SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
September 6, 2022 09:00AM
  • Sep/6/22 9:20:00 a.m.
  • Re: Bill 3 

Thank you very much, Speaker, and congratulations to you. It’s good to see you in that chair. I also want to thank the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing for sharing his time with me today and, of course, the amazing parliamentary assistant, who we’ll hear from later on.

It really is a pleasure to stand here in this House to talk about the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act, an act designed to empower our municipal partners with the tools they need to get more homes built faster.

Ontario is in a housing crisis. Too many families are being priced out of the housing market, and too many Ontarians have given up on the dream of home ownership. Core to the Ontario dream is having the opportunity to work hard, build your career, and raise your family in the community of your choice. We must renew the promise of unbounded potential each person has in this province. We must ensure that Ontario remains a place of opportunity and prosperity, and to do that, we must ensure everyone has a place to call home.

The Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act is one of the many bold actions the government of Ontario is taking to address the housing supply crisis, and we’re not slowing down. There is no idea too ambitious, no solutions to the housing shortage too daring, because in Ontario, it is all hands on deck to get more homes built.

In May 2019, our government announced More Homes, More Choice, our first housing supply action plan. The plan included a full spectrum of legislative changes designed to increase the supply of housing: affordable housing, attainable housing and housing that provides buyers and renters with more meaningful choices on where to work, where to live and where they can raise their families. This plan cut red tape and made it easier to build the right types of homes in the right places.

The More Homes, More Choice Act was a far-reaching omnibus piece of legislation that changed the Conservation Authorities Act, the Development Charges Act, the Education Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Environmental Assessment Act, Environmental Protection Act, the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal Act, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Ontario Heritage Act and the Planning Act. It took a multi-layered approach so we could help get much-needed homes built more quickly. From home ownership 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 aimed to make housing more affordable and helped taxpayers keep more of their hard-earned dollars in their pockets.

Speaker, we reviewed every step of the development process, every policy and every regulation. We did that to eliminate any unnecessary steps, any duplication and any barriers. We cut red tape while at the same time delivering on our commitment to ensure the health and safety of Ontario. We stayed true to our commitment to protect the environment, we remained a steadfast guardian of Ontario’s agricultural lands and we continue to be the steward of the province’s rich natural heritage.

Our work is producing results. The province’s first-ever housing supply action plan has been an overwhelming success. 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. That’s the highest level of new housing starts in a single year since 1987. And there’s more: Last year, Ontario reached a 30-year record for rental housing construction starts in the province—again, the most units being built in a single year since 1991.

We knew that addressing the housing crisis needs a long-term strategy; it needs a long-term commitment and collaboration at all levels of government. With that in mind, our government continued to take action. 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 only provided temporary relief to home buyers.” They said, “The long-term trend is clear: House prices are increasing much faster than Ontarians’ incomes.” They stated that “the time for action is now,” that there’s no time for delays and that the province simply cannot afford to get it wrong.

We firmly agree, which is why, at around the same time, we convened with our municipal partners at both the Ontario-Municipal Summit and at the rural housing round table to gather their expert advice. We listened to Ontarians through over 2,000 public consultation submissions. We knew that through collaborating with our partners and the housing sector, we’d be on track to get more homes built.

However, despite the gains that we have made over the past four years, we know that there’s still a shortage of housing. Rental housing and affordable home ownership are even further out of reach for hard-working Ontarians. Just to illustrate the problem, for every month that approvals are delayed, anywhere between $2,000 and $3,000 is added to the cost to build a single-family home or a condominium unit in the greater Toronto area. It became clear that without an increase in housing supply to match the rising demand, housing prices will keep going up and affordability will worsen.

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 launched earlier this year, thanks to the great work of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. More Homes for Everyone outlines the next steps we’re taking to address Ontario’s housing crisis—steps such as accelerating approval timelines, reducing red tape and protecting homebuyers from unethical business practices. For example, we made changes to provide incentives for municipalities to make decisions in an expeditious manner on zoning and site plan applications. Effective January 1 of next year, if a municipality does not make a decision within the legislated timelines, the municipality will be required to gradually refund the application fee to the applicant.

