Absolutely, Speaker.

Good morning, everyone. It’s a great pleasure for me to rise for third reading of our government’s proposed Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act. At the start, Speaker, I want to note that I’ll be sharing the government’s time with the Associate Minister of Housing and the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Speaker, before I get into the meat of Bill 3, I want to take this opportunity, on behalf of the government, to express to all of the candidates for municipal office, who are vying for office on October 24, the government’s most sincere thanks for putting your name on the ballot. This is a tremendous time, and I want to thank each and every person for being a candidate in this year’s municipal election.

I also, Speaker—because in addition to being a former mayor, I’m a former CAO—want to take this time to thank all of the municipal staff. An election time is an incredibly busy time at municipal halls right across Ontario, and I know that the staff in all 444 municipalities have been working very diligently to ensure that October 24 goes off without a hitch. I want to thank them as well for their great work in making sure the election takes place.

If passed, our proposed legislation, Bill 3, along with the associated regulations, would give more tools to the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa to move provincial priority projects forward.

Speaker, I just want to say, it’s great to see you in the chair this morning. Thank you so much for the work that you do. Congratulations.

Foremost, Bill 3—among these priorities is our government’s commitment to build 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years. This bill is both timely and necessary. Ontarians re-elected our government at a time when they are facing rising costs of living and a shortage of homes. They sent us back to work with a strong mandate because we promised to get more housing built faster, and also because they knew we could get the job done.

It’s no secret—and I think all my colleagues agree that it’s no secret—that Ontario is in the middle of a housing supply crisis. People are desperately looking for housing that meets both their needs and their budget, yet too many Ontarians are frozen out of the housing market. Young people are searching for their first home—a home where they’ll have room to have children, to grow their family, while being close to schools, work and essential services. It’s so very important.

Newcomers to Ontario are looking for a home that meets their needs as they strive to build a new life in this growing, vibrant province of Ontario. Seniors are looking to downsize, and they want homes that meet their needs as they age. Everyone is looking for something different, and that’s why we’re here today: because we believe this legislation is a piece of a larger puzzle that will help get more housing built faster for Ontarians.

We aren’t alone in thinking this legislation is a step in the right direction. I’d like to take a moment to highlight what we’ve heard about this proposal at committee. Before I remind my colleagues of the details of this proposed legislation, I think we have to have a conversation about how we got here. Since introduction just a few weeks ago, we’ve had some very clear support for this proposal.

Mayor John Tory, who has long supported a strong mayor system, noted that: “I always want to make sure city hall is working more efficiently and effectively for Toronto residents and businesses and that we make it as easy as possible to get things done....” I believe this proposed legislation does exactly that.

The Ontario Real Estate Association called this proposed legislation a “critical and an overdue step toward solving the housing affordability and supply crisis.” They go on to agree that the Strong Mayors Buildings Homes Act would “help cut red tape and speed up the local planning process by giving municipal leaders new tools and powers to help reduce timelines for development, standardize processes and address local barriers to increasing housing supply.”

Speaking to the committee of this House last week, the association’s vice-chair concluded that, “These new municipal powers will go a long way in addressing affordability, getting more shovels in the ground, incentivizing developers” to come and build in Ontario’s largest cities.

Meanwhile the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario said in written submission, “The proposed legislation provides a solid foundation to ensure that mayors have tools to combat the systemic barriers that exist at the municipal level that prevent housing from being built.”

I’d like to also share a quote, colleagues, from the Toronto Region Board of Trade from the summer: “Toronto faces numerous urgent city-wide challenges, from housing, land use, transit, transportation, budget, economic development and climate.... Effective, timely solutions require a city chief executive with clear authority to set an agenda, appoint senior city staff, and bring forward policy solutions to council....”

The board of trade goes on to say that for almost two decades, they’ve advocated for stronger powers for Toronto’s mayor, and they say, “Now is the time to act.”

Someone I don’t quote too often in this House—though I have played hockey with him from time to time; he’s a natural left-winger—is Martin Regg Cohn of the Toronto Star. He wrote that this government “got it right” with our proposed legislation, noting “it empowers the elected mayor to put forward his or her own vision for the annual budget, rather than remaining captive to a budgetary document written by committee....” That’s why we’re putting our trust in local leadership in Toronto and Ottawa. We’re proposing to give these mayors more responsibility to help deliver on our shared provincial-municipal priorities. Our government believes that a strong-mayor system would help address the housing supply crisis in these cities, and by highlighting just a few examples of the support that we have received on this matter, it is clear that we are not alone in our belief.

