To my colleague across the way: I would never put words in your mouth, so I would expect the same courtesy from you—by not putting words in my mouth. I did not express myself in any way saying I was supportive of one thing or another. What I did actually say is that there are real concerns out there from many municipal leaders who have not been involved in the decision-making or the drafting of this legislation and the impacts of it. What does it mean?

Let’s set aside “good” or “bad” on this legislation. Why wasn’t there greater consultation on this? Why weren’t communities like Espanola, Chapleau and Wawa, who are desperately looking for housing in their communities—their communities are booming as well, as far as new mines that are opening up, new employment opportunities. There are a lot of migrant individuals who are moving to those communities because there are cultural centres there that are supportive of their wants and their needs. So why did we limit it to just the two? Why wasn’t there greater consultation that was done broadly across the province?

When you’re looking at this legislation, the answer is yes. You look at the track record in the 42nd government: Can the Speaker tell me one time that a piece of legislation didn’t go forward by this government and the likelihood—I always enjoy when the government members stand up and they’re talking about their piece of legislation and say, “If this piece of legislation goes forward.” They’ve got a majority; everything’s going to go by. They’re going to make sure everything goes by. They have the powers on committee. They have the power of a majority government. The answer is, yes, they have that ability.

Our role is one which is going to be significant in this House: to bring up these shortfalls, bring up the cracks that are within the legislation. It’s a role that we’re going to take very seriously. Yes, we will be opposing often. Get used to it.

The aspiration of owning a home, as for your son, is a dream for them. My kids—we’ve had this conversation numerous times. You come out of school, and you’re faced with anywhere between $80,000 to $160,000 in debt from your schooling. You come out, and you get your first job. You want your vehicle, so you get a vehicle because you have to get to and from work. Then, you go to the bank and the bank tells you, “Oh, sure, we’re going to approve you for a mortgage.” The maximum amount is maybe $160,000. It’s impossible to find a home at that rate. So their dream, their aspiration, their want, their idea of owning a home is almost impossible. They can’t reach it.

There’s more we could do. There’s a lot more we could have done, first, by engaging. This is a wholesome discussion. I want to go back to what I opened up with: This is one of those bills that should have gone out to communities so that we have greater engagement and have a wholesome discussion, because some of the best legislation is because we’ve reached out to communities, organizations—took the time through committee to have that wholesome discussion.

Report continues in volume B.