We also made changes to the Development Charges Act and the Planning Act to increase the transparency and certainty of development-related costs. The changes we made to the Development Charges Act now require municipalities with a development charge bylaw to make their annual reporting on these charges available to the public on the municipality’s website. While many municipalities already make reporting publicly accessible, these changes will increase transparency across the municipal sector.

We also changed the Planning Act to require any municipality with a community benefits charge bylaw to publicly consult and complete a review of that bylaw at least once every five years. After the review, the municipality must pass a council resolution to indicate whether any changes are needed to that bylaw. If this is not done, the community benefit charge bylaw in that municipality expires.

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.

We have set out and standardized, under the Planning Act, how much parkland, or cash in lieu of land, municipalities can collect for developments in transit-oriented communities. We see this change as balancing the priority for building new housing and transit-oriented communities quickly, while continuing to create more parks. 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.

Minister Clark has mentioned that there are regulations to help bring this piece of legislation into force. For example, while our proposed legislative changes to the City of Toronto Act would empower the mayor of Toronto, the changes to the Municipal Act would need to be supported by a regulation to also empower the mayor of Ottawa.

When our government looks at potential similar changes for other growing municipalities that are also shovel-ready, committed to growth and cutting red tape, we would also use this regulation to designate what municipalities these new mayoral powers would also apply to.

Minister Clark has spoken to how, if passed, these changes would allow mayors to create new committees and appoint the chairs and vice-chairs of identified committees and local boards. Based on the unique needs of individual municipalities, our government would again use these regulations to identify what committees and local boards these powers would pertain to.

We also plan on making accompanying regulations to set out current provincial priorities. These priorities would include our commitment to help build 1.5 million new homes in 10 years to address the housing supply crisis. But homes, as I’ve said many, many times, aren’t just four walls and a roof. They’re where we raise our families; they’re where we create our fondest memories. For that to happen, we need to build our homes in strong communities. That’s why another provincial priority will focus on the planning, approval, construction and maintenance of key infrastructure, infrastructure such as transit and roads so residents don’t have to wait in gridlock, and for utilities such as water and waste water—all to support both new and existing residential development.

I also want to note that if there is any perceived abuse of these new governance tools, the regulation-making authority could be used to impose limits and conditions on the use of the proposed mayoral powers to hold heads of council accountable.

We did not take the development of our strong-mayors proposal lightly. We did our homework; we studied best practices from around the world and ensured the legislation will meet the test of time. We have looked at other cities that provide mayors with executive powers. We looked at cities like New York, Chicago, London, Los Angeles and Paris where strong-mayor systems work and are successful. The mayors of these cities have strengthened roles and additional administrative and executive powers. They have extra powers in developing budgets, and some have the opportunity to veto certain items.

Let’s take a look at what some of these cities are doing. In New York City, the mayor acts as a chief executive officer and does not sit as a member of council. It’s important to note here that if our proposed legislation is passed, a mayor would still sit on council and every council member would still have one vote.

However, similar to what we are proposing, the mayor of New York City may appoint and remove heads of administrations, departments and commissioners and all other non-elected officers except as otherwise provided in law. Also, the mayor of New York City has the power to create or abolish departments or positions within the mayor’s office. The mayor of New York City develops the budget and any accompanying financial plans and submits them to council for consideration and approval. And the mayor of New York City can veto any council decision to add to, increase or place terms on budget items. There is, of course, the check and balance that council can override a mayoral veto related to the budget with a two-thirds majority vote.

Now let’s look at Chicago. Just like in New York City, the mayor of Chicago is the chief executive officer of the city and does not sit on the council. However, unlike New York City, the Chicago mayor must obtain council consent to appoint and remove heads of all city departments and officers of the municipality, all commissions, all boards and all agencies, except as otherwise provided in the law. As in New York City and as proposed by our bill, the mayor of Chicago directs the city’s budget process and submits the city’s annual budget to council for consideration and approval.