Madam Speaker, I want to talk about the Premier. He said again and again—and I’m using a direct quote: Mayors are “accountable for everything, but they have the same single vote as a single councillor.” That means that mayors, who have been elected by voters across an entire city, often have no more say on an issue than a lone councillor representing just one ward. Yet Ontarians want their mayors to be able to do more. They want their mayors to cut red tape, to get shovels in the ground and end the housing supply crisis. They expect them to be responsible for all of the other major projects and priorities in their city. They’re counting on their mayors to get the job done.

What is concerning is that we’re seeing too many priority projects fall behind. Some of them have been decided to be cancelled altogether. To be truly effective for their communities, mayors need our support. They need specific tools to bring these priority projects to the forefront and to get them complete. That’s why I’m proud to lead off third reading debate on our proposed Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act. The changes included here would, if passed, give the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa the ability to drive policy changes. It would give them the power to select municipal department heads and, perhaps most importantly, the power to present a budget. These abilities would help our municipal partners deliver on our shared priorities such as housing.

We know that empowered mayors could better help the province and municipalities to work together on housing and other initiatives that are critical for their communities. It’s something we need as we face record growth in the province of Ontario. Our population is going to continue to increase, and housing needs to keep up with demand. And what’s more, growth isn’t slowing down. In a way, Ontario is grappling with its own success. The high quality of life here and our future prospects have drawn many, many people to the province of Ontario. As our province continues to flourish and as we welcome more newcomers in search of economic opportunity, there will be even more pressure on our housing system. That’s why we need to take bold action, and we need to take it now.

Forecasts show that over one third of Ontario’s growth in the next decade is going to take place in Toronto and Ottawa. The good news is that these cities have shown us they’re shovel-ready for increased population and they’re committed to cutting red tape.

Madam Speaker, before I go further and explain the details of our proposed legislation, I want to answer an important question: How did Ontario get here? How did our province get to a point where we now have to make these steps as a government? Well, there was, and there still is, glaring evidence that municipal planning approvals, including appropriate zoning, have often delayed or hindered opposition from some members of local councils. Some projects have even been abandoned. Even if the project finally gets the go-ahead, a lot of damage has already been done in communities across this province.

The C.D. Howe Institute found restrictions and extra costs on building new housing has dramatically increased the price of housing. These restrictions include delays on project approvals. The institute found these barriers add approximately $168,000, or 22%, to the average cost of a single detached home in Toronto.

The Ontario Association of Architects also looked into the cost of delays. Taking a 100-unit condominium building in Toronto as an example, the association concluded that delayed approvals cost home builders approximately $2,000 per unit, per month.

In 2020, the Building Industry and Land Development Association, or BILD, reported that each month of delay—and this is just in permit approvals—adds $1.46 per square foot to the price of a low-rise project—$1.46 per square foot, and an additional $2.21 per square foot at the end cost of a high-rise development. That kind of cost increase, caused by unnecessary delays, has a significant impact on the lifetime of a project.

These delays are not just felt by developers. They’re felt by homebuyers, new condo owners and renters who are forced to push back move-in plans and, at the very worst, find temporary housing to fill in the gap between the previous lease and the new one. These are not problems that hard-working Ontarians should face, especially when the delays are avoidable.

RESCON, which is Ontario’s leading association of residential builders, also looked into the cost of delays. RESCON says we are now under-producing housing by 12,000 units per year here in Ontario because of delays.

Clearly the evidence and the alarms are there. We need to do everything we can to reduce delays and help ensure that new homes get built as quickly as possible.

I’d like to take a few moments, Madam Speaker, to explain specific ways in which our proposed legislation would support this growth in both Toronto and Ottawa. Our bill proposes changes to the Municipal Act, to the City of Toronto Act and to the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. If passed, these changes, along with the associated regulations, would provide the heads of council in both the city of Toronto and the city of Ottawa with additional governance tools and increased powers to align municipal decision-making with provincial priorities.

