I always appreciate the opportunity to rise and speak to another bill, which we believe will help incentivize and move housing construction across the province of Ontario. I’ll be splitting my time, of course, with the Associate Minister of Housing, as well as the parliamentary assistant to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Today, obviously, we’re talking about Bill 134, which is the Affordable Homes and Good Jobs Act. The bill is realistically titled and is simply put, Mr. Speaker. First, I think it’s important to just talk about some of the things that we’ve been doing on housing and why we’ve had to bring forward this bill. It’s not just about housing, I will say; it’s also about helping unleash opportunity, specifically in St. Thomas. But I’ll get to all of that.

As you know, Speaker, we have been focused since 2018 on how we can improve the environment to build more homes across the province of Ontario. We have set a very ambitious goal of building 1.5 million homes across the province of Ontario—

Interruption.

But anyway, it’s probably the school calling to say that my daughter is not there. Since I know the school watches intently, my daughter, of course, has permission not to be at school this morning, so I think everything will be just fine.

Interjection: The 613.

Interjection: The 1-800.

As you know, we’ve been focused on building more homes across the province of Ontario. We said we want to build 1.5 million homes—a very, very ambitious target for sure—but we’ve also said we want to do that in every corner of the province because we know how important it is that all communities participate in this goal of building homes.

And it’s all kinds of homes that we are wanting to build. We want to build market homes, rental, affordable, attainable. The not-for-profit sector is important. We’re also talking about building more long-term-care homes for seniors. We’ve got some projects that we’re doing—a project in particular in Kenora, which is a mixed type of housing which has both long-term care, which has market and affordable housing elements in it. So, we’ve been very focused on that.

As you know, Madam Speaker, we’ve also introduced four bills, four pieces of legislation aimed at removing obstacles, cutting red tape, reducing costs so that we can get more shovels in the ground faster. We have seen the consequences of previous decisions, I would say, that really frustrated the home-building industry in the province of Ontario and which really kept them out for a long period of time. For over a decade, we had depressed housing starts across Ontario as it became harder and harder and harder to get shovels in the ground. At the same time, we saw infrastructure investment across Ontario not keep up with the demand of a growing population. All of that hurt in terms of getting more shovels in the ground.

So, we’ve said really early on in the mandate and made a commitment that we would bring in a new bill every year to help untangle some of the obstacles that were getting in the way, but at the same time, real progress on rebuilding our infrastructure so that we built a transportation system across the province that would help support a growing economy. Across that transportation centre, in particular in our larger urban centres of Toronto, Ottawa, Windsor, for starters, we want to build more homes along those transit corridors, which includes York region. When I say that, I mean the entire greater Toronto-Hamilton area. There are massive investments in transit and transportation happening in those areas, and we want to ensure that, along those corridors, we have as many homes built as possible. Not only does that help reduce our carbon footprint by taking cars off the road, but it makes it easier for people to get back and forth to work.

We also knew early on that we had to do a lot better in helping incentivize the construction of purpose-built rentals. We were at historic lows in this province when it came to purpose-built rentals and we were falling very, very far behind. A consequence of that, both on the rental housing side and on the home-building side, is that we started to see prices skyrocket and homes of all types becoming unaffordable.

We also started to see how it was impacting other sectors, whether it was for seniors, whether it was for students. We have some of, if not the best colleges and universities anywhere in the world, and people from all over the world want to come to our institutions here. As well, because of the changes and the improvements we made, as you will agree, Madam Speaker, in the education system, we’re seeing more and more Ontarians who want to further their education, whether it’s college or university or in the trades, becoming apprentices, which we’ve really seen a revitalization of that as well. But some of the factors holding us back in many communities, certainly in a lot of the smaller communities—the inability or the lack of available rental available housing stock.

So, these are all the things that we were facing. This bill here in particular, in turn, it brings forward a new definition of affordable housing. Now, this is a definition that takes into account a number of things, but most importantly, it takes into account both market conditions in an area but also income in an area. It takes those two factors based on CMHC data and StatsCanada data across the province. So in every community, the definition of affordable housing might be a little bit different so that we can meet the goals of each particular community, because what we heard from our municipal partners was that a standardized definition of affordability across the province is not something that would work for them. That is why the definition that we brought forward takes into account those conditions. I will say it has been very well received by our partners across the province—by “partner” I mean our municipal friends—and I dare say I think it was supported at second reading here in the chamber by all parties, so I was very, very happy about that.