Now let’s go out west and look at Los Angeles. Again, the mayor of Los Angeles is the chief executive officer of the city and does not have a seat on council. The mayor of Los Angeles has the power to create or abolish bureaus, divisions or positions within the executive office of the mayor, including having the power to remove certain city officials. Just like in New York, just like in Chicago and just like in our proposed legislation, the mayor of Los Angeles directs the budget and sends it to council for approval. The mayor can veto any changes or additions council makes, and, in turn, council can override a mayoral veto with a two-thirds majority vote.

These strong-mayor systems support the needs of these growing communities, just as similar systems can support the needs of the growing communities in Toronto and in Ottawa.

We know that building more homes that people can afford is a priority for everyone right across the province. From the headlines of newspapers to the conversations we all hear at our hockey rinks, soccer fields or coffee shops, we know that Ontarians care about living in a province where they can find a place to live, where the dream of home ownership is alive and well for them and their children.

There is no doubt that housing affordability will be top of mind for voters in this fall’s municipal election. We have heard candidates underline what their municipality needs to do to increase housing supply. We have heard from voters, both with well-paying jobs and those who might be having difficulty making ends meet, talking about the fact that they are unable to find attainable housing. Whether they’re looking for a place to call home in urban city centres or in suburban communities across the province, we hear about the struggles families are facing.

This is all because of a lack of housing in the housing market. This has to change. With this piece of legislation, combined with all the other bold solutions our government is taking action on, we’re ensuring that it does.

Both the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and I have mentioned some of the other housing supply-related initiatives our government has put in place. From our action plans to convening experts to weigh in on the best ways to increase housing supply to engaging with both the public and municipalities on crucial matters, we stand before our honourable colleagues here today to share with you that the proposed Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act is one more step that our government is taking to help address the current housing shortfall.

As the minister has said before, solving the housing crisis is a long-term process that requires a long-term commitment and collaboration from all levels of government. It is a huge challenge that Ontario faces. It’s a defining issue of our time. I know that there is a challenge here, but I know that we can overcome this challenge by working with all our partners, because how we as elected officials choose to tackle the housing crisis will dictate whether an entire next generation can break into the housing market. Ontarians are counting on us to get this right, and failure is simply not an option. We will meet this challenge and get homes built, and we will do it by working together with our municipal partners.

The proposed Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act focuses on partnership. The proposed legislation is built on the fact that our government trusts Ontarians to elect the right local leaders. Strong-mayor systems are intended to empower municipal leaders to work more effectively with the province to reduce timelines for development, to standardize processes and address local barriers to increasing the housing supply. That’s why Ontario will continue to provide the tools so that municipalities can, in fact, increase the housing supply—the tools they need to break through the logjams that have historically slowed the speed of housing construction, the tools that would enhance authorities for the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa. We propose to give these mayors more responsibility to help deliver on our shared provincial-municipal priorities, including our commitment to build 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years.

The reality is that over one third of Ontario’s growth in the next decade is expected to take place in Toronto and in Ottawa. Queen’s Park cannot tackle the housing challenge on its own. It requires all our partners to pitch in and help us get the job done. We are counting on these mayors to cut red tape and get housing built faster so more families can realize the dream of attainable home ownership. That’s our mission. That’s our job. That’s why we’re here. We’re not going to leave anyone behind, Speaker. We’re going to make sure everyone has a place to call home. Ontarians, as I said before, are counting on us, and we won’t let them down.

I now hand the floor over to the parliamentary assistant of municipal affairs and housing, my honourable colleague from Thunder Bay–Atikokan, to further elaborate on this bill. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

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  • Sep/6/22 4:20:00 p.m.
  • Re: Bill 3 

It’s always a pleasure to rise in this House, especially with the wonderful colleagues I have here around me.

We’re talking about an important dream come true for all of us: making sure we have home. A home is not just a place where you live. It is a place where you raise your family, you raise your career and give back to the community. And that’s what we’re doing today here: We are finding out how we can help and support our communities by giving them another tool to build more homes. That’s what we’re doing here: Bill 3, the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act, 2022.