The increased executive powers proposed under this legislation would allow the mayors of these two cities to better organize city hall. These mayors would be able to hire and fire a chief administrative officer as well as certain department heads. This would exclude, however, statutory positions like the clerk, the treasurer, the chief of police, the chief building official, the medical officer of health—there are a number of others that are used as examples. But they would be able to create or reorganize departments. Madam Speaker, they would also have the authority to appoint chairs or vice-chairs for committees and local boards, which we could identify in the regulations, and they would have the power to establish certain new committees.

The mayors would also be able to introduce items for council’s consideration if the item, in the mayor’s opinion, would advance a provincial priority. That means, if passed, these changes would enable the mayors of Ottawa and Toronto to direct items related to provincial priorities, as identified in regulation, for council consideration. This includes the ability for the mayor to direct staff to prepare proposals for council’s consideration.

I want to take this opportunity to pause and stress that the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa could support priority items, as well as their vision for their communities, through the ability to develop their municipality budget and then table it for council consideration.

Now, I know some on the other side are going to argue that this limits the role of city councillors. I want to stress to you, Madam Speaker, that there is still a lot of room to debate the budget on the council floor, something that I think we all feel is a very positive step. Council would be able to propose amendments to the budget; those amendments could be subject to a mayor’s veto. Again, Speaker, we believe the changes that we’re proposing still maintain a solid working relationship between council and the mayor.

Our proposed changes would also give those two mayors the ability to veto bylaws passed by council. However, and this is a very important point, the mayors could use their veto power on these bylaws only if—and I want to stress only if—all or part of the bylaw could potentially interfere with a provincial priority as identified by a regulation. So at the same time, mayors would still have just one vote at council.

Of course, Speaker, there has to be a system of checks and balances, and my parliamentary assistant, PA Holland, will speak to these checks and balances in more detail a little later on.

I wanted to share my time with my two colleagues, so I’m going to take this opportunity to pass the torch over to the Associate Minister of Housing. I look forward to both of my colleagues providing more details on this particular bill.

I’m just very pleased that we’re here today. This is critical for our government’s priority of building 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years. It’s also critical that we work with the mayors of our two largest cities. As I said, over the next 10 years, we believe that over a third of Ontario’s growth will take place in Ottawa and Toronto. We need to give the mayors the tools to get the job done. This is something that the Premier and I heard loud and clear from the big city mayors when we met with them in January. They indicated that it wasn’t just municipal processes; the province needed to give them the tools to get the job done. This is one tool that our government is working on to ensure that that happens.

Madam Speaker, again, it’s great to see you in the chair this morning. I’ll turn it over now to the Associate Minister of Housing.

Good morning. Let us pray.

Prayers.

Mr. Clark moved third reading of the following bill:

Bill 3, An Act to amend various statutes with respect to special powers and duties of heads of council / Projet de loi 3, Loi modifiant diverses lois en ce qui concerne les pouvoirs et fonctions spéciaux des présidents du conseil.

The Associate Minister of Housing.

The parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

I want to thank the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing for sharing his time with me today. I would also like to thank the Associate Minister of Housing for his comments on this important legislation. When it comes to increasing the amount of housing in our province, our minister’s leadership has been unwavering. This leadership has set the standard for how we can work together to build more housing that suits the needs and budgets of hard-working Ontarians.

I want to take this opportunity to echo the minister’s point that this bill is both timely and necessary. Ontarians, young and old, need our support to get the right housing built for their families. The harsh reality is that housing construction has not kept up with our growing population. This has been the case for far too long. We know that more needs to be done. Most of this growth is happening in our big cities. In fact, as has been noted, over one third of Ontario’s growth over the next decade is expected to happen in Toronto and Ottawa. We need to take action to ensure that there is no political logjam hindering the potential that these cities offer. We need these mayors to cut red tape and get housing built faster so more families can realize the dream of attainable home ownership. Both current residents and those who are choosing to make Ontario home are counting on us. They want us to take bold action to increase the housing supply.

As you have heard, Speaker, our proposed changes to the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act and associated regulations would provide the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa with additional governance tools and increased powers to align municipal decision-making with provincial priorities. That is because, along with their projected population increases, Ottawa and Toronto are shovel-ready and committed to growth. We know that working together with municipalities on shared priorities will not only move things along faster but it will be tailored to the needs of local communities.

