The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair is a time when farmers, growers, producers and homesteaders from all over Canada descend on Toronto to celebrate the best in farming, agriculture and local food.

Each year, an artist is commissioned to create the official poster for the fair, and I’m proud to rise today to congratulate Oxford artist Aggie Armstrong on being chosen to create this year’s poster. It is truly an honour and a privilege for Aggie, who moved to Oxford county when she was 18, from Manila, Philippines. It’s no surprise why she was chosen. With her experience in both Manila and rural Norwich township, along with her distinctive artistic style, she is a perfect fit for the 101st fair poster. It’s entitled the Magical Voyage to Celebration.

In her words, she wanted to show how growers and producers “take their vocation with pride” and how “the fruits of their labour need to be elevated and celebrated by everyone.” She hopes that “people see the beauty of agriculture and husbandry” and that farmers [should] be proud of all the work they do.”

I believe this is the spirit of agriculture in Ontario, and I encourage everyone to take a look at Aggie’s poster and previous work.

The 101st agricultural winter fair will take place from November 3 to 12 at Exhibition Place.

I once again would like to congratulate Aggie Armstrong for her beautiful work of art and making Oxford proud.

That concludes our members’ statements for this morning.

Introduction of visitors?

In fact, the department is seized with a number of freedom-of-information requests. We’re compiling those and will be prepared to provide them as soon as the department has completed its work.

We also said that decisions on the greenbelt were not ones that were supported by the people of the province of Ontario and that is why the Premier took the step that he did in September to announce that we would be reverting back to the previous policy and that all lands taken out of the greenbelt would be restored.

I have a bill in front of this House, Mr. Speaker, that will soon come again before this House, which transitions those lands back into the greenbelt, which adds thousands of additional acres to the greenbelt, but goes a little step further—in fact, a big step further, Mr. Speaker—by codifying the boundaries of the greenbelt in legislation.

A question to the Premier: Environmental advocacy groups have joined our efforts to uncover information about the backroom deals that have been directing the government’s policies. Environmental Defence and Ecojustice filed a freedom-of-information request late last year to “find out what kind of influence developers had on the Ontario cabinet and Premier in its greenbelt decision.”

This government unlawfully ignored this request, so the Information and Privacy Commissioner ordered the government to comply with the law. But the government ignored this order again. Now, Environmental Defence and Ecojustice are suing to enforce this order.

Why is the government breaking the law to avoid disclosing these requested records?

But this Premier is ignoring freedom-of-information law and the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s orders. He is wasting more public money fighting in court to keep this information a secret. What is the Premier trying to hide here?

Again, Speaker, will the Premier release all records on the greenbelt grab, or do we have to wait until they come out in the RCMP investigation?

For weeks now, we’ve been asking questions of this government on what exactly happened over the three days in September when this government did a 180 on their greenbelt policy, from a rough policy framework on the greenbelt to specific properties that they identified for removal. The Premier told the Integrity Commissioner he did not recall the meeting.

I want to give the Premier one more opportunity to take some responsibility here: Did the Premier have a meeting to discuss the greenbelt on September 15, 2022?

Day 1: a dinner with developers where greenbelt packages were exchanged with the minister’s chief of staff.

Day 2: an alleged meeting with the Premier, his chief of staff, Mr. Amato and Minister Clark, following which Mr. Amato said the Premier and his chief of staff were “very serious” about greenbelt swaps.

Day 3: Mr. Amato informs the ministry that they will be going forward with site-specific removals and identifies three properties, accounting for 91% of the land this government attempted to remove from the greenbelt. Two of them were provided at the dinner just days earlier.

Speaker, back to the Premier: Did the Premier attend the meeting on the greenbelt on September 15, 2022?

Government House leader.

The supplementary question.

I would like to introduce Peter and Beverley Maranger, great community leaders from my riding of Perth–Wellington. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I want to welcome a very good friend of mine and many other MPPs, Ish Van Der Rassel. He serves on many boards and commissions in North Bay.

I just noticed and I wanted to welcome my very good friend Clare Michaels to the Legislature this morning.

It’s my great pleasure this morning to rise to introduce to the House a great Olympian from Canada. He competed at three Olympics, he was a member of the IOC, he was the president of the World Sailing Federation, and he’s a member of the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame. He’s also known as the “Pope of Sailing,” Paul Henderson.

Good morning, Speaker. I would like to welcome my mother who is joining us this morning, Josephine Andrew. I’m really glad that she’s here and that she’s still with us.

I’d also like to take an opportunity to welcome leZlie lee kam, one of our wonderful St. Paul’s constituents and community members who is beloved, and also everyone from Pride Toronto. Thank you for being a second home away from home for so many folks.

I’d like to welcome my good friend Ted Leider. Among other great work that he does, he also co-founded the Shining Through Centre for children with autism. Thank you very much for being here and for the great work you do, and welcome.

