I would like to thank the member for her comments.

The member talked a lot about housing in Ottawa, and we do, in fact, have a real crisis and a shortage of affordable housing in Ottawa. It’s something that we heard a lot about at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa this week. Another thing that we heard at AMO was mayors saying that they weren’t consulted on this legislation, that they don’t want this legislation and that they didn’t ask for this legislation. That includes Mayor Jim Watson of Ottawa, who said he learned about this legislation from the news and that this legislation is not required to actually address the affordable housing crisis.

Mayors made it clear that their priority is addressing the health care crisis and getting our ambulances back on the road, instead of being tied up at hospitals waiting to off-load patients.

So my question to the member is: Why is this bill this government’s priority when mayors are saying, “Please fix the health care system”?

I’d like to thank the member from Hamilton Mountain for her comments. Like the member from Hamilton Mountain, I heard a lot on the doorsteps about the need for affordable housing. I heard it from families of all types and sizes, whether they owned their own home or they were renting. Another thing I’ve heard a lot about was tenants who risked being evicted from the housing that they had, because their landlord was trying to push them out, knowing that the landlord could jack up the rent to whatever they wanted for the next tenant.

What I did not hear anything about from any of my constituents—I did not hear it from my Conservative opponent, either—was a demand for any additional powers for the mayor. Even the mayor of Ottawa said he’s not interested in additional powers. So I’m wondering if the member can comment on whether it would have been a better option for the government to in fact introduce real rent control and vacancy control to address the housing crisis, rather than giving mayoral powers nobody is asking for.