I appreciate the question.

Obviously, the Integrity Commissioner has weighed in on that and is looking at the additional information that has been provided by the former minister.

At the same time, of course, we are not going to do what the opposition will want us to do. This is all about the same thing for them—it’s about stopping people from having what all of us wanted and what all of us have: a home for themselves.

I was speaking to somebody just yesterday whose wife delivered their first child. He did everything right. He bought his first condo when he was just out of school. And now all he wants is a home for his family, but 21 offers later, he still doesn’t have that home. All he wants—what he said to us—is this: “I want what you had. I want the opportunity to have my first home for my family.” That’s what he wants, and that’s what we will deliver.

Again, that is something that the Integrity Commissioner will take a look at. I can understand the leader bringing that question to the floor, but honestly, she should be providing those questions to the Integrity Commissioner. That is the official who is charged with overseeing those types of investigations with members on all sides of the House.

At the same time, we’re going to continue to be focused on what matters to the people of the province of Ontario, and that is delivering a strong economy, that is delivering homes for the people of this province—whether it is the senior who wants to downgrade into a bit of a smaller home, thereby making another home available for the young family I just talked about.

I suspect this is all the opposition is going to do—try to put obstacles in the way of Ontarians having that first home. We will remove those obstacles, and we will deliver for the people of the province of Ontario, because they deserve every advantage, the same advantages that we had. The next generation deserves those exact same advantages.

But the Leader of the Opposition is right—for the NDP, it is never about housing, right? Because if it was ever about housing, they wouldn’t have put obstacles in the way, along with the Liberals, that saw us in a housing crisis in the province of Ontario. That is the reality today. We are in a housing crisis because they put obstacles in the way of people building homes. They put obstacles in the way that have led us to a housing crisis. It is the same policies that they’re supporting federally. They have the balance of power federally, and what are they supporting? High taxes, which lead to inflation, which lead to interest rates that put families out of competition for homes.

So I say to the Leader of the Opposition: Don’t do what your federal counterparts are doing. Don’t do what you did when you supported the Liberals. Don’t put housing out of the reach of thousands of people. Join us and make sure that the next generation has all the benefits that we enjoy. That’s what we’ll focus on.

We inherited a province that was brought to its knees by the policies of the Liberals and the NDP—the same policies right now, which, across this country, have led to high inflation, which is leading to out-of-control interest rates, which are putting thousands of people out of the market. And when you add on top of that the obstacles that they put in place, making new families have to decide to eat or heat—that was their legacy.

We’re going to bring prosperity back. We’ve already seen 700,000 people have the dignity of a job—and now the next step is to give those new families the same advantages that we had: a house that they can call home for their families, so that we can ensure that the next generation has all the advantages we had.

At the same time, the Leader of the Opposition and the leader of the Liberal Party can make all the jokes that they want, but the reality is this: It is not a joke, because what has happened in the province of Ontario under 15 years of Liberals and NDPs is that we have a housing crisis. These are the very same policies that they fought for here for 15 years, that we’re seeing in Ottawa right now. We’re seeing the same thing. We said a carbon tax would cost the people of the province of Ontario and drive up inflation; they said it wouldn’t, but it did. We said high interest rates would cause our economy to fall; they said it wouldn’t, but we’re showing that it does. High interest rates are putting thousands of people out of the market for homes. Why? Because Liberal policies of high debt, high inflation and red tape, supported by the NDP, don’t work. It brings an economy to its knees. We’re going to do everything that they didn’t. We’re going to continue to restore the economy—

The member would know the process of how the Integrity Commissioner does his work. Having been one of the only members found guilty of an infraction by the Integrity Commissioner, she would certainly know how that process works.

The person she is talking about is no longer a member of this caucus. That person will have to work with the Integrity Commissioner to ensure that all of the documentation that he requires is made available.

At the same time, we’re going to continue to move forward to ensure that we build 1.5 million homes for people all across the province of Ontario—it’s not just homes for people; it’s homes for students; it’s long-term-care homes. It’s about getting people moving in the province of Ontario. It is why we are building subways. It’s why we are building new roads. It’s why we are opening up our economy. For the first time in years, Ontario is on a prosperous path. Do you know why? Because we’ve done everything opposite to what the Liberals and the NDP did for 15 years. People are coming back to the province, and now it’s our responsibility to do everything for the next generation to have all the same advantages that we had—

Having said that, what we are going to continue to do, and what we have done since day one in this place, is start to untangle the mess that was created by the Liberals and the NDP—a mess that has led to a housing crisis in the province of Ontario. We’re going to remove obstacles. The Minister of Long-Term Care talked about it just yesterday. Under the Liberal watch, 611 long-term-care beds were built across the province of Ontario—611, supported by the NDP. Under this minister’s watch, there are shovels in the ground for 18,000 beds. In fact, there are more long-term-care beds being built in the member for Ottawa South’s riding than there were for the previous 15 years that he was in that government. We’ll continue to get the job done on behalf of all—

Interjections.

Speaker, as you know, as I said earlier, the Integrity Commissioner will be reviewing that.

