A week ago, the Leader of the Opposition wasn’t going to force the member for Hamilton Centre out of the party, and in the same week, she flip-flopped three or four times.

Do you know what changed, Mr. Speaker—very sincerely. I had a long discussion with Mayor Sutcliffe in Ottawa. He explained to me what Ottawa would like to accomplish with respect to their housing targets. I did the same with other mayors. I had a very good conversation with the former leader of the NDP, who is now the mayor in Hamilton. They’re all on the same page with wanting to ensure that we build 1.5 million homes for the people of the province of Ontario and to work with us to get that happening. So I made the decision to better work with our municipal partners and to build on the successes that we’ve already had in bringing housing supply action plans to this House. That’s what the change was.

What I am reviewing are those MZOs that were given for the purpose of building housing that at this point has not started. As I said in my first press conference, I want to move to a system of “use it or lose it.” There is no benefit for the people of province of Ontario for our home-building partners to be sitting on allocations if they’re not going to use them. That’s what I am reviewing, Mr. Speaker, because the primary goal of the MZOs has been to move development ahead, whether it’s for schools, long-term care, hospitals and supportive housing to the tune of thousands of homes in the member’s own community.

In advance of official plans, I can say that in my office I had community leaders tell me what they wanted to see happen. I had mayors call me saying what they wanted to see happen. I even had home builders making suggestions to me.

But ultimately, Mr. Speaker, what we should be guided by is the provincial planning statement. The reason I made the decisions to reverse some of those changes to official plans is because I didn’t feel that they met the spirit that is important to bring public trust with you—

Interjections.

I know who I take my direction from: the people of the province of Ontario. That’s where I take my direction from. And when I hear parents tell me that they have kids who have 21 offers on homes and are not even in the game, I know I have to double down and do even more. And do you know who else knows that? All of the Progressive Conservatives who are sitting in this chamber. We are completely focused on one thing: making life more affordable for people in the province of Ontario, building 1.5 million homes so that the next generation of Ontarian families can have the exact same dream that almost every one of us in this chamber have, and that’s the dream of home ownership. It is why millions of people have chosen to come to the province of Ontario—in her own community.

So to the member opposite, I saw very clearly: We will not stop working on behalf of the people of this province, we will not stop building a bigger, better, stronger province of Ontario, even if that means rolling over the radical NDP who simply say no to everything. If it was up to them, we’d be back in 1933, and we won’t let that happen.

So what are we doing? We’re building more homes for people and we’re removing obstacles so that we can get more homes built for people in the province of Ontario. We’re cutting taxes so that the lowest-income earners don’t have to pay taxes to the government. Imagine that they voted against it. I’m building long-term-care homes because, as the Minister of Long-Term Care says, we owe a responsibility to those who helped build this province. They’re against that.

Later on today, we will be bringing a motion forward. The member for Chatham-Kent–Leamington will be bringing a motion forward to call on the federal government to remove the carbon tax from fuel, and we are hoping the NDP will do the right thing and vote with us to put more money back in the people’s pockets. I bet you they won’t, and they’ll continue on a destructive path.

Now, to put it in context, they left the province of Ontario back in 1995 with an $11-billion deficit. What’s that? The equivalent of $25 billion in today’s economy? And what did they accomplish? They actually outpaced the Liberals; they accomplished even less than zero.

He’s talking about jobs and opportunity, yet he and his colleague from Sudbury voted against mines and more opportunity for people.

Their plan is predicated on the fact that somehow there is a secret cache of bureaucrats somewhere who are going to go out and start building homes for the people of the province of Ontario. If they’re there, then I will unleash them, but I have not found this secret cache of people. Because do you know who builds social housing? It is the same people that build rental housing. It is the same people that build the homes that all of us live in.

They say they want to take the profit out of it, but they want to add a tax to it. When we took away development charges on purpose-built rental and the HST, when we said no development charges on social housing, they voted against it.

Since we came into office in 2018, we have been focused on building homes for people, and that has included, of course, rental housing. One of the things that we saw, which was the hallmark of the previous Liberal and NDP coalition in this province, was that rental housing starts literally collapsed across the province of Ontario. What we are seeing, of course, is that rental housing starts in the province of Ontario, under our government, are at a 30-year high, and the good news on that is that in the first half of 2023, that pace has increased by over 44%.

One of our biggest challenges in Toronto and across the province has been the supply of rental housing, and we are tackling that head-on. At the same time, we are making significant investments in the Landlord and Tenant Board to ensure that we can get through cases much more quickly, and I thank the Attorney General for that.

We have introduced a number of pieces of legislation to better protect tenants across the province of Ontario, but ultimately, we have to increase that supply so that there are more options for all Ontarians.

Interjections.

So I say to the member opposite, I will continue to use ministerial zoning orders when it helps build housing for the people of the province of Ontario—

Interjections.

Interjection.

Interjections.

I know the member is new to the House, but I would suggest to the member opposite, if she wants to find out why there are no homes being built in her riding, she should ask the leader of her party. If she wants to find out why there are no new long-term-care homes under 15 years, she should ask the person in front of her; why it’s this government that has to bring in new universities and medical schools to her riding—because of this government.

We built bridges the right way; they build them upside down. They didn’t get transit and transportation did; we got it done.

So if you want to know why your community is suffering, it is because, for 15 years, Liberals supported by the NDP did nothing for Scarborough, Mr. Speaker, and despite that, we are getting the job done for them.

Interjections.

Speaker, look, one of the problems we’re having across the province of Ontario is a lack of supply, and that’s a lack of supply that has been brought on by historic obstacles put in the way by the Liberals and the NDP, right? They say they want to help tenants, yet every bill that we’ve brought in here to protect tenants further and to give them more rights, they have literally stood in their place and voted against. They want to increase taxes on those who want to build affordable homes. It is part of their plan.

So I say to the member very sincerely, if you want to help tenants, help us build more homes. We’re at, this year alone—the first half of this year—a 44% increase over last year in purpose-built rentals across the province of Ontario. We are at a 30-year high, but more needs to be done. You cannot unravel the mess they left this province in in five years. We’re seeing that, right? It is going to take us longer, but if they would help us, we could move even quicker.

This is a member who has voted literally against the very same people that today she is suggesting she wants to support. When we have brought more measures in to protect tenants, that member rose in her place and voted against them. When we reduced taxes so that more purpose-built rentals could be built, that member voted against it. When the Minister of Finance brought in a bill and forced the federal government to remove the HST and PST on purpose-built rentals, they voted against it.

You know what is causing the problems across the province of Ontario? Fifteen years of attitudes like that that put obstacles in the way of the people of the province of Ontario. That is what caused the problem—

Interjections.