Municipalities are on the front lines of the housing crisis and they see the harmful impacts that a lack of homes has on their communities, from young professionals who can’t find housing close to where they work to parents who can’t afford a home for their growing families to seniors who can’t afford to downsize. That is why we believe this collaboration will help us to make the dream of home ownership attainable for Ontarians.

Of course, this is not the only time we have reached out to our municipal partners to help address housing supply. Speaker, let me take you back to earlier this year: We held our virtual Ontario-municipal housing summit in January so we could find ways to coordinate our efforts with big city mayors and regional chairs. We discussed the bold recommendations of the Housing Affordability Task Force, including proposals on planning approvals and removing the politics from local planning processes in order to make housing easier and less expensive to build.

We have also rolled out programs such as the Streamline Development Approval Fund, which is providing more than $45 million to help large municipalities streamline, digitize and modernize their approach to applications for residential developments.

We’re also engaging with all municipalities to discuss ways they can unlock housing. That’s why we also met with smaller, rural, northern and remote municipalities earlier this year 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 population continues to grow and change. Since then, we have kept the lines of communication with municipalities open.

Of course, just a few weeks ago, I was honoured to be one of the members of our government who met with municipal leaders at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference. It is 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’re happy to work with our municipal partners at conferences like this and also through proposed policy changes. That collaboration is what brings us here today.

If passed, the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act would empower a mayor to build a team that would help to bring forward shared municipal and provincial priorities—that is, get shovels in the ground faster for more housing and for the infrastructure that supports residential development. I will go into a little more detail on both of these priorities shortly, but I want to first focus on the specifics of how the mayors of both Toronto and Ottawa would be able to do this.

Step 1 is forging the path to empower these mayors. This proposed legislation would make changes to the City of Toronto Act in order to empower the mayor of Toronto, and the proposed changes to the Municipal Act, along with supporting regulation, would empower the mayor of Ottawa.

Step 2 is outlining what tools these mayors could access to take decisive action on our shared priorities. As we heard from the minister, if passed, this legislation would give the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa the power to hire and fire the chief administrative officer of the municipality, as well as certain department heads. This would not include positions such as clerk, treasurer, integrity commissioner, chief of police, chief building official, medical officer of health and others.

The mayor would also have the power to create and reorganize departments to better address the needs of their communities. The mayor would also be able to appoint the chairs and vice-chairs of identified committees and local boards as well as establish identified committees.

They would have the power to direct matters that further provincial priorities to council for consideration, and they would be able to direct staff to prepare proposals to support these matters.

This bill would also give the mayor the ability to direct a municipality’s budget and table it for council to consider. The council would then be able to propose amendments to the budget. These amendments would then be subjected to a mayor’s veto.

Speaker, those critical of our legislation would have you believe that we are sidelining the city councillors of Ottawa and Toronto, but nothing could be further from the truth. The system of checks and balances that we have built into this bill would keep councillors engaged in the process of local government and provide an important restraint on mayors. Council would be able to override the mayor’s veto of council amendments to the budget with a two-thirds majority vote. They would also have a certain amount of time to do so. Once that period of time is up, the municipality would have adopted the resulting budget.

The bill proposes a similar veto-override system with regard to bylaws passed by council. A mayor could use their veto power if they are of the opinion that all or part of the bylaw passed by council could potentially interfere with a provincial priority as identified in regulation, like building more housing for Ontarians, or if it prevented related infrastructure from being built.

The council override process is a counterweight in this instance as well. Just like with budget amendments, council could override a mayoral veto of bylaws related to provincial priorities with a two-thirds majority vote. To be clear, the mayor’s new ability to veto bylaws could only apply to matters that the mayor believed to potentially interfere with identified provincial priorities.

We trust Ontarians to elect the leaders that best reflect the needs and values of their communities. By extension, we trust these leaders to use these powers fairly when it comes to driving forward our shared priorities. That is why we’re holding them accountable for their choices. As an extension of this, mayors would be required to provide written documentation when using any of these new powers, in accordance with any associated regulations.