I’d like to welcome Tim Jennings from the Shaw Theatre. I’m looking forward to the reception tonight and our meeting later today. Welcome to Queen’s Park, my friend.

Speaker, I trust what the Integrity Commissioner wrote when he highlighted the fact that the Premier had no involvement in this particular public policy decision that wasn’t supported by the people of the province of Ontario. We’ve been very clear on that.

But make no mistake about it. We want to build 1.5 million homes across the province of Ontario. We think it is a priority. That is why, since 2018, we have introduced a number of bills, in fact, to move us along on that, whether it’s transit-oriented communities, whether it’s building our transit system faster so that we can get homes around that.

The reality is, we want to build more homes because it is inappropriate that a full generation of Ontarians should feel that they can’t afford a home; that a generation of Ontarians should think that they are going to spend the rest of their lives in their parents’ basements. I’ll let them argue why they think that is proper. We’re going to double down, Mr. Speaker. We’re going to do everything that we can to remove obstacles, to put more money back in the pockets of hard-working Ontarians and to ensure the dream of home ownership is available to everyone.

The overriding policy of this government since day one has been to build more homes across the province of Ontario. Do you know why, Mr. Speaker? Because under the policies—in fact, I wish that the previous Premier, the Liberal Premier, didn’t speak as often with the NDP, because had they not have spoken as often, then we might have had more shovels in the ground.

But since day one, we have been focused on building more homes, removing obstacles, building more transit and transportation, improving our school system, building more long-term care. So when the Premier speaks to his cabinet and his caucus colleagues across the province of Ontario, it is about moving the province forward.

The NDP have figured out how to do an FOI. Congratulations to you. Good job.

At the same time, Mr. Speaker, I am completely focused—as are my municipal partners and as are home builders—in ensuring that we reach that 1.5-million target for the people of the province of Ontario. We’re making a decision to work more closely with our partners. I have to give a lot of credit to Mayor Sutcliffe; when I went to speak with him, he said, “Look, work with us. Start a new relationship with us, because we’re on the same page. We want to build more homes, and we can do this with you.” I thank Mayor Sutcliffe for his work.

That is why we will reverse some of those decisions, but—make no mistake—we’re going to move forward and we’re going to get the job done.

I worked very closely with my municipal partners at this point, and they have said, “Look, give us the opportunity to suggest things that allow us to meet that goal.” So that is why we are accepting those municipal official plans as submitted and that, over the next 45 days, we will take additional recommendations from our municipal partners in these areas so that they can identify areas where we could actually build even more housing. But we’ll be guided by the requests from our municipal partners on this. I’m very excited by the opportunity to work more closely with them, with homebuilders and with the broader community to ensure that we achieve this goal.

Final supplementary.

My question is for the Minister of Transportation. Every day, thousands of people use Highway 401 to travel across the GTA and beyond. I hear from the people and businesses in my riding of Mississauga–Erin Mills that they are tired of being stuck in traffic. They are frustrated with endless gridlock that is causing delays and disruptions that negatively impact their productivity and quality of life. That’s why our government must urgently invest in new road infrastructure that will help keep goods and people moving.

Speaker, can the minister please provide an update on how our government is expanding the highway network in Mississauga?

Can the minister please explain how investments by our government into roads and highways will help to build up Ontario?

Speaker, through you to the Premier: Last year, the city of Hamilton proposed an official plan that would focus development within its urban boundaries, growing up instead of out. But the former Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing ignored the people of Hamilton, and on the same day he announced the greenbelt grab, he also announced a massive expansion of Hamilton’s urban boundaries. The first developers to take advantage included those we know now received preferential treatment with the greenbelt grab.

This morning, the minister announced a sudden reversal of that decision. Did the former minister give preferential treatment to favoured insiders when he approved Hamilton’s urban boundary expansion, yes or no?

To the Premier: Will this government give us some answers, or should the RCMP be investigating Hamilton’s urban boundary expansions, as well?

Thank you to the member from Mississauga–Erin Mills for his tireless advocacy for the people of Mississauga. After decades of inaction, under the leadership of Premier Ford we’re finally building the infrastructure that we need for our future. We’re building new highways, roads, bridges across the entire province, including the great city of Mississauga. In our 2023 budget, we announced that our government is committing to $27.9 billion over the next 10 years to connect communities, fight gridlock and keep goods moving.

I am pleased to share that our government has completed construction on the widening of Highway 401 between Mississauga and Milton. This provides an additional 18 kilometres of new lanes. Drivers will spend less time in traffic and more time with family. Speaker, we’re building Ontario for generations to come.

Well, Speaker, I think a non-answer is an answer in a way.

When we asked this question in committee, the government House leader recommended that we FOI that information, so we took his advice. Meegwetch for that. Thank you for that. In fact, the Premier’s calendar has a meeting on September 15, 2022, at 1 p.m. with former Minister Clark, presumably his chief of staff and Jamie Wallace.

What direction did the Premier give his minister and staff regarding the greenbelt?

Deputy Premier and Minister of Health to reply.