It really is a sad afternoon when we are talking about the many scandals that have happened in this province of Ontario—the gas plant scandal, air Ornge—but what we saw with those scandals was an appropriate legislative response.

I want to add to this the Airbus affair, which refers to allegations of secret commissions paid to Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and other members of his ministry in exchange for then-crown corporation Air Canada’s purchase of a large number of Airbus jets. This resulted in a RCMP investigation. It resulted in much media coverage. There was an ethics committee struck, and there was also the Oliphant commission inquiry.

This is the kind of response that we need when there is such suspect behaviour on the part of governments, Liberal and Conservative alike.

The Premier was asked recently, “What’s the worst scandal in the province of Ontario?” and he was trying to say that the greenbelt scandal wasn’t quite as bad as the gas plant scandal. It was a terrible spectacle to watch the Premier decide which was the worse scandal in Ontario. But I would say, perhaps he forgot his outrage at Kathleen Wynne when she had the Fair Hydro Plan, because, at the time, the Premier said that this was the biggest political cover-up in Ontario’s history.

And this government—in October 2018, one of the first things they did when they came to power was, they struck a Select Committee on Financial Transparency. They did this. Members of that committee now—the Chair was the member for Brampton South, who’s now the Minister of Transportation. The Vice-Chair was Ontario’s Attorney General, the current Attorney General. The members from this government included the chief government whip; the member for Sault Ste. Marie, who is in the House; Roman Baber—remember?—the previous member for York Centre; we had the member for Eglinton–Lawrence. These were the current government members who thought that it was important to strike a select committee, and I agreed. The purpose of this committee was “to investigate and report on the accounting practices, decision-making and policy objectives of the previous government or any other aspect of the report that the select committee deems relevant. The public has a right to know the true state of the province’s finances and demand accountability from the government.” Sound familiar?

“The committee hopes that the current government will adopt the recommendations and commit to ensuring and maintaining transparency....” This is what we’re asking for today.

This committee—we got tens of thousands of emails. We subpoenaed the secretary of the cabinet, the Deputy Minister of the Environment. We subpoenaed Kathleen Wynne herself, who testified for two and a half hours, and the former Minister of Energy Glenn Thibeault. I spent the better part of four months in this committee getting to the bottom of this—all these members did this. And these are the kinds of legislative responses that we expect that your government would undertake. But despite this, despite this government’s outrage, we have a government here that has clearly signalled that they’re going to vote against our suggestion that they strike a select committee on the restoration of the greenbelt; they said that they’re going to vote against it, quite clearly.

At the time, Doug Ford said in a speech, “We will demand answers about where the money went. A lot of the Liberals got rich, really, really rich, under Kathleen Wynne and off the backs of the taxpayers of Ontario.”

“The purpose of our committee was to ask a lot of the questions the people of Ontario wanted answers to, and I’m confident we asked those questions,” said Ross Romano, the senior Progressive Conservative MPP, about the committee.

So this government has a record. You’ve done this, just five years ago, when you were outraged by the scandal of the Ontario Liberals. But suddenly you’ve fallen silent when it comes to your own dodgy dealings.

Despite all of this, despite all the province’s outrage, despite the fact that this is the right thing to do, we’ve heard that the government House leader is going to vote against this. And you can bet, if the House leader says that he’s going to vote against this, all these PC members are going to tuck in beside him and not support what is the right thing.

So I will say, you’ve done it before—you sat on a committee, you tried to get to the bottom of what is important to the people of the province of Ontario. My question to you now is, what changed? Why are you not committed to transparency and accountability now that you are in the hot seat?

Bill 23.

The member for Waterloo is heckling me right now—addressing recognizing gaps in middle-income housing, supportive housing and modular housing. We’re taking every opportunity and implementing every tool to ensure that Ontarians have a place to call home that meets their price point. This is so important. Last year alone, we had over half a million new immigrants come to Ontario—and that doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands more who will move here from other provinces, or international students who come here to study at our world-class colleges and universities.

The Premier said it before—and I’ll remind everyone in the chamber today: We need a wartime effort to build as many homes as possible. As our province grows and as people come here seeking a better life, we as a community need to fight to ensure that the dream of home ownership is protected for the next generation and for all those who come to Ontario.

