Good morning. Reports about new homebuyers being victimized by unethical developers have gone on for far too long. Questionable and concerning practices where developers have cancelled contracts only to resell the same property at grossly inflated prices have left new homebuyers scrambling and helpless.

The previous Liberal government refused to act by providing protection and recourse for honest, hard-working people just looking to buy property. My office has received emails from constituents of Simcoe–Grey who experienced this unscrupulous practice first-hand.

Can the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery please explain how our government better protects new homebuyers against these unethical practices?

Could the minister please explain what measures our government will implement to punish and deter unethical builders and vendors who try to victimize our hard-working citizens?

I thank the member for Simcoe–Grey for the question. Hard-working Ontarians deserve to be treated fairly when making one of the biggest purchases of their lives, a new home. The Premier has said this type of appalling behaviour is unacceptable, and our government has a zero-tolerance approach to it. That’s why Minister Steve Clark and I announced that we are doubling the maximum fine for unethical builders who unfairly cancel contracts, and, for the first time ever anywhere in Canada, money from these penalties will go back to the victims.

On this side of the aisle we are taking action to stop this appalling behaviour and getting it done for new homebuyers.

We are making life easier for the many honest Ontarian builders that fulfill their contracts honestly and will no longer have to compete with unethical competition.