SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
October 4, 2023 09:00AM
  • Oct/4/23 11:00:00 a.m.

Well, again, Mr. Speaker, it is actually the individual who lobbies. The member of the opposition: It’s not the company. It’s individuals who register with the Integrity Commissioner. I’d be happy to help on that. Mr. Massoudi, of course, no longer has a contract with the government.

Look, Mr. Speaker, this is all about the same thing, right? It’s about the opposition that the NDP have to building homes in the province of Ontario. We were very clear. We made a public policy decision that was not supported by the people of the province of Ontario when we said that we would try to accelerate the building of 50,000 homes on the greenbelt. That was not supported by the people of province of Ontario. We apologized for that and we’re moving on. We accepted all 15 recommendations of the Auditor General.

But, Mr. Speaker, make no doubt about it: We are going to double down in making sure that we build those 1.5 million homes for the people of the province of Ontario. That is a goal that we’ve had since 2018 and we will not be sidetracked on that mission.

But make no mistake about it: As I just said, and I’ll say it again, I am not ashamed of the fact that we have said that we made a mistake when we wanted to build on the greenbelt. We made a mistake because we wanted to accelerate the construction of 50,000 homes across the province of Ontario. The Premier was very clear on that. We apologized. We accepted the 15 recommendations of the Auditor General.

But make no mistake about it—and I say this very clearly to people who are, right now, in their parents’ basements; students who are wondering where their first home, where their first apartment is going to come from; students on our campuses across the province who can’t find homes because we can’t get homes built in communities that refuse to build them: We will untangle the obstacles, we will get the job done and we will build for the people of the province of Ontario. That, I guarantee you.

Now, it’s not just building homes, right? We had to build long-term-care homes. I’ve been in all parts of southwestern Ontario, whether Leamington or Brantford–Brant—we’re building long-term-care homes in all of those communities because the NDP and the Liberals never made it a priority. We are.

I was in Windsor opening up Meadowbrook Place, which is the first social housing to be built in that community in over 30 years. But we need to build more. Do you know why we need to build more in that community? We need to think about more than just today. We have to think about tomorrow, because this minister and this Premier are landing economic development unseen in this province ever—is it $25 billion worth of investment coming to southwestern Ontario? They need places to live, and we will deliver for them in the part of the province that is growing like wildfire, Mr. Speaker. We’ll get it done.

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