SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
September 25, 2023 10:15AM
  • Sep/25/23 11:00:00 a.m.

To be very clear, Mr. Speaker: No, we will not be supporting the member’s legislation. Obviously, we’ve not seen the legislation, so we would never provide unanimous consent to something that we have not seen. But, to be very clear, we will be voting against that legislation today.

I will be bringing forward legislation very soon which will not only return the lands but ensure that an additional 7,000 acres of land are put into the greenbelt. And we will go one step further, Mr. Speaker: We will codify in legislation the boundaries of the greenbelt so that it is protected through legislation and not through regulation. So, no, we will not be supporting the member’s legislative piece today because we’re going to go further and we’re going to do what has never been done in this province before: We will protect the greenbelt once and for all.

We have been working for five years to untangle the mess that was the opposition’s policies on housing. In fact, Mr. Speaker, in the member’s own riding, where average income is about $55,000 a year, the average house price is about $1.1 million. It would take somebody $80,000 in mortgage payments just to afford that home, and what does the member opposite do? She continues to support policies that would take all of the people in her riding out of the ability to own a home. We are going to double down on policies that help build houses for people across the province of Ontario. Make no mistake: We’ll get the job done.

Interjections.

Nothing—nothing. We will be presenting a bill later on this week which will ensure that the people of the province of Ontario are focused on what matters to them: building houses for the people of the province of Ontario.

She talks about us adding on to the housing crisis? It’s unbelievable to me. We have seen, because of the policies of this government, housing starts at the highest level in over 30 years—and it’s not just single-family homes; it is purpose-built rentals that, under their policies, came to a halt for over 30 years. This is a party that, with the Liberals, doubled down on increasing taxes for the people of the province of Ontario year after year after year. They think that increasing taxes somehow encourages an economy to grow.

We have shown that by reducing taxes, cutting red tape and investing in priorities of people, 700,000 jobs come back and the economy booms. And now we’re going to get it done in housing as well.

Well, let me tell you this: We are going to build all across the province, because young Ontarians deserve to have that first home; the seniors who want to downsize deserve to have a place that they can downsize to, they deserve to have long-term-care homes; our students deserve to have dormitories. That is what is important.

So to all of those people who are in their parents’ basement right now and want to have a home: We have your back. They continue to do the same thing, and we won’t allow it to happen.

We’ll get the job done for them each and every day.

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