That, then, also with this bill, helps build on some of the more recent announcements that we made, of course again constantly focused on putting more shovels in the ground. The Building Faster Fund is another opportunity for us to support those communities that want to get shovels in the ground. Now, I will acknowledge I have been hearing from some of our big-city mayors that they had hoped that we would change the parameters around the Building Faster Fund. As I announced yesterday, that was not going to change, but I wanted to make sure that our partners in all communities understand the purpose of the Building Faster Fund.

We’ve introduced strong-mayor powers across almost 50 different municipalities. These strong-mayor powers are focused exclusively on helping put shovels in the ground faster. That is our focus right now. We’ve heard it constantly talked about, a wartime effort to get shovels in the ground so that we can build more homes across the province of Ontario. So we extended strong-mayor powers to almost 50 communities, 50 of the largest or the fastest-growing communities.

The Building Faster Fund, which is an over $1.2-billion fund, is there to support communities that are able to meet their housing targets. I always try to give an example. There are some communities that are going to be able, in the short term, over the next year or two years, to not only meet but exceed their targets. There are some communities that will take a little bit longer to do so. But in those communities, which are more often than not in the short term, the communities that are able to meet their targets fastest are some of the smaller communities that have access to water and sewer capacity.

The reason that is important and the reason why the Building Faster Fund is so important to that—I take a community like mine in Stouffville. It is a smaller community in comparison to whether it be Markham or Toronto. They have the ability to meet and exceed their targets. They have the capacity in terms of water and infrastructure. But in order for them to do that, to meet and exceed the target, frankly, they need additional assistance, whether it is in terms of resources for planning staff, inspections, the whole gamut that helps them get the shovels in the ground faster, from review to shovels in the ground. They need assistance to do that.

The Building Faster Fund will give those communities that otherwise would not have the resources to meet and exceed the target access to funds that help them do it, while not punishing those communities that, for no fault of their own, might not, over the next year or two years, be in a position to meet that target, but may be in a position in the third year. Now, why bring that up? Because one of the things that is so very important—and we’re hearing this right across the board—is how important it is that we make bigger investments in the infrastructure to support housing.

Again, you’re going to hear this constant refrain: sewer and water capacity. We’re hearing it across the board. In order for us to meet our 1.5-million goal, we are going to have to make investments in that infrastructure, as well. We’ve started, of course, with an additional commitment in the budget to help unleash some of this sewer and water construction, but we know that we’re going to need to do more, and at the same time it is one of the reasons why we are so aggressively calling on—and it’s not just Ontario. I should say that it’s not just Ontario, but all across this country, provincial governments are asking the federal government to refocus their very generous housing dollars on those areas that will help us get shovels in the ground.

While the federal government, I will say, has made a very strong commitment—I believe it’s a $15-billion commitment to help build—and this is the part where it gets a little bit frustrating. It’s a $15-billion commitment, which is a strong commitment; I congratulate them on that, but that commitment gets us 200,000 homes according to the federal plan. I would suggest, Madam Speaker, that $15 billion will get us three million homes across the country, because where we are limited is by the sewer and water infrastructure. The provinces are prepared to partner with the federal government with the funds that they have allocated to get these shovels in the ground.

We had an announcement last week—I won’t talk about it too much longer. We had an announcement last week in Toronto where a $1.2-billion federal commitment would result in the construction of 2,300 affordable homes. I’ll say this: a wonderful commitment in terms of money, but not a good outcome in terms of the numbers when you consider what shovels in the ground and what that money would mean to unleashing home construction in all sectors—affordable, attainable, market, long-term care and purpose-built rentals. So we’re really, strongly calling on the federal government to reassess that and to work with every single provincial government so that we can build on that.

The other thing that this bill does is the Attorney General will be reviewing the Ontario Land Tribunal. I think this is a very important piece. We have to constantly review those. Whether it’s the land tribunal, in this case—we have to be in a state of constant revision of those programs and adjudicative bodies, because circumstances are changing so quickly across the province of Ontario, and it is our goal to build these homes. The minister will be beginning a review of that—again, working with our municipal partners and our home-building community—with an eye on eliminating red tape, eliminating delays and what it takes to make a decision faster. I think that has been—I don’t think; I know it’s been very well received by both our municipal partners and our friends in the home-building community.

