundwork for growing the housing supply by reducing the bureaucratic costs and red tape that are delaying construction and pushing home prices even higher; promoting the building of more homes near transit and creating more gentle-density housing; protecting new home buyers and consulting on ways to help more renters become homeowners; using provincial lands to build more attainable homes; and much more.

More Homes Built Faster supports the commitment that we made in our previous housing supply action plans to further reduce bureaucratic inefficiencies that delay construction and increase costs for homebuyers and renters. It also supports greater density near transit as well as measures to protect and keep homebuyers and use provincial lands as sites for more attainable homes, and to freeze, reduce and exempt government fees to spur new home construction and help address Ontario’s housing supply crisis.

So you can see, Speaker, our government is moving quickly to take every step we can to help support the construction of more homes in the province for hard-working Ontarians.

We just heard the Associate Minister of Housing expound on the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act and on how we are proposing to build on and further support this act by bringing forward changes that would enable the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa to propose certain municipal bylaws related to provincial priorities.

There’s been much discussion and speculation on when or how our government would expand strong-mayor authorities and tools to other municipalities. Toronto and Ottawa will be the first to receive strong-mayor powers, and as they begin to use these new tools we are already turning our attention to other high-growth municipalities which could also benefit from these powers as they look to grow and build more housing.

We began our strong-mayor framework with single-tier municipalities. Specifically, we now want to explore how these powers might work in other jurisdictions with two-tier systems of government.

As the province considers how best to expand the strong-mayor tools to more of Ontario’s rapidly growing municipalities, we want to hear from the experts. Provincially appointed facilitators will assess the two-tier regional governments in Durham, Halton, Niagara, Peel, Waterloo and York. With populations of around 500,000 or more, these six regions represent some of Ontario’s fastest-growing communities, where increased housing supply is desperately needed.

We want to ensure these communities are ready and prepared for the growth that is coming their way. This assessment will help us determine the best mix of roles and responsibilities between the upper- and lower-tier municipalities in these regions to allow them to get shovels into the ground faster so they can build the housing needed to support their growing communities.

Which brings us back to our legislation and why we are here today. The legislation we are proposing would give the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing the authority to appoint the regional chairs of Niagara, Peel and York. We would do this for the current term of council, while the regional assessment occurs. As the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing said, if the proposals pass, he intends to reappoint the existing regional chairs, drawing on their knowledge and experience to work with the provincially appointed facilitators to provide an accurate assessment of how the regions can best work with our government to adapt to the new strong-mayor powers. This proposed continuity at the regional level would help determine the best way forward for the current two-tier municipalities.

Speaker, municipalities are on the front lines of the housing crisis, and they see the harmful impacts that a lack of homes has on the communities. That is why we need strong local governments to help us to make the dream of home ownership attainable for Ontarians. I know first-hand how important municipalities are to getting homes built, having served previously as a mayor in my riding of Thunder Bay–Atikokan. I know that Ontarians expect their mayors and councils to get behind new housing and to work with the province to increase the supply of attainable homes. That is precisely what our latest actions propose to do.

Of course, this is not the only time we have worked with our municipal partners to help us address housing supply. Speaker, let me take you back earlier this year. In January, we held an Ontario municipal housing summit. We wanted to find ways to coordinate our efforts with big-city mayors and regional chairs. We have also rolled out programs such as the Streamline Development Approval Fund. This fund is providing more than $45 million to help large municipalities streamline, digitize and modernize their approach to applications for residential developments.

We are also engaging with all municipalities to discuss ways they can unlock housing. Earlier this year, we also met with smaller, rural, northern and remote municipalities at our rural housing round table. Understanding the full spectrum of experiences with the housing supply crisis, such as the cost of supplies, helps us to align housing and infrastructure needs based on the unique ways Ontario’s populations continue to grow and change.

Again, Speaker, let me reiterate by drawing on my experience as a northern MPP and a former mayor, how important it is for our plan to address housing concerns across the province and to keep the lines of communication with municipalities open. This summer, I was honoured to have met with municipal leaders at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference. It was a perfect forum to share new ideas and best practices, as well as to promote discussion around policy recommendations that support increasing our housing supply. We are happy to work with our municipal partners at conferences like this, as well as at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association, which happens every January. As a former mayor, we appreciated the opportunities to sit in front of the ministers to discuss the priorities of our region.

Speaker, municipalities remain the driving force in getting housing projects through to the finish line. To address the housing crisis, we’re taking decisive action: Action that addresses the housing crisis in Ontario’s fastest-growing communities so everyone can find the home they need and can afford. That’s what our government promised to do and that’s what this proposed legislation does.

One of the most common concerns I hear from my constituents—and I am sure this is something my colleagues on both sides of the House can relate to—is that Ontarians are being priced out of the housing market and are worried that they will never attain their dream of home ownership. Young families are worried that they will be unable to find their dream home to grow in. Hard-working professionals are worried that they will be unable to find a home to settle down in and lay down roots.

Can the member expand on how this proposed legislation will help Ontarians find a home that meets their needs and budgets, so they can realize their dream of home ownership?

