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.

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.

Premier Ford made it crystal clear to Ontarians that the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act was just the start, that we wanted to ensure that by the time those two new mayors were sworn in in Ontario’s two largest cities, Toronto and Ottawa—he made it crystal clear that that was the start.

The announcement yesterday, in Bill 39, which it’s pretty obvious New Democrats don’t support—just to add to the litany of housing initiatives this government has done; we’ve done over 90 since 2018. And every single time we try to increase housing supply and actually provide an opportunity for a young person to realize the dream of home ownership, New Democrats vote against it. So it’s no surprise that this member and their party, under the leadership of Marit Stiles, is going to not support—

We’re going to stand up for the dream of home ownership.

Speaker, in the supplementary, I will talk about the significance of that minimum of 50,000 homes in relationship to our 1.5 million homes.