I have several individuals here today to celebrate National Housing Day: Shulan Tien, Jennifer Stone, Gracie Robbin, Rachel Seaward, Marlene Ham, Frederick Cox, Glen Hutzul, Chanel St. Pierre, Reihona Abduli, Shannon Hirsch, Silvia Samsa, Andrea Hatala, Victor Willis, Kevin Thomas, Karen Mitton, Bailee, Melissa Bosman, and Hayley Wine. Welcome to your House.

Today is National Housing Day, and we are very happy that we’re being joined by a number of advocates, including some very important organizations: Street Haven, Ontario Coalition of Women Shelter and Supportive Housing Providers, Elizabeth Fry Society of Northeastern Ontario, Rwandan Canadian Healing Centre, United Way Greater Toronto, and Evangel Hall among them.

I’m looking forward to speaking at your reception later today.

That concludes our introduction of visitors for this morning.

Speaker, that’s actually incorrect. We’ve been moving on the recommendations of the task force; the Leader of the Opposition knows that full well.

We’ve also reached out to our municipal partners to ask them to identify which of the task force recommendations we can move on very quickly, Mr. Speaker. We are having a housing forum next week in Toronto with many of our partners so that we can identify, again, further actions that were identified in the task force recommendations. It is our intention to ensure that we move very aggressively. We’ve also told our municipal partners if growth is not going to be out and if it’s going to be within existing boundaries, then they should all expect to do their part and we will accept nothing less.

I will say this, Speaker: The NDP have brought forward a plan that is uncosted, that literally cannot happen. We saw yesterday the very disappointing federal economic statement when it comes to building housing across the country. But we are going to continue to double down, work with our municipal partners, work with home builders, work with advocates that across the system to build a full range of housing—market housing, affordable housing, attainable housing—because that is what is needed to build a bigger, better, stronger province of Ontario.

But at the same time, what we saw in the province of Ontario is that there was a supply problem, particularly on the rental side. People just were not getting back into the rental construction business. Thanks to the policies of this government, we have seen record-high purpose-built rental starts.

At the same time, Speaker, we started advocating more than a year ago, and the Minister of Finance put in one of his budgets, that we wanted to remove the HST from purpose-built rentals. Unfortunately, it took the federal government a little over a year to confirm our ability to do that. But the results have been spectacular. Partners are getting back into it, and we’re very encouraged by what we’re seeing across the province.

She talks about tuition, yet she voted against reducing tuition by 10%. She voted against the freeze. Yesterday, they were asking questions, asking us to increase tuition fees for students. We’re not going to do that. We’re going to make sure that we have a vibrant post-secondary education. They voted against removing tolls. They voted against removing the licence plate stickers. When the Minister of Finance brought in a tax credit for the lowest-income-earning Ontarians, virtually eliminating them from the income tax rolls, the NDP voted against that. They voted against the Minister of Education’s groundbreaking daycare reforms that saw rates halved—

Today is the National Day of Housing and I want to acknowledge the advocacy of the many people and organizations who are taking action today.

This question is for the Premier. Ontario’s housing crisis has many causes, but I want to focus on three. The first: exclusionary zoning and the outdated planning rules that actually make it illegal to build homes people can afford in the neighbourhoods they want to live in. Ending exclusionary zoning was a top recommendation of the government’s own Housing Affordability Task Force.

So, Speaker, to the Premier: Instead of taking those recommendations, why did he waste a year giving preferential treatment to his greenbelt speculator friends?

The NDP is proposing a massive expansion of affordable and non-market housing. We want to double the current supply so people have homes that they can actually afford to live in. Back to the Premier: When will his government make the necessary investments to build the affordable and non-market homes that this province needs?

This brings me to the third cause: financialization. By ignoring non-market housing and leaving everything to the private sector, we are seeing housing being treated as a commodity, not as a human right. Under this government, we’re seeing more and more rent gouging and unethical evictions. Tenants are being unfairly displaced. We’ve even heard of a tenant in Toronto–St. Paul’s whose landlord raised their rent by $7,000 a month.

Speaker, will the Premier support the NDP’s call to bring back real rent control, or does he think that a landlord should have the right to raise a person’s rent by $7,000 per month?

To the Premier, when will your government implement the solutions that Ontarians are asking for?

Bad-faith evictions have skyrocketed under this government, yet the Landlord and Tenant Board has issued just 13 fines for bad-faith evictions in four years—13 in four years.

To the Premier: Is this because the Premier has stacked the board with his party’s unqualified friends instead of protecting the rights of tenants?

I would like to introduce my good friend Dr. Mitra Kafle and his wife Durga Kafle, parents of our legislative usher Justin Kafle. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to introduce Lyn Adamson, Sarah Spinks, Kate Azure and Gail Fairley, here from Seniors for Climate Action Now.

I want to join with the minister to stand in thanking Good Roads and all the fantastic work they do, and invite all members of this House to go to the Good Roads reception at 5 o’clock. Thank you for everything you do, Good Roads.

I want to welcome the Good Roads Association to Queen’s Park today. I want to thank their president, John Parsons; Scott Butler, executive director and manager of government relations; and Thomas Barakat, for the great work they do. I also invite members to join their reception this evening.

