I want to thank, as always, the member for Timiskaming–Cochrane for his phenomenal comments. I really enjoy—

So I’d love to get your take on this, to the member opposite: The member for Rosedale mentioned with respect to the Housing Affordability Task Force that “Doug Ford’s own Housing Affordability Task Force fails to address or provide recommendations to make rent more affordable for everyday Ontarians.” Given that, and given your reference to it in your comments about being reliant on the recommendations from this task force, which of the other task force recommendations would you support?

That’s actually a really good question, and I appreciate your listening. I don’t have the task force right in front of me—I support the task force’s recommendation that, actually, shortage of land isn’t the main barrier to building more housing in Ontario, despite what the government says. I very much support that. And this bill proves it, because if shortage of land was it, then you’re definitely not going to be able to reach your targets.

Is the task force perfect? I don’t think so, but they provided some very good recommendations, and one of the biggest ones, you chose to ignore.

The next question.

I appreciate the member from Brantford–Brant’s question. When you lose 319 acres of farmland every day, it’s to multiple types of development. It’s to highways; it’s to commercial development; it’s to business development; it’s to housing development; it’s to quarries. Like, there’s a whole host of ways in which farmland is being taken out of production.

If you look at the Ontario Farmland Trust based out of the University of Guelph, 319 acres of farmland is being lost each and every day in this province. That’s equivalent to the size of the city of Toronto. That’s exactly why we need the kinds of solutions I’m calling for, for gentle density and missing-middle housing, along with smart single-family housing development to ensure that we build homes in a way that’s smart, that protects farmland.

Interjection: It’s 319.

I want to go back to the reporting that happened, the interview that happened today. Rob Ferguson from the Toronto Star is asking the Premier, “Just wanted to follow up on Jeff Gray’s question from the Globe. He was asking about a property, I think it was up in Nobleton, and then you said you weren’t aware of it being removed and then you said no, you didn’t do it. So those are kind of like two different answers.”

Here’s what the Premier answered: “Just a message to everyone out there tonight, drive carefully, drive slowly. The kids are going to be out there, trick or treating and having a lot of fun, and we’ll be out there. I was thinking, I’m going to dress up as a media person tonight. I don’t know if it’s Colin D’Mello or who, but maybe I’m just going to dress up as my buddy Colin.”

These are non-consequential answers. Does the member believe that the Ford government is taking the serious greenbelt criminal investigation seriously, or do we expect this kind of nonconsequential answers during an investigation under the RCMP on the greenbelt?

Thank you, Speaker. I’ve been meaning to ask the member from Guelph this question because it’s been troubling me since I first heard the statistic and he brought it up in his speech. The 319 acres per day of farmland that’s going out of production in the province of Ontario. It’s a federal statistic. I’ve asked lots of people this question and I haven’t received an answer, but I know with his insights, he’ll be able to answer because he left us with the impression in his remarks that that’s going into housing. If you quickly do some math, if you average 12 housing units per acre, which is not many, but just 12 per day on 319 acres, that’s 1.4 million homes in a year. So if that 319 acres is accurate, we’re building 1.4 million homes a year. We’re not. So I’m wondering if the member could help me understand the 319 per acres per day that’s going out of production if that’s not going into housing?

He’s a Green member—Mr. Green, according to the Premier—and I want to know his explanation for that 319 acres. I just saw a statistic that the OFA actually took 35 years of information to get that 319 acres, but I need a real answer to the question. It’s been bugging me because we should fix the housing problem in a couple of years if it’s 319 acres a day.

Thank you.

We’re going to go to questions, and the member for Brantford–Brant is very eager to ask the first question.

Speaking of Highway 413, a $10-billion highway through the greenbelt, my question to the member is, you’ve spoken against this and you said it’s going to be an ecological and financial disaster. I agree. It was under the federal Impact Assessment Act. We have the Attorney General that is now going to court to get a judicial review on the opinion of the Supreme Court, even though had no problem with the federal impact assessment already under way.

We also heard the Attorney General was curious about my Highway 407 bills, but Highway 413 runs parallel to 407. Why do we need this highway when people have already paid for the 407 and we can just take the tolls and save the greenbelt, save farmland, save our wetlands?

Thank you, Speaker. Through you to the member from Guelph, you know, I really appreciate your comments. Coming from my municipal background—I served for eight years in the Tecumseh committee of adjustment, which was really finding minor variances when the planning law didn’t really match the situation at hand. I think there was a reasonable argument that there were some lands within the greenbelt that, when you look at them, development on four sides just with one undeveloped parcel in between, that would be reasonable to allow that remaining parcel to become developed.

I’m wondering if you would share that perspective that there could be lands within the greenbelt that are suitable for development, particularly when they’re already serviced.

Ça me fait tout le temps plaisir de parler en Chambre et surtout d’un projet de loi qui est assez intéressant, il faut le dire : la Loi modifiant la Loi de 2005 sur la ceinture de verdure et d’autres lois, édictant la Loi de 2023 sur la Réserve agricole de Duffins-Rouge et abrogeant une loi et divers règlements.