I want to just take another moment to talk about, if I can, the importance of making the correct investments in housing. The Minister of Finance, more than a year ago, talked about the importance of removing the HST from the construction of purpose-built rentals. This is something that we were on for over a year. We talked about it. We advocated for it. No progress was made on that. But recently, of course, the federal government decided that they would match Ontario’s commitment to remove the GST—or the HST and the GST would be removed, so the HST is gone from purpose-built rentals. Now, why is that important? Because not only is it an acknowledgement that high taxes stifle our ability to compete, but it stifles our ability, really, to get shovels in the ground. What that means for a unit, a single unit, is a savings of about anywhere between $45,000 and $55,000 per unit, making purpose-built rental affordable housing so much more attractive to the home-building community. We are seeing them respond, really, in numbers that we could not have imagined. We are at the highest level of purpose-built rentals in over 15 years, and I’m very confident that when next year’s numbers are in, we will have exceeded all expectations, partly on the back of the reduction or the elimination of the HST on those homes.

And we’re seeing them want to get into other areas as well, whether it’s student housing, for instance, and how we can rejuvenate our cities.

We had our first housing forum yesterday, and that housing forum brought together stakeholders from across not-for-profits—there were mayors there, councillors there from across Ontario, home builders in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors were there.

I had a really good opportunity to speak to a number of mayors, but the mayor of Kingston, in particular, talked to me about Queen’s University and the challenges that they’re having with student housing there, but that some of the changes that we are making and some of the things that they want to do will allow them to take some of their oldest homes, which have become student homes—admittedly, I may have visited a homecoming or two when I was in university, in some of the older homes that they have. Some of these policies will allow them to take down some of the oldest student housing in their community and replace it with five-, six-, seven-, eight-, nine-storey buildings for student housing, which will have an incredible impact on that university’s ability to continue to compete and attract students—but also for him, an incredible impact on his city, because it allows them to rejuvenate areas of the city that otherwise have become unattractive for other people in Kingston to be a part of. So they are very, very excited by some of the things that we are doing.

I know Minister Flack as well as the parliamentary assistant are going to talk about the extraordinary things that are happening, how this bill impacts St. Thomas. I know it’s really important in their community. So I did want to touch on that, because I think they’ll do a far better job of it than I could.

But all of that is to say, as I wrap up, that it’s actually a very exciting step. Having this definition of affordable housing so well received, not only by the opposition but by colleagues across the province, really taking an obstacle out of the way, but also helping to build on some of the pieces that we’ve already introduced to get more shovels in the ground.

As I said yesterday at the forum, we have to dream big in this province, and we are not in a position where we can disappoint the people. I know we talked about it—a question period thing, that we’ve got to get people out of their parents’ basements. We are not in a position, as a parliament, to fail on that mission. If others could accomplish this in previous decades, there is absolutely no reason why we can’t do it.

We’re going to build more homes in our large, small and medium-sized communities across the province. We’re going to build them across the spectrum—as I said, market rental, not-for-profit, attainable student housing, seniors’ housing—because that is what the market requires us to do. That is what the people of the province of Ontario require us to do. This is the next step on the way—but it’s certainly not the next step.

And with that, I will yield the floor to the associate minister.

It’s a great honour to be here today and speak after the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing on this opportunity to build houses in this province, to speak about Bill 134, the Affordable Homes and Good Jobs Act, as the Associate Minister of Housing.

Obviously, we need to build more homes, and faster. Too many people in this province are struggling to find an affordable place to live. It is a crisis, in my opinion. It’s an all hands on deck approach.

I do, like the minister did, want to talk about the housing forum—the first ever in the province—throughout my remarks this morning.

Too many families can no longer afford mortgages and are having trouble saving up for the larger down payments they need to buy a house. Think about it: A lot of people have a lot of income, good incomes, they’re saving as best they can, but the affordability crisis that we are faced with today in this province is hurting their chance to buy a home. In fact, we know of some people who have put up to 20, 21 offers on homes, weren’t able to get it done, and since then have lost the ability to even afford to buy because of increased costs in this province, whether it’s inflation, whether it’s interest rates, whether it’s the punitive carbon tax that we’re all facing. It’s a head-on storm in front of people. The higher cost is just making it unattainable to buy houses.

That is why affordable housing is a critical component of this plan. We are working hard to build a range of housing Ontarians need right across Ontario.