The Integrity Commissioner also did say this: “In fact, I have found that the Premier’s office staff were not providing such direction.” He went on further to say, “I accept the purpose of the decision to remove lands from the greenbelt was to address the housing crisis.”

This member in the north should know just how important it is that we address the housing crisis. She, of course, was part of a coalition with the Liberals that said that the north was just a wasteland, that nobody should make investments in the north. They stood by the Liberals when they made that claim. This member from the north stood by the Liberals when they made that claim.

Here’s what we’re doing: We’re restoring the North-lander, because that’s what is important to people in the north. We’re opening up the economy of the north.

I visited Kenora to ground-break on a new long-term-care home in a housing project there. I got delayed because they were blasting, because they were making new roads in Kenora.

That is what we are doing when it comes to the north—we’re getting the job done for all Ontarians, including your constituents.

We’re talking about bringing long-term-care homes to the north. We’re talking about building homes in northern Ontario. We’re talking about bringing jobs and prosperity back to northern Ontario.

In fact, when we changed the Mining Act to help benefit the people of northern Ontario, the member for Sudbury, whose riding is so dependent on mining jobs, voted against it. But we shouldn’t be surprised, because they supported the Liberals when they called the north a wasteland; they supported the Liberals, who brought in carbon taxes, which directly impact the people of the north.

To the people of the north, I say very directly: We’ll get the job done for you. The NDP and Liberals have always failed you; we will not.

Again, it is worth noting that the changes we had anticipated making to the greenbelt that are no longer happening are not costing taxpayers a cent—unlike the Liberals, who cost the taxpayers billions of dollars. And what did the Liberals accomplish with the billions of dollars that they cost? Nothing. Their big accomplishment was that 300,000 jobs fled the province of Ontario. They called the north a wasteland. They said that Ontario should transition to a service economy and forget manufacturing. That is the legacy of the Liberal Party.

It was a Progressive Conservative government that actually brought in the Ministry of the Environment.

It was a Progressive Conservative government that protected the Oak Ridges moraine.

We’ll take no lessons from a party that opened up the greenbelt 17 different times. In fact, what are we doing? We’re protecting the greenbelt. We’re codifying it in legislation. We’re adding 9,400 acres to it—the largest increase in lands ever. And we’ll—

Interjections.

We saw this yesterday—it’s the next shoe for the opposition. It’s never about building homes. You can never get a question—“How can we help you build more homes for the people of the province of Ontario?” You’ll never get that from them.

No, we’re not going to continue to put obstacles in the way of building homes. Let me be very clear: As the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, I’m going to remove obstacles. Do you know why? Because it is our job to ensure that the next generation has all of the same advantages that we have.

We have one job as parliamentarians: to leave the province in better shape than we found it in. Under the Liberal and NDP coalition, what did you do? You brought the province to its knees.

So, no, I will not put new obstacles in the way of building homes.

And to our partners who have said clearly that you have enough land to build in your areas—we’re going to make sure that you come on board and that we build those homes in those areas.

We have been talking about removing taxes from building purpose-built rentals. We talked about this. Finally, the federal Liberals agree with us—they recognized—that when you put a tax, it drives the economy down. They have finally agreed with us, and they’ve agreed to remove the tax on purpose-built rentals—something that we put in the budget. Colleagues, you’ll remember, we put this in the budget. The finance minister put this in the budget. We’re seeing purpose-built rentals at the highest level in over 15 years. We put it in the budget. The member talks about it. How did she vote? She voted against it. The member talks about transit and building in communities, but when we talk about densifying around community infrastructure like GO trains and subway stations—how did she and her party vote? They voted against it.

Don’t worry. We’ll get the job done for your com-munity as well.

In fact, it was the Integrity Commissioner who took a look at that. I refer the member to page 142: “I cannot find that political donations were the basis for the decision to remove lands from the greenbelt. Accordingly, I find there was an objective basis for the decision”—the objective basis for the decision was, namely, a housing crisis. The Integrity Commissioner, actually, on page 140, referenced the fact that all political parties received donations from the exact same people.

The reality is, what we are trying to do is build more homes for the people of the province of Ontario, including in that member’s own community. That member is a member who voted against, of course, long-term care. She voted against new hospitals in her community.

Thankfully, there is a good Progressive Conservative member in that area who has brought more investment into Niagara, I think, than all of the other members combined from Niagara since, probably, Confederation. Thank you to the member. Thank you to Mr. Oosterhoff for the great work that he has done in bringing investment and jobs to his community.

We were just in Niagara Falls last week, and I can’t tell you how many people came to us and said, “Finally we have a government that cares about our region. Finally, there are members of provincial Parliament who care about our region.”

We have new hospitals going in. We have the Skyway being expanded. She, of course, voted against that. We have long-term care.

The best part of it is, colleagues, that when we break ground on long-term care—guess who shows up? The NDP. They show up, they want to take credit for it, but then they don’t tell their constituents and colleagues, “Well, we voted against it. We’re just here to take credit for it.”

Come on. You know full well what the job of a member of provincial Parliament is—it’s to bring investment to your community, and there’s only one member in that area who’s doing it; it’s the member for Niagara West.