We are also proposing changes to the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act that would require a mayor to declare any financial interests related to the use of their new powers. Speaker, they would not be able to use the new powers where any financial conflict exists. For example, if a mayor’s spouse applied to be the head of a certain department, the mayor would not be able to hire them as a department head because this would be a conflict of interest. It is also important to remember that council members, including the mayor, are already subject to legislated accountability and transparency rules.

Another point I want to raise is that because of this increased authority that we are proposing for mayors, we want to ensure that voters have their say if a mayor leaves office earlier than expected. That is why we propose requiring a by-election to replace a mayor with these increased powers if the office becomes vacant. That is distinct from the current practice, which is to give council the choice of either a by-election or an appointment by council.

The existing rules for how by-elections are run would still apply: for example, rules like how a municipality is not required to fill the position if a mayor’s seat becomes vacant within 90 days before voting day in the year of a regular election. And if a mayor’s seat becomes vacant after March 31 in the year of a regular municipal election, the municipality would be required to appoint a mayor, who would not have these new powers.

This would not impact the flexibility that these municipalities currently have in deciding how to fill other vacant council seats. They would have the choice to appoint someone or have a by-election in that case. I’d like to note that our proposed changes are intended to come into effect on November 15, 2022, in Toronto and Ottawa, right as the new term of council begins.

As I mentioned previously, some of these proposed changes to empower the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa pertain to matters of provincial priority. These provincial priorities would be laid out in a supporting regulation. I would like to highlight what these proposed provincial priorities could be in more detail.

Our government is committed to keeping costs down and building 1.5 million homes in 10 years to address the housing supply crisis. As the minister has mentioned on several occasions, the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act is not the first step we’ve taken to support this province-wide initiative, and it will not be the last. We’re making good on our promise to increase the number of homes for all Ontarians since 2019, when we introduced our first housing supply action plan, More Homes, More Choice. That plan is producing results.

In 2021, Ontario broke ground on a record number of new homes being built, with more than 100,000 new homes in only 12 months. This is the highest level of new housing starts in a single year since 1987. Last year, Ontario reached a 30-year record for new rental housing construction, the most units built in a single year since 1991.

To build off this momentum, we introduced More Homes for Everyone this year. It focused on targeted policies for the immediate term that would make housing fairer for hard-working Ontarians and make it faster to build the homes that families need and deserve. But with our commitment to build 1.5 million homes in 10 years, we are thinking long-term. That is why we plan to develop a new housing supply action plan annually for the next four years.

When we build more homes, we also need to consider the infrastructure that will support it. Another provincial priority we could lay out in regulation would speed up the planning, approval, construction and maintenance of infrastructure to support new and existing residential development. This is the infrastructure that you use every day, the things we don’t often think about but that we require, like running water, the road you commute to work on, the electricity you use in your home. Actioning the expansion, construction and maintenance of these services is absolutely essential, and we need to work to eliminate any barriers on delays. This will help us lay the foundation for building homes now and into the future.

As is now abundantly clear, our government is steadfast in our commitment to build new housing. That is why we are moving forward with more collaborative efforts with a variety of housing experts. Our new housing supply action plan implementation team will provide advice on market housing initiatives, including building on the vision from the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force, More Homes for Everyone and other government consultations that the minister referenced.

We recently appointed Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens as the team’s chair and Mayor Cheryl Fort of the township of Hornepayne as its vice-chair. They will lead a diverse group of experts in finding additional ways to build more market housing. The team will also be supported by additional stakeholders and industry experts who, if needed, may provide technical advice on specific topics, and they will be hitting the ground running. The team’s first meeting is scheduled for early fall.

Speaker, our government is committed to supporting municipalities and remains focused on improving planning policies and cutting red tape to get more homes built faster. We need municipal leaders to work more effectively to help reduce timelines for development, standardize processes and address local barriers to increasing housing supply.

We have set out a clear goal of building 1.5 million homes in 10 years, and we are working tirelessly to meet it, but we cannot do this alone. We need the support of our local partners, and by empowering the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa to move forward on our shared priorities, we are doing just that. We are counting on these mayors to help get things done at a local level so more families can realize the dream of attainable home ownership.

I’ve said many times in this House that there isn’t one thing the government can do. There’s no magical silver bullet when it comes to the housing supply crisis.