I’d like to welcome housing advocates Mina Mawani, Zefanie Smith, Lori-Dale Palmer, Cory Roslyn, Laverne Blake, Anna Morgan, Britney Bempong, Ainsley Chapman, Farrah Al-Mutawa and Don Young. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

For National Housing Day, I’d like to welcome Jean Stevenson, Jyoti, Elsie Dickson, Tim Maxwell, Wilhelmine Babua, Allison Kenney, Liana Sullivan, Roberta Taylor, Rahima, and Laeya Choi. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate the opportunity to address the question. We’ve invested in the Landlord and Tenant Board; in fact, we’ve doubled the number of adjudicators.

I miss Taras Natyshak because I miss the drive-by smears. They won’t name names. They just allude to things. They just say, maybe this, maybe that—maybe that they’re appointing people.

I challenge you to name one person on that Landlord and Tenant Board who isn’t qualified.

As we continue to improve, I want to know if the member opposite will support anything that we bring forward in the next bill.

My question is for the Minister of Energy. Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard from so many of my constituents who are deeply unhappy about the way that the federal government is handling the carbon tax. For years, our Premier and our government have seen that this tax on everything makes life more difficult and is unfair to all Ontarians. That’s why we fought the carbon tax all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

It seems that the federal government has finally recognized how harmful this tax on everything is for ordinary Canadians, and especially when it comes to home heating. However, not all people across this country are being treated fairly. Can the minister please explain how the carbon tax unfairly impacts the people of Ontario?

The Attorney General.

This time, the final supplementary.

Interjections.

I apologize to the Leader of the Opposition.

Start the clock.

The Leader of the Opposition has the floor.

The Attorney General.

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Start the clock.

To respond, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Interjections.

Interjection.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Next question?

We’ve recognized that, and that’s why we boosted funding significantly in the last budget. The member opposite will recall that she voted against that increased funding.

I will say this: It is very true that, coming off the heels of 15 years of Liberal government, we saw underfunding in a number of very important, priority areas. It is why we have been working so hard to reverse the damage of 15 years, which was literally supported by the NDP more often than not. Whether it is on shelters, whether it’s on building more homes, transit and transportation, that is all that we have been focused on—first reversing the damage and then secondly making the investments.

As I said, when it comes to homelessness and the programs that support it, we’ve increased funding to historic levels in the province of Ontario. Admittedly, we are burdened right now by a federal government that has removed itself from funding its responsibilities and we will work with our municipal partners to try and get the federal government to live up to its responsibilities as well.

I was just in the member’s own region not long ago opening up, cutting the ribbon for the very first social housing project in over 30 years in the province of Ontario—over 30 years.

Now, that is the type of progress that has to be made across the province of Ontario but it’s more than just that. When we stood up in this place to talk about bail reform, they were absent. When we stand up in this place to put more resources behind all of the programs that will help women and children, they vote against it.

What we need to do across the province of Ontario and what we have been focusing on is rebuilding all of the infrastructure that was left by the Liberals and NDP to decay over 15 years. They have nothing to show for it. We’ve been in office, yes, for five years trying to rebuild a province that they so destroyed, that they left bankrupt; and we will not stop, we will get the job done for women, children and for all Ontarians.

Interjections.

I just want to remind the minister you’ve been in government—majority government—for five years. In that time, 55 women—

Interjections.

Speaker, Windsor women and children fleeing domestic violence are being turned away from shelters due to lack of shelter space and affordable housing to place them in. Some 31 local non-profits needed more than $26 million last year to repair social housing units in Windsor-Essex, they have received less than one sixth of that. The condition of these units is deteriorating: 5% are vacant because of their poor condition. Add to that women’s shelters are struggling to recruit and retain staff due to underfunding by the Conservative government. The work is complex and requires specialized training, yet provincial funding isn’t enough to even pay those workers a living wage.

Why is the Premier putting women and children fleeing domestic violence at risk by choosing to underfund shelters and the affordable housing that they need?

Interjections.

The fact is that if you’re a tenant in Ontario and your rights are—

Interjections.

The fact is that if you’re a tenant in Ontario and your rights are threatened, this government will not help you. The government’s Rental Housing Enforcement Unit received 16,000 calls last year and only took action on 7% of them—that’s 15,000 complaints ignored.

You don’t just have to listen to me; the Ombudsman says the Conservatives have stacked the Landlord and Tenant Board with their unqualified political appointees. This government has made it harder for tenants to access justice. The board almost never issues fines for bad-faith evictions, and when it does, the fines are way too low, and even then most of these unethical landlords don’t even bother to pay.

To the Premier again—I hope he answers—why won’t the Premier protect Ontario’s tenants?

Interjections.

My question is to the Premier.

Street Haven is a supportive housing shelter in my riding. It helps survivors of gender-based and intimate partner violence. Without enough supportive housing, their clients can’t leave their emergency shelter and new shelter users have nowhere safe to go. Since mid-June, Street Haven has turned away 600 women due to a lack of supportive and affordable housing.

Vulnerable women are being ignored in this province. Street Haven is calling on the government to double investment in supportive housing so they can stop turning women away when they’re in need of a home. My question is to the government. Can you say yes to this request?

Interjections.

Supplementary question.