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.

For National Housing Day, we have many people here—it’s great to have you here—including Narmatha Vannarajah, Krishni Ganesan, Janet Bennett-Cox, David Turnbull, Roslyn Shields, Sean Kidd, Josephine Flores, Sheila Lacroix and Althea Santos. It’s great to have you here.

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.

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.

Earlier this year, the Ontario Ombudsman stated in a scathing report that the Landlord and Tenant Board was fundamentally failing in its mandate because of insurmountable challenges, especially for Ontarians trying to access quality, well-functioning, online hearings. In addition to the Ombudsman, we have also heard from anti-poverty organizations, tenant and shelter organizations—many who are here today for the national day of housing—advocating to bring back in-person hearings. After all, it has been three years since the COVID pandemic first appeared. The situation is so bad that not even counter service is available for any low-income or elderly tenants who don’t have computers.

When will this government listen to Ontarians and restore in-person hearings and services for Ontarians who actually need them?

Back in my neighbourhood, Neighbourhood Legal Services is a legal aid clinic which represented 584 matters as of last year. This included the prevention of evictions, protection of affordable housing and a very important, precedent-setting case that involved 200 families at 280 Wellesley Street who took their landlord to the board, seeking a rent reduction for the loss of facilities, compensation for multi-day power outages and water and heat outages, as well as frequent elevator breakdowns and utility blackouts. This was important, and without the legal aid support they would not have been able to get there. This is absolutely critical, Mr. Speaker. Legal aid clinics actually help low-income tenants in Ontario.

Speaker, there was no mention of new legal aid funding in the provincial fall economic statement. My question to the Premier is, will he stand up for low-income tenants by reinstating the 2019 cut of $133 million from legal aid?

The Ombudsman’s report has come up twice, actually. What the Ombudsman’s report actually said is that it was a perfect storm of events. There was an election; at the same time, there was antiquated technology. That rests on you guys supporting these guys, because nothing was done for years. A global pandemic combined with a significant backlog—we are working away at getting the backlog down. We are making sure that people are getting the services that they want.

What the NDP want, supported by the Liberals this time, is to go back in time. They’re not interested in modernization and moving things forward. I can tell you, though, for those that do need access to the system that don’t have computers, we have provisions in place for mobile units, for phone services, for all sorts of things.

We’re modernizing the system to meet the needs of everyday Ontarians, and I look forward to answering the second part in the supplementary.

But I can tell you this, though: 72 legal aid clinics across Ontario are providing excellent service to people who need it. That’s in addition to ACTO. That’s in addition to certificate lawyers across this province who, we have announced, are receiving 5% each year over three years for a total 15% increase. People are getting excellent service across Ontario. They’re getting the resources they need, they’re getting hearings at the independent tribunal and they’re getting their issues resolved.

I look forward to being able to answer more questions, if Marty McFly over there would like to send me more lob balls.

Interjections.

My question is for the Minister of Transportation. Residents in my riding want to protect the environment, but they feel that a carbon tax is the wrong approach. People tell me all the time that the carbon tax is making life more expensive and is doing nothing to reduce emissions. The United States and Mexico do not have a carbon tax, yet people here in Canada are struggling because of the hardship this tax creates. Ontario is already a leader when it comes to protecting our environment. The carbon tax does nothing to protect our environment. It only makes life more expensive.

Can the minister please explain what actions our government is taking to lower emissions and protect our environment?

From the minister’s response, it’s clear that Ontario is well positioned to take the lead in the EV manufacturing sector. The minister is correct: People want real solutions. The carbon tax is not a solution, it’s just another tax. It’s a tax on your home heating. It’s a tax on the gas you need for your car and it’s a tax on the food you buy. The carbon tax isn’t a plan to protect the environment. It’s just a tax.

Can the minister please elaborate on the actions our government is taking to reduce emissions?