We committed to Ontarians in the election on June 2 that we would put a plan in place to build 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years. We provided a lot of legislation that my associate minister and the parliamentary assistant talked about. Every time we present something in this House, whether it be More Homes, More Choice, More Homes for Everyone or second reading of the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act, the opposition votes against.

Speaker, the question I would ask, through you, back to the member is: When is the opposition going to actually support the dream of home ownership for Ontarians? The only person who’s sitting over there this morning who even referenced the 1.5 million over 10 years is the member for London–Fanshawe, and I want to thank her for doing that in her member’s statement the first couple of days of the Legislature. So there’s at least one New Democrat who supports our plans to build 1.5 million homes.

We’ll now move to questions.

My question is to the Premier, to the minister and to the government. The strong mayors bill does not actually mention housing or affordability anywhere in the bill besides in the misleading title. It doesn’t outlaw exclusionary zoning or address the cost of borrowing, labour shortages or disruptions to supply chains, which home builders are actually saying are the biggest barriers to delivering housing. The government bill does cite giving Ottawa and Toronto mayors significantly more powers to carry out so-called provincial priorities, but it goes into no disclosure about what those provincial priorities are.

My question to this government is: When the mayor’s vision conflicts with provincial priorities, which will prevail?

I know that we have a commitment to build 1.5 million homes in Ontario over the next 10 years, and with the Golden Horseshoe increasing by a population of 10 million people over the next 10 years, it’s going to be difficult to build these homes. But in Mississauga–Lakeshore, there is a term that we all hear all the time; it’s called BANANA: build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone.

How will this help us build more homes in areas like that?

Minister to respond.

Question?

We’re now going to move to further debate.

In Niagara, we are in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. Residents in St. Catharines are living in fear. They are seeing the near-futureness of being homeless here in St. Catharines.

But giving mayors in Toronto and Ottawa more powers is not a solution to the affordable housing crisis in Niagara. In the Strong Mayors, Buildings Homes Act, there is no mention of the word “home” in the bill except the title, nor do I see a bold action plan to address affordable housing within the changes of the Municipal Act.

Will your government put in the provincial priorities and include affordable housing within Bill 3?

Minister, Associate Minister and PA, I want to thank you for your address this morning.

Since we were elected in 2018—the Ford government—we and you as the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing have incrementally and in a progressive way brought in legislation to try to address what we all see in this province as a housing crisis, where we need to build the homes to provide accommodation for the people we know are coming to the province of Ontario.

This latest bill, Bill 3—the opposition would have us believe that it is creating the emperor of mayors. And if they would read the bill, there’s all kinds of checks and balances put into this bill to ensure that council carries on as it should, but that the mayor has the ability to get past that red tape and ensure that it supports—

My question is to Minister Clark. The government has been insistent that this bill is meant to aid the housing crisis by giving mayors of Toronto and Ottawa more power to fast-track construction and accelerate housing approvals, among other powers, and we all understand and realize how strong the housing crisis is and that we need to deal with it.

My question is, why title the bill “Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act,” if the text of the bill never once mentions housing and my proposed amendments to the bill that were related to housing were deemed out of scope and principle at committee? Are there actual tangible housing construction goals that this bill is meant to achieve and, if yes, how will we track and report back on these goals?

I listened intently to the debate on Bill 3, which is the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act. The government talked about more homes being built faster, more homes for more choices. How does all this legislation address the need for geared-to-income homes, for co-operative homes? Where is the government’s plan to contribute funding to building housing to help people on fixed incomes, like seniors and people who are on ODSP and OW, to remain in their homes—families who are working, low-income families?

The government’s plan to build 1.5 million homes in 10 years: What are the numbers that include geared-to-income, co-operative housing? Where are those numbers in your plan?

Madam Speaker, through you, I want to thank the member for Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke. He’s been a tremendous champion. I’m proud to have served with him in this Legislature.

He has also had some experience at the municipal level, and he knows that there has to be a coordinated plan by government to move forward. At the same time, we need to make sure there are checks and balances at the local level. As someone who served this province in municipal government, both as a mayor and as a CAO, I understand that there has to be that relationship.