Before I go back to this and talk more about this, I just want to talk about my journey when I came in 2000 and we started living in Brampton. That was my first place that I rented, a basement, and when my wife and my son came on June 5, 2000, we wanted to give him more space. By this time, I had a job. We moved into an apartment building; we rented an apartment. But my wife continued to say, “We need to save together to buy our own first home.”

And that’s exactly what we did. In 2001, we bought our first house. I still remember; when the house was being built, we used to go every weekend just to see how high it had gone. That’s what we were seeing: our dreams coming together, of raising our son. That was the home that we actually bought and lived in, the first house.

If we talk about the day when I landed, which was in 2000, I remember the population of Brampton was about 225,000 people, and today it’s over—what—700,000, 800,000? In these last 20 years, we’ve seen Ontario’s population growth has accelerated. The province is set to grow by nearly two million people over the next decade. The people of Ontario are counting on all levels of government to work together and build homes so that they have a place to live and raise their family, to make their dreams come true.

Why has the population gone up? Well, there are many reasons. Immigration is the first one. We have seen increased immigration. We have seen a growing number of non-permanent residents, including international students, coming into this country. In the last five years, approximately 645,000 international students came here. Given that approximately 60% of them come to Ontario and about 60% of those come to the GTA—if you look at it that way, it’s about 180,000 international students who are coming, and they need a house as well. What happens is, many times they love to bring their family or their parents to visit, to see them and stay with them. That means they need a house, so it means we need more houses.

If we put these things together for Ontario, both international and interprovincial migration, just take a look at the year 2019: 153,000 immigrants settled in Ontario. That accounts for 45% of all immigrants to Canada. It is projected that almost 30,000 will make Ontario their home through interprovincial migration from the rest of Canada.

Madam Speaker, one thing else has happened in the last four years. Under the leadership of Premier Ford, we have seen Ontario becoming an economic engine and a lucrative destination—to settle down here.

I’ll give you an example. A great example was shared by Minister Vic Fedeli this morning. Site Selection, a leading international business publication, has named Ontario the winner for the 2022 Canadian Competitiveness Award; 10 of the 24 best locations to invest and their corresponding economic development are nowhere but here in Ontario, and we should be proud of that.

This is fantastic news. But what happens is, when we see economic growth happening, more and more investors want to come here, and within the province itself, those who invested here want to grow. And what happens? They need more people. When they need more people, they’re going to bring more people. When they bring more people, we need more houses.

Madam Speaker, I always talk about me as a first-generation immigrant. Immigrants are not just here to come here and live a life. They actually give back to the community. I want talk about a couple of examples here. I want to draw your attention to somebody I admire. His name is Ray Gupta. Ray is the CEO and chairman of Sunray Group. Ray immigrated to Canada and then founded this company in 2006. He actively supports Canadian immigration and continues to work with the local council to help the immigration and job efforts in Ontario. Ray Gupta is one of many examples of how the immigrant success story evolves from the initial struggle to eventually contributing back to the Canadian economy.

I just want to give another example. Immigrants arriving in Canada aim to achieve financial stability and join the workforce. However, they go the extra mile by giving back to their communities. A great example is Canadian Muslim Friends, an organization known across the board for their community work. Canadian Muslim Friends has organized several community events, such as an annual blood drive, a food drive, a toy drive and fundraising for both the SickKids hospital and the Trillium hospital. They conduct seminars on current issues that many immigrants can relate to. Canadian Muslim Friends continues to celebrate religious gatherings and Canada Day, encouraging members of all communities to join and strengthen our community bonds. That’s the Ontario spirit we have.

Let’s talk about Toronto, because Toronto and Ottawa are the two major regions that are being considered in this third reading of Bill 3. Toronto is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in North America. In 2018-19, its population grew by 131,000, accounting for 53% of provincial growth. Similarly, Ottawa had an 8.5% population growth in the National Capital Region over the last five years. Ottawa’s population also reached the one-million mark. The regions of Toronto and Ottawa both have experienced faster growth than the rest of the province.