The proposed Affordable Homes and Good Jobs Act is bold and innovative legislation that will help build a pathway to housing stability and home ownership throughout Ontario. It would update the definition of affordable residential units that would quality for municipal development related charges, discounts and exemptions. This would support our government’s efforts to help increase the supply of affordable homes by lowering the cost of building, purchasing and renting affordable homes right across the province. It would also help make it easier for people to find a home that truly meets their needs and their budgets. It would also help make it easier for people to find a home that is in the community they want to live.

But first I’d like to provide some background on how we got here. The effect of housing affordability is widespread in Ontario communities, impacting local businesses and the local economy. That’s what we’re hearing from communities all over the province. It is a version of the same story wherever we go: Home ownership and rental prices are both increasingly out of reach for so many.

That is why our government needed to take a new direction, to take bold action. As such, our government did take action to start addressing the affordability crisis. Through Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, which supported our third housing supply action plan, we introduced discounts and exemptions from municipal development-related charges for affordable residential units.

Development charges are a tool municipalities use to raise money for growth-related infrastructure like water and roads, understandably. Development charges are one of the three main charges levied on new housing developments by municipalities. They also collect parkland dedication fees, which can be either money or land and which are used to create parks; and community benefit charges, which can be used to help fund community services or facilities such as libraries and community centres, all good actions indeed.

Our government specified that once the changes take effect, affordable—I emphasize “affordable”—residential units would not be required to pay development charges, parkland dedication fees and community benefit charges.

Under Bill 23, the Development Charges Act was amended to define an affordable residential rental unit as a unit rented at “no greater than 80% of the average market rent” and it was amended to define an affordable unit as a unit sold at “no greater than 80% of the average purchase price.”

The goal of this change was to make it cheaper and easier to build truly affordable homes, since development-related charges can add well over $100,000 to the cost of a single-family home in some Ontario municipalities. This obviously makes housing unaffordable. It raises the price, with our head-on winds in terms of high costs, making it unaffordable for home buyers to even consider buying a home.

We’ve seen results. In the last month, I’ve visited new affordable housing sites, including a groundbreaking for a Habitat for Humanity site called Garafraxa Village in Fergus. I can tell you, it was a great pleasure to be there. We had FRPO, the Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario; we had Habitat for Humanity; and we had the local municipalities. It’s all hands on deck. Everyone is supporting this project, and it was exciting to see.

Habitat for Humanity was able to benefit from the removal of development charges and they saved hundreds of thousands of dollars, which allowed them to build more homes on this site and they will continue to do so in the weeks and months ahead. It’s true for them and it’s been true for any affordable housing that’s been built since we passed Bill 23.

Again, from the housing forum yesterday, it was obvious that people truly appreciated the change based on this legislation, as it has made housing for all purpose-built homes, be they homes or rentals, much more affordable.

Making changes to the Development Charges Act that would exempt affordable residential units from municipal development-related charges was an important step in working to support the building of more affordable homes in Ontario.

But the exemptions are not yet in force. For the purpose of these exemptions, we need to first identify the market rent and the average purchase price in the municipality. In developing this it was found that the definition of an affordable residential unit would generally result in prices not affordable to moderate-income Ontarians. In working to implement the exemptions for affordable residential units, our government engaged a broad range of stakeholders, including those in industry and the municipalities.

What we heard through these consultations is that they had to truly help more moderate-income Ontarians to find homes that they want to live in. The definition of an affordable residential unit needs to reflect market conditions and incorporate income factors. Market conditions and incorporating income factors are key.

Speaker, the changes proposed through Bill 134, the Affordable Homes and Good Jobs Act, consider this important feedback. We are proposing a revised definition of residential affordable units that would, if passed, take local incomes into account in addition to local market factors. Residential units that meet the definition would be eligible for the municipal development-related charge discounts and exemptions. This approach will reflect the ability of local households to pay for housing and recognizes the diversity of housing markets across the province. Toronto is different than Dorchester. Windsor is different than Ottawa. We understand this, and we have welcomed further feedback on the proposed amendments through our postings on the Environmental Registry of Ontario and the Regulatory Registry. During these consultations, we received nearly 100 submissions from individuals and organizations right across Ontario.

