Good morning, Speaker. I’m also very proud to rise in the House today to welcome a number of housing advocates. They’ve travelled from across Ontario. I’d like to welcome Genna Ross, Jenna Yuill, Brian Harris, Beth Edwards, Bobbie Gunn, Cynthia Meshorer, Laura Paley, Sameer Butt, Shannan Humphreys and Dr. Siu Mee Cheng from Street Haven.

It’s my honour to welcome housing advocates from across the province for our National Housing Day: Bradley Palmer, Mariana Cortes, Aishatu Ahmed, Ibrahim Elnaghi, Godfrey Benjamin, Keneisha Brown, Colleen Lamond, Soraya Naim and Gautam Mukherjee. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

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.

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.

I think we’ve been pretty clear that we will not support the NDP plan. We actually voted against that plan, Mr. Speaker. It was a plan that severely underestimated the costs, Speaker. Advocates across the sector said it would be unaffordable and would lead to the bankruptcy of the province.

So, what we’re doing instead, Speaker, is we’ve updated the definition of “affordability,” which received unanimous support from all parties in this House, which has been very well received by our municipal partners. One would wonder why, again, a Progressive Conservative government had to come to the table to improve housing in the province of Ontario. It should have been done a long time ago, but we’ve started to untangle the mess and the burdens that were put in place by the Liberals and the NDP—the NDP, who just like to talk about housing. They don’t actually like to accomplish anything, Mr. Speaker, but the policies that we have brought in have seen purpose-built rentals to their highest level in over 15 years. That is such good news for people who are looking for rental housing, and I’m proud to say that it continues on that trajectory.