Ce qu’il y a d’intéressant avec ce projet de loi, c’est que c’est pour protéger la population de l’Ontario contre son propre gouvernement—contre son propre gouvernement. Alors, vraiment, il passe un projet de loi—c’est ça ce qui est ironique là-dedans. C’est assez ironique—merci, là. Ce gouvernement passe un projet de loi pour se protéger contre eux autres. Après ça, on se demande pourquoi le monde est cynique quand ça vient envers les politiciens.

Je ne suis pas sûr, si on traiterait avec un projet de loi de même, s’ils ne s’étaient pas fait pogner—comme ils disent en bon français—avec les deux culottes à terre. Je ne suis pas sûr si le gouvernement de l’Ontario serait—on traiterait d’un projet de loi de même quand on voit toute la corruption qui s’est faite en province.

Quand qu’on voit que, à plusieurs reprises, le premier ministre—je pense que même mon collègue de Timiskaming l’a dit deux fois. Il a dit qu’il ne toucherait pas à la ceinture de verdure. « On ne touchera pas à la ceinture de verdure. » Une fois qu’ils sont élus, qu’est-ce qu’ils font? Ils touchent la ceinture de verdure. Après ça, une autre élection après—puis si on se souvient, en 2018, c’est ça qu’ils disaient. Là, on arrive en 2022, et le même gouvernement dit : « Non, non, on ne touchera pas à la ceinture de verdure. » Devinez ce qu’ils ont fait. On a touché à la ceinture de verdure. Puis, après ça, qu’est-ce qui est arrivé? On sait ce qui se passe, comme c’est là.

C’est un gouvernement qui se fait poursuivre. Il y a une investigation criminelle contre un gouvernement—écoute, comment je te dirais ça? On ne voit pas ça. C’est un précédent—

Puis on entend ce gouvernement dire : « Oh, vous votez contre tout. Le NPD, ce côté de la Chambre, vous votez contre tout. » Bien, je vais vous dire de quoi : je suis content d’avoir voté contre, parce que si on avait voté pour, imagine-toi ce qu’ils nous diraient aujourd’hui : « Bien, vous avez à chialer—vous avez voté pour. » C’est ça qu’ils nous diraient.

Pourquoi on a voté contre? Ce n’est pas dur à savoir. Pourquoi? C’étaient exactement les mêmes craintes qu’on voit, comme c’est là. Parce que si vous nous aviez écoutés, si vous aviez pris le temps d’écouter—parce qu’on vous a fait des recommandations. Chaque projet de loi, on amène des recommandations, parce que dans chaque projet de loi, il faut le dire, il y a de bonnes choses, mais des fois il y a des pilules empoisonnées. Quand on parlait des projets de loi qu’on voyait sur la ceinture de verdure, on se posait des questions, parce qu’il y avait des choses qui ne faisaient pas de sens.

Puis là, aujourd’hui, le projet de loi 136—ils disent la même affaire qu’on disait. Ils prennent nos paroles et les mettent pour dire : « On est obligé de faire ça parce que c’est la ceinture de verdure. Ce sont les meilleures terres agricoles au monde. On doit faire tout pour protéger ça. » Mais c’est ça qu’on disait quand on passait et qu’on a voté contre, pour dire : « Écoute, qu’est ce que vous faites là? »

Leur propre comité recommandait de ne pas—pas besoin de toucher à la ceinture de verdure. Il y a du terrain en masse. Il y a en masse de place pour bâtir des maisons ou des foyers pour les personnes. Mais on sait, par exemple, que—quand on dit “location, location, location”—on le savait que, quand ils bâtiraient dans la ceinture de verdure, l’argent était là et leurs amis en ont profité. On sait aussi, aujourd’hui, c’est pour ça qu’ils font face à une investigation criminelle, parce qu’il y a du monde connecté au premier ministre directement—qui ont été aux noces—qui ont bénéficié de tout ça.

C’est quoi le numéro, 18? Dix-huit—

Now that has moved up to 319 acres, for a whole variety of uses. I mean, Highway 413 alone, if they build it, that’s going to be 2,000 acres right there. Right there, that one highway alone is going to be 2,000 acres. I can’t argue with census data. I cannot argue with census data. The census data clearly shows we are losing 319 acres a day to all forms of development: business development, commercial development, highway development. There is a whole host of reasons. So I would suggest to the member—

So if the government was fiscally conservative, if we had a fiscally responsible government, they would pay for truck tolls on the 407. According to Transport Action Ontario, you could pay for truck tolls on the 407 for 30 years and not even get to half the cost of what it would take to construct the 413. So why not go with the fiscally responsible approach and utilize our existing assets to their full potential?

So why don’t the government agree with me and pass Bill 44 and Bill 45 so we can quickly increase housing supply right now in an affordable, responsible way? I heard the member opposite ask another member some recommendations that they would support in the housing task force. Two of the key recommendations in the housing task force to increase housing supply was to get rid of exclusionary zoning, and get rid of the barriers to missing-middle housing. Those are what my bill accomplish, Speaker.