But the one thing—and again I want to stress to the member—when we brought big city mayors and regional chairs together in January, when we followed it up with a rural round table on housing, over and over and over again, mayors and municipal leaders asked us to ensure that they have tools to get the job done. Bill 3 does exactly that.

We need to ensure that mayors have the tools to get it done, and I’ve met with the member opposite’s mayor. I’ve met with many municipal politicians in Niagara, and I know that housing is a huge priority. The regional chair and I have had many, many conversations about the chair’s vision for ensuring that those that need housing have a plan in place.

We need to work with municipalities. Bill 3 builds upon the success of More Homes, More Choice and More Homes for Everyone.

What our government has tried to do in every regulation and all the legislation we’ve tabled is to provide that climate for housing to be built faster, for municipalities to cut through some of the red tape that blocks development, that forces excessive delays. And our policies have been working. Last year, we had the highest year of housing starts—over 100,000—in over 30 years, but we have to build upon that success. We have to do more, build—

This Bill 3 provides the mayors of our two largest cities with the tools that they need to fast-track these types of developments.

Interjection.

Again, we have to realize that there is no silver bullet for housing. We have to continue to build upon the success of this government’s legislation in the past Parliament. We need to ensure mayors of our two largest cities have the tools to get it done. This tool builds upon the success this government has had. There’s much more work we need to—

It’s a pleasure to rise again and speak to Bill 3. Before my critique of the bill, I want to join the minister in thanking all of the candidates who have put their names forward for municipal office across Ontario. There’s a troubling trend out there. We saw record low voter turnout in our provincial election and we’ve seen a real decrease in the number of people coming forward to run for municipal office. After a long pandemic and some of the difficult issues that are out there, I really commend folks who have put their name forward for office.

I would also join him in thanking municipal staff across the province. I don’t want to forget about the front-line staff who have worked so hard through the pandemic and municipal employees. My friends from St. Catharines and Niagara Falls joined me a couple of weeks ago at a rally in Niagara; over 1,000 workers with CUPE, with less than 2% on the table and trying to negotiate a collective agreement when there’s 7%, 8% inflation out there. We have to make sure our municipalities are well funded and that we can keep up with our obligations to those hard-working municipal staff all across the province.

I also want to thank the delegations that came forward to present. We had our committee last Monday, and despite the fact that there were only a couple of days for delegations to put their names forward for the committee, there was actually quite a bit of interest and a number of folks came forward. I want to thank people from the Ontario Home Builders’ Association; Myer Siemiatycki, a professor of politics and public administration at Toronto Metropolitan University, who I’m going to be quoting a fair amount today; the Association of Municipalities of Ontario—of course, we appreciate all the work that they do and their presentation.

We heard from the Residential Construction Council of Ontario and the Ontario Professional Planners Institute, who we had a good conversation with regarding the government’s plan to allow mayors to unilaterally hire planners, which I’m going to be talking about.

We heard from the Ontario Real Estate Association. The Ontario big city mayors’ Cam Guthrie spoke, and I’m going to be talking a little bit about his presentation. We heard from the Toronto Region Board of Trade—we want to thank them for presenting—the Federation of Rental-Housing Providers of Ontario and the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario, who also talked to us about the government’s plan to allow mayors to hire and fire CAOs and top managers in the municipality. We heard from the Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods, Indwell Community Homes, the Ontario Municipal Administrators’ Association—again, on this troubling plan by the government to allow mayors to hire and fire unilaterally—and Compass Refugee Centre.

Thank you very much to all of those who came and presented, delegations, and also to my colleagues from Ottawa Centre and University–Rosedale, who I’m sure will have a lot to say about housing and about the resistance to this bill in Ottawa and the many, many concerns from the city of Ottawa, where virtually no one is in favour of it, that I’ve heard, from city council, including the mayor.

All of the delegations agreed that we need more homes—that’s one thing that everyone agreed on—and we all agreed that we need more affordable homes.

Some of the things that we’re not agreed upon that I’m going to be talking about are whether this bill will actually do anything to create homes, because I don’t think that that connection has been made, and how a mayor will use these powers. It’s interesting that the government assumes that mayors will automatically use these powers to build more homes, but it’s up to the discretion of the mayor or their politics. What happens if we have a NIMBY mayor? With this legislation, you can have a strong NIMBY mayor who can unilaterally hire a NIMBY CAO and a NIMBY planner. Just giving someone powers doesn’t determine how they’re going to use those powers. That’s something that many of the delegations raised, and this government, I don’t think, has really explained how that’s going to work.