The new definitions we’re proposing are as follows:

—for ownership, a unit would be considered affordable when the purchase price is at or below the least expensive of the following two criteria: a price resulting in housing costs that are no more than 30% of a household’s annual income for moderate-income households, taking local income households into account; or secondly, at least 10% below the average purchase price of a unit in the applicable local municipality;

—for rental housing, a unit would be considered affordable when the rent is at or below the least expensive of the following two criteria: again, 30% of the household’s income annual income for moderate-income households, taking local renter household incomes into account; or average market rent of a unit in the applicable local municipality;

—for both ownership and rental, moderate-household income refers to those in the 60th percentile of the income distribution in the applicable local municipality; and

—affordable residential units, both rental and ownership, that meet the province’s new definition would be eligible for discounts and exemptions from the municipal development-related fees.

Through these proposed changes, we’re taking the next steps in our efforts to lower the cost of building, purchasing and renting affordable homes right across Ontario. Discounts and exemptions on municipal development-related fees would help lower the cost of building, purchasing and renting affordable homes across the province.

Speaker, it’s working. As the minister noted earlier, we’re up nearly 15,000 new rental unit starts year over year. We’re encouraged by this sign, and we’ve got to keep that momentum going. This would help ensure more Ontarians in all parts of the province can find a truly affordable home.

The proposed changes, if passed, would also incentivize builders to create housing at a lower cost. By exempting and discounting municipal development-related charges on affordable residential units, we are counting on the affordable housing building sector to step up and help build significantly more affordable homes, and I can say, Speaker, that based on the housing forum yesterday, people are committed, they’re dedicated and they’re willing to step up and help get the job done.

In addition to affordable homes, we also recognize the need for attainable housing, supporting the dream of home ownership for all Ontarians and building homes in mixed-income communities that are accessible to all. We’re hearing far too often how people with good jobs still can’t find a home to call their own. It is a tragedy. The dream of home ownership has become unattainable for so many Ontarians.

And, Speaker, I’ll just pause here for a second and remind again—I’d like to use this analogy. When I bought my first home a long time ago, interest rates were 19%. I’d saved up, had a down payment and bought the house in Guelph, Ontario. I could make the math work. It was tight; it was tough. I took out an open mortgage. Fortunately, after a year, the mortgage dropped to 12%. I thought I was in Shangri-La—all this extra money flowing in to afford life etc. Think of it today—at 19%. We think of 6% or 7% today and it’s unattainable for people. So when you can’t make the math work today, it’s obvious we have a massive, massive supply issue. That is why we have all hands on deck, again, to try and get that done so the math does work for Ontarians who do want to buy their own home or at least get stable housing in this province.

To help address this, we are working on a new attainable housing program to rapidly build attainable homes that will help families across Ontario build portable equity, portable equity. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, alongside Infrastructure Ontario—again, a partner at yesterday’s housing forum—and other partner ministries will continue to work on developing an attainable housing program, including the definition of “attainable.” I look forward to sharing more information about this as the program details become available.

Just pause for second and talk about the housing forum yesterday, it was a great event: nearly 300 people there. Again, as the minister said, we had mayors and wardens from Ontario’s large cities and rural communities; we had developers there; we had home builders there; we had the modular sector there, which I will talk about in a bit and which was very exciting; not-for-profit was there, in spades, doing a wonderful job. We weren’t sure how everyone was going to get along, but it was a wonderful example of a non-partisan focused event, trying to get shovels in the ground faster and more affordably for Ontarians. We look forward to sharing the results of that forum in the time to come.

Again, I will talk about our modular opportunities a little bit later. We need to ramp up this sector as an important tool in the toolbox, in terms of getting shovels in the ground faster and also to repurpose surplus government lands to make sure that we can help our communities get houses built for those who need homes, day in and day out.

Despite the market challenges for Ontario and Canada, as a whole, we have made meaningful progress. Both 2021 and 2022, we saw housing starts up over the highest ever in 30 years, close to 100,000 homes built in each of those years. We’re down a little bit this year, but we’re at a pretty good pace. These are the most housing starts we’ve seen since the mid-1980s. But despite this progress throughout Ontario, we’re still seeing low housing supply and high rental prices.

Remember, we have a population that has changed. Since I was in high school—I’ve told this story before—I’ve seen the population of this province more than double. We’ve kept up in terms of creating economic growth. We’re able to feed everybody. Wherever we are, we still export more food than we consume, but the third leg of the stool, where we are lacking success today is in the housing sector. That is what we’re focused on and focused on every day.