While this side of the House and the middle over there will fight for people’s path to home ownership, the opposition continues to drag their feet on helping to house Ontarians. The members opposite said we held our housing supply action plans back five years—I find it very rich, from the members opposite who voted no on the four housing supply action plans we’ve brought to this House so far; I hope they vote for the next one we bring in. I really do hope they vote for the greenbelt bill we’re going to bring in to codify the boundaries of the greenbelt and add to the greenbelt. Time will tell.

Speaker, we’ve made it easier for homeowners to create additional residential units above garages, basements or in laneways; again, the opposition voted against it. We streamlined modular unit residential building approvals; they voted against it. It seems to be a pattern, everyone.

We took steps to bolster consumer protection around purchasing new homes—it’s a big life decision; they voted against it.

Every time we take steps to build homes, to protect tenants and streamline services, the NDP and Liberals stand against it. In doing so, they stand against a younger person just wanting to move out of their parents’ basement; they stand against the aging couple looking to downsize but who can’t afford to stay in their community where they raised their children and where their children and grandchildren live now; they stand against the next generation of Ontarians just wanting a chance at a normal life. This government will stand with those Ontarians—will stand with those young people, will stand with those seniors who want to downsize. We proudly stand with everyone looking for a path to home ownership, and we’ll continue to do so.

As I alluded to, we have tabled multiple housing supply action bills, and we’ll continue to do so and consult with our municipal partners, homebuilders and other stakeholders across the riding. Our government has already delivered on four of these bills since 2018, and we committed in an election to introduce one in each year of our four-year mandate. We will do that, demonstrating our commitment and resolve to get 1.5 million homes, at least, built by 2031.

As was referred to, I believe, earlier today in debate on Bill 134, there’s no silver bullet to the housing supply crisis. We’re doing the hard work that is necessary and working with our partners to fill our housing mandate. As circumstances and pressures change, we’re also committed to working with our municipal partners, with community builders, with—

In fact, this new Minister of Housing—when he came in, the first thing he did with our municipal partners was, he went back out to them and said, “We have 75 recommendations from our housing task force—we’re on 23 partly or almost completed. Please tell us how we reach those goals moving forward.” I know my municipal partners appreciated that opportunity to submit that feedback. They are submitting that feedback because we are listening to our municipal partners and we’re working with our municipal partners.

Interjection.

And as we do so, our government is always looking for better ways to ease the pressures on some of our most vulnerable communities.

Through our reinforcement of our supportive housing initiatives, an extra $200 million a year in the Homelessness Prevention Program, $700 million total—historic investments, which, again, our municipal partners asked for, and we listened to them.

We are confident we can build homes that meet the broad range of needs at every price point that works for residents.

We recognize that 1.5 million homes is not just a number, but it’s an offer of stability and opportunity for those families who will come to occupy them. A home is a place to start a family, to make memories, to see your children take their first steps, to clean up after your pet, to learn and grow within a community. Every Ontarian deserves that opportunity, and our government is here to make that happen.

This past summer, I had an opportunity, on behalf of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, to make a few announcements across Ontario, where we’re putting real investments into supportive housing through the government of Ontario Social Services Relief Fund. I was in Paris, Ontario—not Paris, France, unfortunately, but Paris, Ontario is great, as well—with MPP Bouma and mayors Kevin Davis and David Bailey to announce $340,000 to help create 15 affordable housing units, to support individuals and families with a variety of accessible needs, those who have experienced domestic violence, and people of Indigenous ancestries. This is very important to ensuring, again, that all Ontarians have a place to call their own.

Just a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to announce a similar investment in my own riding, in Stratford, in one of the communities that I have the great honour of representing in this place. The governments of Ontario and Canada are providing more than $3 million to build 33 affordable housing units in Stratford, and our government is providing an additional $1 million through the social services relief fund to create six additional affordable units. I know the chattering classes on Twitter like to say, “Oh, it’s the federal government,” but in this case, the province is actually contributing more to these projects than our federal partners. Speaker, I don’t have to tell you what it means for these communities. While they are going to be able to welcome more individuals and families to their communities, they are also being given the tools to ensure their most vulnerable residents are looked after in a way that is comfortable and affordable.

We know we have to build homes, and that’s why we’re also here to stand up for the little guy and girl, the members of our communities who have been priced out of the housing and real estate markets because of the decades of Liberal and NDP mismanagement and carelessness. The Liberals added mountains of red tape to the community building process during their time in government, and the only problem the NDP had with this is that they didn’t add more.