Ontario’s population growth is evident; the housing market has not been able to match the demand. Ontario is facing a housing crisis, where potential homebuyers have been frozen out of the market.

I’ll give you an example: My heart actually broke when I got a call from one of my friends. There was an international student. He was sitting at his office, and then this friend of mine—his name is Pervaiz Akhtar—Pervaiz called me and he said, “There is somebody who is sitting in my office and he’s been kicked out of the shelter, and he has a paper—he said, ‘I have a paper to prove that I’m mentally stable.’” Madam Speaker, in these two lines there is so much. Somebody who sent their child here to educate themselves, to get to a better life, because we live in a heaven—and I look at these two lines. Somebody who is actually kicked out of a shelter, not just a house, and has to prove mental stability means he has gone through a lot in the past.

I had the opportunity to talk to the child. He went into a vicious cycle, wherein he didn’t have a job; by the time he could find a job, he didn’t have enough money to pay the rent and he was kicked out; when he was kicked out, he got into bad company; after the bad company, he got into a situation where he went the wrong way. In order for him to bring it back—I’m thankful to organizations like PCHS and Indus community centre for their hard work to bring him back into the system. But what happens is not everybody has the opportunity to go and meet these people. I don’t know how many of these situations there are which could have been avoided if we had enough housing supply in place, and that is what we are doing here.

We’re trying to give our municipalities another tool through the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act so that we can build these houses faster, and as we are building these houses faster, we’re reducing the red tape, we’re reducing the cost of building those houses, which in turn means less cost to those end users as well.

Madam Speaker, with the population of Ontario increasing rapidly, the time for action is now. The residents of Ontario are facing a shortage of homes. That is why our government is committed to building 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years, as well as other key infrastructure like roads and transit. There is a high demand for housing, meaning an urgent need for immediate building and construction.

I just want to add to this, to my colleagues: It’s not just building the houses. In order to build the houses, we need the tools and the skill set to build those houses. That is why our ministry, the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development, is actually working along with these other ministers to make sure that we are supporting current and future skilled trade workers. We have over 350,000 jobs which are going unfilled.

Talking about first-generation immigrants, I want to share with you that 75% of our internationally educated immigrants are not working in the field in which they’re trained. Under the leadership of Premier Ford and Minister Monte McNaughton, the Minister for Labour, Training and Skills Development, we are providing an additional $83 million towards the Skills Development Fund to help support groundbreaking training projects that upskill workers and prepare job seekers for future work. Our government helped people receive training needed to fill the shortage of skilled workers in Ontario, and we’ll continue to do it.

Not only did these changes help get people work in their chosen field, they also helped speed up the registration process for our internationally trained professionals. To be more specific, the Working for Workers Act reduced the number of hoops a potential worker would need to jump through, allowing them to start working in their field as much as five years sooner than before the act was implemented. Newcomers are now given the pride of continuing their career and contributing their knowledge and experience to their new home, all the while knowing that their government is going to work with them.

We no longer have regulatory bodies putting unnecessary barriers in the way of new immigrants. This makes our province of Ontario the best place for newcomers to come and thrive. We thereby made it easier for people to settle here and find jobs in their fields. What we’ve done by doing this is we’ve attracted more people, and as we’ve attracted more people, we need more houses.

Madam Speaker, talking about skilled workers, we need skilled workers urgently to build these homes immediately. Skilled workers in our construction industries and health and safety industries are needed to build housing. I’m proud to say that our government, through the leadership of Premier Ford, is envisioning a long-term plan to make Ontario the best place to be. Over the next 10 years, over 100,000 jobs will be available in construction alone, and with this bill we will be able to build over 1.5 million homes. We are investing a historic $1.5 billion between 2020 and 2024 to help workers and job seekers start rewarding, well-paying and in-demand careers in the trades. Our government is making these investments because it is what our people and our province need today.