Housing prices are not realistic or sustainable for too many Ontario families. We know this. Ontario’s most recent housing supply action plan, the fifth of which will come out next year, Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants is the latest in the series of steps taken by the province to help more people find a home they can afford. We’re committed to advancing the housing supply action plan every year for four years—soon to be five years—to help address new challenges, meet the unique needs and adapt to the current environment that we all live in today.

As the minister noted and the parliamentary assistant will talk about in a few minutes in March of this year, the city of St. Thomas welcomed the new Volkswagen opportunity, Europe’s largest automaker, and will establish its subsidiary PowerCo SE’s electric-vehicle-battery-manufacturing facility—just now part of St. Thomas. As the MPP for that riding, we’re obviously very proud of this achievement. It’s obviously going to bring thousands of jobs not only to our local communities, but throughout the province: 3,000 direct jobs related to the plant, 30,000 tertiary jobs that will be supported right across from the Ring of Fire right throughout the province—supporting this important manufacturing sector for the province. Again, it’s what we need. We can grow the food to feed everybody. We’re creating economic development. What we need, though, is houses and homes to get these people well housed to prepare for their futures in Ontario in this exciting sector.

Through the proposed Affordable Homes and Good Jobs Act, we are focused on creating the conditions for growth and the construction that will take place, making it less expensive to getting houses built. We are further incentivizing municipalities to build more housing with the government’s Building Faster Fund, which is under way now. This new program will put municipalities and the province on a path to achieve our common objective of increasing housing supply. Again, I always emphasize this; we have a housing supply issue. It’s 15 million people in this province—more than doubled in the last 40 years or 50 years. It’s going to be close to 20 million people before we know it.

In fact, I think I’m right, and I’ve heard my colleagues speak. They expect the GTHA to be as big as the province is today, in total, in 10 years. So we are growing and growing fast.

Our new program will incentivize municipalities to build more housing, as I said. It will provide financial support for municipalities that can be directed toward housing-enabling infrastructure and related costs that support community growth.

The province has also extended strong-mayor powers to 18 additional municipalities that are projected to have populations of 50,000 by 2031 and whose heads of council are committed to a provincially assigned housing target. These powers include:

—provide the tools for the mayors in these municipalities to help drive increased housing supply; and

—to speed up local planning approvals and enable mayors to put forward budgets that could allocate resources to priority items.

Extending strong-mayor powers is an example of how we are working with our municipal partners to ensure they have the tools they need to build more housing, including a greater supply of affordable units.

In conclusion, Speaker, I am excited obviously to be here as the associate minister and to support the proposed changes and measures under the Affordable Homes and Good Jobs Act. This government will continue to work closely with municipalities to tackle Ontario’s housing crisis and we’ll help more Ontarians find a home that meets their needs and their budgets throughout the province. It’s through this type of bold action that we will deliver on our government’s commitment to help build at least 1.5 million homes by 2031. And I want to emphasize again, Speaker, that affordable housing is a critical component of this plan.

I’ll just conclude by saying I had the opportunity to meet with the University of Western Ontario this morning. I’m pleased to announce that they are building 1,100 new beds for students. Shovels will be in the ground next year. So we’re showing that success is on the way, but more is left to be done.

Again, from the housing forum, I want to emphasize that we had a really good meeting. I think the parliamentary assistant to the MMAH would agree. Scale and speed is important to get it done. The modular factor is going to be a key component. I was very proud of the people who showed up and helped participate in developing meaningful solutions and deliverables, not just talk. So, I’m excited about the opportunities that rest before us. I’m excited about Ontario’s housing sector.

I would now like to turn the floor over to our parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

The housing industry in this province was invited: mayors and wardens; we had not-for-profits; we had people that develop homes; the modular home sector; community home builders. Everyone and anyone who can help get shovels in the ground and do it faster was invited. Close to 300 people were there, including staff, but I would say of stakeholders themselves, it was 200-plus.

We had great meetings. We had great interaction. We talked about scale and speed. It was a wonderful event. We look forward to sharing the results in the coming days and weeks.

I’m hearing about housing forum this and housing forum that, and I think it’s fabulous; I actually have FOMO.

I wonder if you can tell me who was invited to the party, what kind of feedback you got, and when we will be briefed on it—because I’m here with all ears.

I really enjoyed the opening hour-long debate from the two ministers and the parliamentary assistant and I’m so pleased to see that our government continues to take the housing supply crisis very, very seriously. The reality is, Speaker, that too many families across the province are struggling to find a home that meets their needs and their budget, and if we don’t take decisive action now, a generation of Ontarians will never have the same opportunity for stability, and the dream of home ownership will slip further and further out of reach.