We’ve talked a lot about red tape here in this chamber, and all too often it may lose its meaning to the members of the opposition, but that red tape is exactly what stands in the way of young families purchasing a starter home or a family of a new Canadian getting into their first apartment or home. The red tape has real consequences, and under the current circumstances of a generational housing crisis, we just can’t afford these consequences. It’s not going to be easy. Since 2018, this government has worked day in and day out to jump-start our economy from the grinding halt the Liberals and the NDP brought it to. We’ve brought in record investments and job creation to the province of Ontario. We’ve got job offers, but we need the people for those jobs.

We’re thrilled to welcome hundreds of thousands of new Ontarians each and every year—including more than 500,000 last year, as I alluded to earlier. We need them to come to Ontario to join our workforce because that means our small businesses are growing, our tech and innovation sectors are growing—the great innovation happening in the region of Waterloo is growing—and we’re going to be able to better compete on a global stage, and that will be able to generate more wealth for our communities. But that doesn’t happen without new homes.

This past summer, many Torontonians saw the unfortunate reality many immigrants and asylum seekers face upon arriving to Canada. Many of them had nowhere to go but the streets of downtown Toronto.

Last month, our government announced an additional $42 million through the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit program to support the city of Toronto and other impacted municipalities in ensuring newcomers to Ontario have the supports they need to build a new life here in communities that are safe, welcoming and full of opportunities. Mayor Chow came to the table in good faith, and two levels of government were able to work together to address a pressing issue in Toronto. I wish the NDP would show the same commitment in helping newcomers find a home.

About a month and a half ago, I had the opportunity to meet many municipal partners at the Association of Municipalities Ontario annual conference. I know members of the opposition were also there, but obviously many government colleagues were there as well. I met communities—from St. Catharines to Sioux Lookout, the region of Waterloo and Kirkland Lake. Municipalities across the province are ready to build, and our government is constantly ready to hear feedback and advice from our municipal partners to ensure that we are all on the same page and on the right track towards meeting our commitments.

Municipalities large and small, right across Ontario, are fully on board with our government’s plan to build at least 1.5 million new homes by 2031. There is no way around it—for our communities to grow and prosper, we need to make room for more people, and that’s a good thing.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Transportation and Ministry of Infrastructure, we’re unlocking new opportunities to build our communities. Through the Transit-Oriented Communities Program, our government is ensuring residents are served conveniently and comfortably within their communities, reinforcing communities alongside major transit corridors, including subway and LRT lines. By building communities along these corridors, we are working to increase transit ridership, stimulate local economic development, and most importantly, we are increasing housing supply. When we build communities around convenient transit corridors, we’re providing a sense of stability and belonging for residents; we’re building a place where people can work, play and raise a family. These priorities are so important for the people of Ontario. Far too often, when parents are stuck in gridlock trying to get home to their families after work, they are missing out on time spent with their families—and that’s what a community is supposed to be all about. But we also know that not everyone can or wants to live in an urban core.

I was born and raised in Harriston, Ontario. You probably don’t know where that is. It’s a very small town in Wellington county.

I can say—I live in Mitchell now—that growing up and building a life in any of our vibrant rural communities in Ontario is truly an exceptional experience. We are truly blessed to live in Ontario.

The rural way of life is something that we must protect and cherish for our next generation, but it is also something that we must preserve for new Canadians to join and be a part of. The housing crisis is not just something experienced in the greater Toronto area; it extends to every community and every small town in this province.

I speak to young people regularly in my community, and I hear them saying they want to stay and raise a family in the communities where they grew up, but it’s becoming harder and harder to find a home that they can provide at a price point that they can afford.

We provide incentives to large municipalities across the province through a variety of programs—but most recently through the Building Faster Fund, which is $1.2 billion devoted to rewarding municipalities for reaching and exceeding their annual housing targets. Along with these incentives, we’ve also allocated 10% of that program, or roughly $120 million, to smaller municipalities that have not been allocated housing targets. I know our rural and smaller municipalities appreciate this because, unfortunately, under the federal Rapid Housing Initiative, they do not qualify and would not be able to compete with the larger urban centres in Canada. So we’re really trying to address the missing middle with the funding gaps through that by providing these funds in a percentage of the Building Faster Fund, and I know we’ll continue to consult with our rural and northern municipalities on how to best utilize this for themselves. This will allow small towns in Perth and Wellington counties as well as other small municipalities right across the province to increase their capacity to service new homes and build new communities.