It is no secret that Ontario is in the middle of a housing crisis. Ontarians re-elected our government at a time when they’re facing a rising cost of living and a shortage of homes. I want to share with you—and I’m sure all my colleagues will agree—that when we were door-knocking, when we were going door to door and meeting our residents, loud and clear we heard from residents that they need this government to take action and take action now so that the housing crisis can be addressed.

And it’s not just people like me who actually have a house—no, it is the people who are newcomers to Canada who need a house. But then often people ask me, “Well, you’re already living in a house. How come this is a crisis for you?” So for those, I want to share that I have two children and they need freedom. They need to be independent, and they will need a house. It’s not that those living in a house don’t have to worry about the housing crisis, because it’s going to impact each one of us in one way or the other.

That is why the proposed Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act is crucial in allowing the largest-populated cities, Toronto and Ottawa, to have the ability in driving policy changes. Empowered mayors could better help the province and municipalities in working together on housing and other initiatives that are critical for their communities. It’s not just me who’s saying it. For example, Toronto Mayor John Tory said he wants “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.”

It is something we need as we face record growth in the great province of Ontario. Our population is going to increase and the building of housing needs to begin and begin now. As our province continues to flourish as we do many, many investments—for example, we’re the province that is actually building 30,000 long-term beds. We are the province that is going to have four hours of home care and 86,000 child care spaces. We’re going to be building four subways, electric vehicle manufacturing, construction of highways, and everything we’re going to be doing is going to attract more people, and those people need housing again.

So as we’re doing this, there is even more pressure on our housing system. We need to 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. It’s not me alone saying it. These are some of the quotes that community leaders and industry leaders have said, and I picked those quotes.

The new municipal powers will go a long way in addressing affordability, getting more shovels in the ground and incentivizing developers to come build in Ontario’s largest cities. In turn, as we build faster, as we build cheaper, those benefits are going to go to the end use of our residents.

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. That is why we’re putting our trust in local leadership in Toronto and Ottawa and in the voters who will choose these new mayors next month by proposing to give these mayors more responsibility to help deliver on our shared provincial-municipal priorities. Our government believes in a strong-mayor system that would address the housing crisis in these cities.

Madam Speaker, we always talk about the consultation, and I think the biggest consultation is going back to our voters, our residents. People think this is a place of power; I call this a place of responsibility, because the power is with the people. It is the people who elect their elected officials, because they have the power. We just exercise the responsibility. They have that power again on October 24. They’re going to elect the mayor, who is going to deliver that.

I just want to highlight a few more examples of the support we have received. It is clear that we are not alone in this belief. 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, to bring forward budgets.

When we’re talking about this, we look at the C.D. Howe Institute. They found that restrictions and extra costs on building new housing are dramatically increasing the cost of housing projects. The institute found that these barriers can add up to $168,000 dollars or 22% to an average cost of a single detached home in Ontario.

Furthermore, the Ontario Association of Architects, taking a 100-unit condominium building in Toronto as an example, said it could cost up to $2,000 per month in addition to the consumers, which in turn means that if there is something which is being delayed by 10 months, that’s an extra $20,000 fee the end user would have to pay.

Madam Speaker, the examples are endless, but I want to conclude by saying that Rescon says we are underproducing housing by 12,000 units per year here in Ontario because of delays, and 12,000 housing units is not just 12,000 people; it is actually 12,000 families. It is the families of many of those new immigrants with young children who are preparing to rise and grow into life here.

The reality is that over one third of Ontario’s growth over the next decade is expected to happen in Toronto and Ottawa, and that is why we need to take action, and we need to take action now through Bill 3, the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act.

To conclude, Madam Speaker, because I only have one minute left: Our government’s target is to build 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years, and that is what we’re doing. We must explore new methods to help municipalities get homes built faster. As the population of Ontario continues to grow, housing needs to keep up. We need to consider all Ontarians and begin taking action now to help them one day have the dream of home ownership.

I urge each and every member on both sides: Let’s work together. Let’s deliver real long-term housing solutions in the next 10 years and let’s build our Ontario.

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