I was wondering if either of the ministers or the parliamentary assistant could elaborate on why the government is moving on Ontario’s housing supply crisis so quickly and introducing yet another piece of legislation.

A recent report by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis found that the burden of government fees on housing “has significantly increased and now accounts for 31% of the purchase price of a new home in Ontario.” That’s why we’ve tabled this legislation.

There are two excellent housing projects, Suomi Koti and Giwaa on Court, that have been unable to access the support they need to get shovels in the ground, although they have been shovel-ready for at least two years.

My question is, will the member from Thunder Bay–Atikokan use his position as a government member and parliamentary assistant to the Minister for Northern Development to make sure that these projects get the information and resources they need to finally get built?

During a housing crisis, it’s really unacceptable that these projects have been stalled for so long.

I’d like to ask my question to the associate minister. One of the constant issues that I hear from my constituents is, indeed, that there is a worry about the provision of housing. Parents are worried their children will not have the same opportunities. They’re priced out of the housing market and their local school closed due to lack of families in the neighbourhood, so unable to find a dream home, unable to have the life that their parents had growing up.

I’m wondering if the minister might be able to explain how this proposed legislation will help Ontarians find a home that meets their needs and budgets and brings the dream of home ownership back into reach.

The cost-of-living crisis is getting worse. According to a recent report from Feed Ontario, 23% of food bank clients spend 100% of their income on housing. That’s all their income on housing. Without real rent control for all tenants, people are paying a larger and larger percentage of their paycheque towards rent, leaving little for all other expenses.

Premier, will you bring back real rent control measures that not only help keep people housed, but also help keep food on the table?

Under your watch, more and more children are going hungry. What are you going to do about it?

History shows that if I was to do that, nobody would actually build rental housing in the province of Ontario, because when we stopped that, when we made a modification to that policy, we saw record levels of purpose-built housing across the province of Ontario.

In fact, we’ll go even a step further. It has now finally been acknowledged by the federal Liberals and NDP that when you cut taxes and when you make life more affordable for people and when you make life more affordable for those who construct rental housing, they’ll get in. When the Minister of Finance said that we have to eliminate HST on purpose-built rentals, the federal government fought us for over a year. And what happened when we finally were able to get that done, with no help from Jagmeet Singh and the socialist caucus in Ottawa? We are seeing a $45,000-per-unit reduction in the cost of purpose-built rentals. And you know who stepped up to the plate? People who build purpose-built rentals, to the tune of we are at the highest level in over 15 years. That’s actually really good news.

When the Minister of Education said we have to bring down the fee of child care, but not in a way that would hurt or put one sector against another, but in a way that would advantage all Ontarians, and then when he fought to extend that deal, the opposition NDP voted against that.

When the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services increased ODSP rates and tied it to inflation, the opposition voted against that.

When we integrated fares so that people who take transit across the GTA to get to work, to get to appointments, to get to child care, would only have one fare to pay, reducing the cost by $1,600, on average, per person, the NDP voted against it.

On affordability, this is—

Thank you—through you, Mr. Speaker—to the member opposite for that question. We’ve been acknowledging and we understand that many have been hurting in this province for some time. That’s why we moved early to reduce the gas tax back in the spring of 2022. Now we just are debating the fall economic statement, which extends that gas tax—so the member opposite has an opportunity to make life more affordable for the people of Kitchener and Waterloo. Not only did we do that, but we rebated the HST on purpose-built rental buildings to encourage more rental, which will help many people in this province. And of course, we didn’t stop there to encourage more housing—the water systems infrastructure fund, $200 million, so that we could build more affordable housing in this great province.

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite has an opportunity to support Bill 146 and make life more affordable for her constituents.

We also announced a historic deal with the city of Toronto which will benefit not only just Torontonians, but people in the GTA and, frankly, the whole province of Ontario. Included in that deal, of course, is to help transit, to help housing, and yes, to help homelessness and shelters for those people the member opposite is talking about.

In fact, in the budget that she didn’t vote for and her party voted against—the budget from last year—we increased the Homelessness Prevention Program by 40% for all Ontarians. Mr. Speaker, the facts are in: This is the party that supports the people of Ontario. The facts are in: That’s the party that votes against it.