Well, I think that the first time the New Democrats are speaking about Bill 39 will, essentially, again show that they’re voting against increasing housing supply and giving our mayors the tools they need to get the job done—

We’ve indicated—and the Premier has been very transparent that he wanted to expand the strong-mayor powers. We were quite open with the Legislature with our Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act that we were going to focus on Toronto and Ottawa and then move to other municipalities. We believe the six regions of our province are the ideal opportunity to have that conversation, to be able to appoint a facilitator to work collaboratively, but, at the end of the day, have strong mayors with the tools they need to get shovels in the ground faster.

It’s shutting down democracy.

It is now time for questions and answers.

I just want to say: When the Minister of Municipal Affairs says, “I think we can all agree that the housing file is going well,” it would be laughable if it were not so serious.

By your own admission, the fall economic statement has downgraded housing starts from 2023 through to 2027. The government has changed the definition of affordable housing, raising the benchmark well past what most Ontarians can afford. The tenant advocacy group reported a shocking drop in affordable private market rentals from 2016 to 2021. The number of rentals costing $1,000 a month or more dropped by 36%, whereas luxury rentals costing $3,000 a month went up by 87%.

Bill 39 goes further than mayoral vetoes and we all know this. It would allow a mayor to propose and pass bills with only one-third-plus-one of the vote. Will the government admit that this is not about housing; it’s about control and legislating minority rule in Ontario?

Madam Speaker, one of the things I find interesting is how people on the other side don’t understand the simplicity of supply and demand. We’ve got two million people coming into this province. We need houses—it’s not only houses; it’s communities. People want to live where they work, where their hospitals are, where child care can be afforded and where their social services are, and not only do existing Ontarians need that; new Ontarians need that.

So I would ask the minister: How would this new legislation, if passed, help continue preparing the future growth and welcome new Ontarians looking to lay down new roots in this province, just like every other Canadian who wants to buy their new house needs to lay down roots?

That’s a fantastic question from my friend from Scarborough.

We’ve got young families, newcomers and those all over the province who—really, the dream of home ownership has been lost to them, so far. They want our government to ensure that they have a home that meets their needs and their budget.

While the province is set to grow by more than two million people in the next decade, you know, representing the good people in Scarborough, that many of those newcomers who the federal government has announced are going to come to our country—probably 60% are going to come to the greater Golden Horseshoe. So we need to ensure that those fast-growing communities and regions, and our two biggest cities, Toronto and Ottawa, have the tools they need to get shovels in the ground faster. The Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act did that in Toronto and Ottawa, and this Better Municipal Governance Act will extend it to the GTA. It only makes sense.

Ontarians gave us a clear mandate: that, under the leadership of Premier Ford, we were going to present a housing supply action plan that was going to build 1.5 million homes over the next decade.

Despite the NIMBYism and the BANANAism from the New Democrats opposite, we are going to continue to drive important public policy that’s going to get shovels in the ground, that’s going to eliminate bureaucratic delays that, in the GTA, add about $116,900 to the cost of an average home. On this side of the House, we want to lower those input costs. We want to create affordable home ownership. The BANANAs across can continue to talk the way they have been.

It doesn’t matter what study you want to look at—you can look at CMHC numbers, Scotiabank numbers—they all align with our Housing Affordability Task Force asking for 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years. Then, you take what the member has presented, the issue about us welcoming new Canadians, new Ontarians—we know that out of the 500,000 people the federal government has talked about coming here, about 60% probably are going to come. Regardless of our population, we’re going to accept the lion’s share, and we welcome them. We have to ensure, as the member notes, that we’ve put a plan in place that’s going to actually get shovels in ground.

This plan builds upon the other 90 initiatives the government has done since we’ve been in office. And we’re going to continue to present initiatives every year, under the leadership of Premier Ford.

Further questions?

Further debate?

In Toronto and in Ottawa, voters just elected new councils, including new councillors who were elected to take on the housing crisis that’s facing our cities. These elections happened, actually, while this government was in the process of changing the rules to give mayors these veto powers on unnamed provincial priorities. But now, just as those elected councillors are rolling up their sleeves and getting to work and being sworn in, this government is again moving legislation to further disempower those newly elected councillors.

Madam Speaker, I would like to understand from this government how they think, and how this minister thinks, that moving and shifting power from elected officials to essentially a minority rule in the backrooms of power is going to help Toronto.

Since 2018, this Ford government has fought and failed in successive, high-profile lawsuits. Most of the cases involve legal challenges against new policies or legislation. Some of the examples are: carbon pricing, election finance rules, ministerial zoning, cap and trade, gas pumps, failing to consult with First Nations, shielding governments from negligence lawsuits, heritage building demolition, OHIP coverage for snowbirds—you see the trend, Speaker.

Most recently, on November 14, just this Monday, the government had to repeal a bill that stomped on workers’ democratic rights.

During this debate, two ministers said, “We must tackle problems and be laser-focused.” Another one said, “We’re not going to let them down.” We’re debating the bill today—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.

Speaker, can the minister wrapped in red tape explain how this government and this legislation is letting people down by paving over protected greenbelt and agricultural land?