Every time I get to rise in this House, as a young person from rural Ontario, to speak about our growing needs of the next generation, it’s an incredible honour. The great thing about Ontario, whether your family has been here for generations or if you immigrated here last week, is that the opportunities are endless; if you work hard, you can achieve anything. Under the leadership of Premier Ford and his Minister of Economic Development, we have worked hard to ensure that that dream is still alive and well in Ontario. By attracting the good manufacturing jobs back to Ontario, the 300,000 that left under the former Liberal and NDP-propped-up government—attracting 700,000 new jobs since 2018, good-paying jobs. And people having a job to provide for their families is so important. We will continue to do that, moving forward, in everything we can do—but we had to bring it back, as I alluded to earlier in my remarks, from what was left when former Premier Wynne left office in 2018. We had to bring it back from the brink.

They have talked about the scandals under the former Liberal government as well today, but we can go back in time a little more, when there was a Rae government—not me, but a Bob Rae government. I was only zero at the time when he came into office, so I don’t remember much—but I read it in the history books. I find it ironic that they refer to this—that we’re not building up housing, but they vote against every housing supply action bill we bring to this place. When they held government—not the balance of power—three things happened: We lost jobs in Ontario, we lost businesses in Ontario, and we lost homes in Ontario.

We are not going to return to the Rae days of Bob Rae. We’re going to continue to build 1.5 million homes to ensure that my colleagues can find a place to live, new Canadians can find a place to live—young people like Brampton North over there can find a place to live and own a property. We’re going to continue to get it done for the people of Ontario.

They talk about taking time away from when they could bring forward legislation to make housing more affordable, to get more homes built—and they don’t do that.

They already highlighted—at a committee before this House, we’ll hear and study the Auditor General’s report, at the public accounts committee. This committee will hear that report. That is in their mandate, and they will discuss this report at that committee.

I also find it very rich, from the opposition—when they want to regulate Airbnb, essentially. I will let the opposition know that municipalities can actually bring in a bylaw already that can regulate Airbnb, and some have. So it’s not the province’s mandate to regulate Airbnb. But maybe under an NDP government, they’ll want to regulate Airbnb.

The ayes are 24; the nays are 61.

Well, what are we debating here? We’ve asked the government to vote to support our motion to strike a select committee, to create an open and transparent process, because we know that this government’s preferential treatment of their insider, speculator friends has cast a shadow over everything, including the government’s own plans: things like the building of the 413, the other urban boundary expansions that they have planned, the dreaded Ontario Place, which is a 95-year lease and $650-million subsidization of an Austrian luxury spa company—go figure—health care privatization, and of course the stalled P3 transit plans that are under way.

A select committee would allow the people of this province to hear from key members, from other witnesses, many of whom have, up to this point, refused and lawyered up. It would allow us to compel documents being recovered. It would again clear the air over this massive scandal.

I want to thank the member from Waterloo for her reference to the House of Cards, because you might possibly say that I couldn’t possibly comment. I know that people out there across the province, they want to know what, they want to know when, they want to know how—how did multiple developers know to get in touch with Mr. Amato at the BILD dinner? Why did Minister Clark step away from his responsibilities? What gave him the impression he needed to keep arm’s length from this?

People had high hopes for this government, I think, when they were originally elected—really. They were hoping for change. People voted for change; that’s fair. And now we know, and we all hear across this province, how deeply disappointed Ontarians are in the conduct of this government. Trust is at an all-time low. The RCMP is considering an investigation. Two ministers have resigned in shame, and one hightailed it to the exit. Trust needs to be restored. This government has an opportunity to clear the air. That work is not going to happen in the dark.

I urge the members opposite once again: Join us. Let’s do this work together. Let’s restore some integrity to government and to our democracy.

They never met a regulation they didn’t like.

I know—they like a regulation they didn’t like; they like a tax they didn’t like.

Speaker, I’ll conclude by saying that we’re facing a generational housing crisis. Our government is up for the challenge and won’t back down. The NDP members can stand in this chamber every day and make excuses for why they don’t want to build, but our government will gladly do what is right and continue to get it done for Ontarians—Ontarians in Harriston, Stratford, downtown Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga and Thunder Bay. We will continue to get it done for the people of Ontario. We’ll continue to build homes, to ensure that we build transit, to ensure that we build Ontario for this generation and all future generations.