No one seems to understand what the provincial priorities are specifically and how they would be promoted by a strong-mayor scheme. How does that translate from the province to getting the mayor to do what, presumably, the Premier or the minister want to happen?

There’s also a great deal of confusion, I think, on the government’s part in distinguishing between the Canadian and the American municipal government systems, which they should understand are fundamentally different. One does not necessarily translate to the other. City managers are not CAOs. City managers in the US are not CAOs in Canada—very different. And of course, the financial structure is different. American municipalities can go bankrupt, so the financial structure—

This is my first member’s statement since being elected as MPP for Thunder Bay–Atikokan, and I want to start off by saying what an absolute honour and privilege it is for me to represent this beautiful northwestern Ontario riding. I want to thank the good people of Thunder Bay–Atikokan for placing their trust in me to represent them in this House. I respect the responsibility that comes with the privilege that has been given to me, and I will work hard every day to bring the issues and, more importantly, the opportunities that Thunder Bay–Atikokan has to be a major contributor to building and growing Ontario.

I’m very excited for the role that Thunder Bay–Atikokan and northwestern Ontario will play in supplying the EV industry with the critical minerals needed to make Ontario the leader in North America in EV manufacturing.

Speaker, all natural resource-based industries and the value-added industries related to those natural resources will play a key role in making Ontario the economic powerhouse of Canada.

The business community in Thunder Bay–Atikokan has demonstrated time and time again their resilience to meet head-on the unique challenges that they face in conducting business in northwestern Ontario and to come up with solutions to meet those challenges. Their commitment and strong work ethic are second to none. The commitment from this government to continue to reduce red tape will give these businesses greater opportunity to grow, hire employees and build Ontario.

Speaker, I’d like to take a moment to thank the members in this House for the support and kindness they have extended to my family during the recent passing of my mother, Ruth Ann. Mom passed away on August 26, at home with her family. Mom was a leader, role model and community influencer. She was a successful business owner, a member of council and clerk-treasurer for the township of Conmee, and she served on numerous boards and committees during her life. She was much-loved, and her family and community are going to miss her.

Ontario students are going back to school this week. This is a very special school year that means a lot for the students and parents, who have encountered tremendous disruptions and challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaker, the impact of the pandemic on our students is endless. They were unable to hang out with friends, they had a lack of in-class interaction with teachers and peers, and they found it difficult to build new friendships—just to name a few.

Speaker, as the Minister of Education said, “Our commitment is clear: We will stand up for your child’s right to learn, from September right to June.”

Today’s world is really different from what it has been. To succeed, our children must be well prepared to face competition from all corners of the world. We can no longer afford any strikes or withdrawal of services. We have to make sure our students can be back to a normal, stable and enjoyable learning experience.

I’m wishing all of our Ontarian students another exciting and productive school year. They are the future of our province.

Yesterday was the Labour Day parade, and I had the privilege of joining thousands of dedicated workers, including many from Toronto–St. Paul’s—people who work day in and day out, committed to the betterment of themselves, their families and our communities. It got me thinking about Mrs. Green and her legacy.

Mrs. Evelyn Green was a hard worker, and she lived in her house on Arlington Avenue for over 50 years. She raised her family there. She passed away on May 23, 2020. In her life, she worked as a civil servant, and in 1993 she was recognized for 25 years of service with the government. As if that wasn’t enough, she had been a tireless volunteer at the Castleview Wychwood Towers long-term-care home in our community and with St. Clair West Services for Seniors. She was also a homestay host for international students and was recognized as a cultural ambassador of Canada.

I didn’t get to experience Mrs. Green’s good humour or the many stories she would tell, but I see the fruits of her labour—her heart work—in the eyes of her son, Jason, a health care worker and educator, and his beautiful family. We’re currently advocating through the city of Toronto to have a nearby laneway named the Evelyn Green Lane in her memory. I ask all of you, my peers in this Legislative Assembly of Ontario, to wish us success.

Our community of St. Paul’s is full of angels, and I guarantee you Mrs. Green is surely one of them.