I’m happy to stand and give comments on Bill 39. It’s hard to know what to say when you see a government drop a bill like this while the housing bill is still being debated and we’re endeavouring to get people’s opinions across the province.

We have committees going on on Bill 23 right now—and I think the public should know that those committee hearings have been shut down. They’ve been shut down because the standing orders for this House say that you can’t talk about the same topic in two different places in this House. So we have all kinds of folks who have come in for Bill 23 hearings, to have their opinions heard—I don’t even know if all the members on that side of the House know what their own party, what their own government has done here.

We have people from all across the province who have come here to give their opinion in consultations at the committee hearings which are in this building.

We have 10 people from the city of Toronto who are showing up today to give their opinion, which the government asked for. The government chose for them to come here and give their opinion on the housing bill, and they don’t get to present today, and we don’t get to hear what they had to say. We could say that it’s possibly incompetence on the part of the government and perhaps the government House leader, but I tend to think they must have known what they were doing.

We have all these people showing up for committee, and now the committee is being shut down. We have the C.D. Howe Institute, Canadian mental health—a pretty important group that we want to be hearing from. We’re talking about homelessness and housing issues, so you’d think you’d want to hear from them. They’ve taken the time to come here today, and their voice has been shut down. The Toronto board of trade, the federation of rental housing—you’d think we’d want to hear from them.

Folks in my own riding, the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority—they changed the Conservation Authorities Act in the housing bill. We want to hear from conservation authorities. They’ve come here. They’ve been shut down. The government doesn’t want to hear from them.

The town of Blue Mountain—they probably drove here through the snow for committee hearing meetings, and they’ve been told, “We are not interested in hearing from you.”

A lot of the groups that have shown up today, let’s be clear, were speaking against Bill 23—but one of them wasn’t AMO, the Association of Municipalities Ontario, because they weren’t even invited to the hearings by the government. The government didn’t want to hear, on a municipal affairs and housing bill, from the Association of Municipalities Ontario. Think about that. All these other people were invited, and many of them showed up, many of them probably drove through the snow, and now the government is saying, “Go home. We don’t want to hear from you. We’re not interested in what you have to say. We’ve got this other bill that we are going to drop today—a bill that no one asked for or recommended, that’s going to violate local democracy and the rights of municipalities to act in a democratic way. So you can all go home.” Let’s be clear that that’s what has happened this morning here at the Ontario Legislature. Quite frankly, it’s a disgusting manoeuvre by the government and extremely disrespectful.

In committee hearings last week, my colleague from University–Rosedale attempted to add extra days of hearings because AMO hadn’t been invited and other people wanted to speak. The government very strictly limited the amount of consultation and the number of hearing dates. So we voted and we got it on the record—we made a motion to have another day of hearings so that everyone could speak, and the government voted against it. They didn’t want to hear from more people. Now they don’t even want to hear from the people who showed up. That’s absolutely disgusting and disrespectful.

The government put forward this bill that no one asked for, that no one recommended—no consultation with anyone. They tabled a bill that will allow them to appoint regional chairs in York, Peel and Niagara. Just four years ago, in the middle of a municipal election campaign, this government cancelled regional chair elections in these regions—elections in which citizens were electing their chair at large because they had gone through a process and decided that it was more democratic, and they had gone through all the motions, so they had elections at large planned.

I know, being from Niagara, that we had folks who were actually raising money, were getting ready for a municipal election where they would be a candidate for chair of Niagara region. After they had already put their name forward, after they had already done all that work and started their campaign, this government came along and said, “No, we don’t trust citizens of those regions with free and fair elections.” Now they don’t even trust democratically elected councillors to choose their chair, as they did in the past. Now the Premier is going to hand-pick who he wants to rule in his stead and hand them additional powers to do his bidding.

I think we all realize on this side of the House how absolutely ridiculous it is, at a time when the government is failing education workers and children, when pediatric ICUs are over capacity, when we’re in an affordable housing crisis, that this Premier is focused on municipal governments and autocratic changes to municipal government. And the Premier isn’t just appointing elected positions here—

On Saturday, Whitefish River First Nation will be recognizing Ogimaa Shining Turtle for more than 20 years of service as the elected chief for the community. The Ogimaa is stepping down from this role to pursue other opportunities—and I know that I personally will still be looking to him for guidance and insight. Being a leader is no easy task, and being an Ogimaa is significantly more challenging because of the systemic barriers that stand in your way. Therefore, to serve that role for over two decades shows the leadership qualities that he embodies.

Ogimaa Shining Turtle has been known by Premiers, Prime Ministers, ministers and leaders across the country as a steadfast advocate for his community, the Anishinabek Nation, and the rights of Indigenous people across Turtle Island.

During his time in office, Ogimaa oversaw the renovation to the community centre and the updating of the water system to ensure reliable, safe drinking water in Whitefish River First Nation. He helped bring new life to Rainbow Lodge and stood up for his community during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the safety of children and elders. He has stood up for the treaty rights of his community by asserting their right to hunt, fish and trap on their traditional territory and playing a major role in the Robinson-Huron Treaty annuities case.

You never say goodbye, as it brings an end, so I say to my friend, baamaapii—until our paths cross again.