You like that one station?

We’ll continue to work closely with the city of Toronto and York region to identify and plan additional opportunities to bring more transit-oriented communities to subway stations. More will be announced very soon.

As I mentioned earlier, we are also creating new housing and mixed-use communities around GO. For example, Ontario is already working with partners to explore a transit-oriented community at the new Woodbine GO station in Etobicoke along Highway 27. This proposed station would help residents in Etobicoke and surrounding areas connect to the GO line and get to where they need to go, while serving as a future hub for economic development and jobs, and increasing housing opportunities.

We’re also working with a builder to construct key improvements to the existing Mimico GO station, including a new, fully accessible main station building and the extension of a multi-use greenway path for pedestrians and cyclists to use to access the station. This TOC is expected to create more than 2,000 housing units, including affordable housing options, along with retail, a passenger pickup and drop-off area, and enhanced station amenities, including hundreds of new underground parking spaces and spaces for bike storage. It will transform Mimico GO station and the surrounding area, bringing more housing, office and retail right next to transit in this rapidly growing area.

Having a third party construct and deliver improved transit infrastructure reduces costs for the taxpayer, while also creating opportunities to bring more jobs and housing closer to transit.

We continue to work with Metrolinx and local municipalities to plan additional transit-oriented communities at GO rail stations throughout the greater Golden Horseshoe.

Speaker, if passed, our proposed legislation will complement these efforts by helping to build stations in communities around Ontario sooner. It will bring new transit stations right to the doorstep of where people live, work and play, creating thriving communities and providing new ways for residents to get to where they need to go. And we can’t do that without our partners. It’s clear that we can no longer build transit stations in isolation. With our historic transit expansion, we cannot waste this opportunity.

By 2041, Ontario’s population is expected to grow by 30%; the reality is, our infrastructure needs to grow with it. To meet the demands of this rapid population growth, we need to continue to build new and better infrastructure. Our province also faces increasing risks and pressures on the capacity of its infrastructure if we do not make these critical investments today to keep up with a growing population.

Together, it’s time to move things forward, to get things done, collaborating with our municipalities and those who will help us build more infrastructure. It’s time to think outside of the box, and it’s time to build for the future—a future with better transit, more housing, and more vibrant, mixed-use communities so that we build a stronger, more prosperous and more competitive Ontario now and for many years to come.

Thank you, member, for your question. I definitely don’t see it that way. This fee is a voluntary charge by the municipality to help it achieve its specific goal. If it wants the station built sooner, the capital will be there to do so.

The reason why this tool is to be made available is really to expedite the process to build new stations. When it’s not used, the province continues to fund the way it funds today: It uses the market approach to develop new stations. But ultimately, that takes time, and just as in my example of Wyandotte, you have to wait for the development to happen before you see the service. This is the kind of thing that maybe the service needs to be brought in ahead of time.

So it’s a completely voluntary tool, one that the province will not allow to be used unless the municipality can demonstrate its financial capacity to do it using the station contribution fee approach and, certainly, the municipalities can benefit from the regional connections that this opportunity brings forward.

Really, this proposed legislation is in response to requests from the municipalities locally for a new optional funding tool that truly enables them to raise the revenues needed to build the much-needed transit and housing. This tool, the station contribution fee, allows municipalities to fund the design and construction of new GO stations and recover those costs over time as transit-oriented communities are built around these future stations. Some municipalities do that for stormwater retention ponds, for example, or for oversizing of sewers. They want that development, and so they’re willing to play the banker, so to speak, to make sure that happens. It really does speed up the construction of these GO Transit stations, and it creates opportunities for mixed-use communities around those stations. So by expediting the design and construction of these new stations, the station contribution fee can help the province meet its goal of building 1.5 million homes, at least, by 2031.

The member from Ottawa South, I think that we are aligned on some of the challenges that are associated with schedule 2 and this new station contribution fee. There is an acknowledgement, I think, from the member that municipalities are hurting right now. There’s been a number of downloads from the provincial government at the local level. Their municipal budget cycles this year are going to be very tense. Some are looking at a double-digit—14%—property tax increase just to pay for the basics, just to hold the line.

So if GO expansion now depends on local funding, then communities that need transit but can’t attract private investment for new development may be sent to the back of the line. Do you think that this bill will actually streamline and fast-track transit, or will it slow it down with all of the red tape and the hurdles that the government—