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.

As the member opposite knows, we are bringing forward legislation around use-it-or-lose-it. The reason we can bring in such legislation is because this government is putting billions of dollars of infrastructure in the ground, and we want to make sure the infrastructure both below and above the ground is used for building homes for the people of the province of Ontario.

I’ll remind the Leader of the Opposition that her party has voted against every single investment that we’ve made in terms of helping unleash home building. She and that party have voted against every single investment that we have made in terms of building transit and transportation across the province of Ontario.

We are bringing forward use-it-or-lose-it legislation, because we expect those people who have permits, who are holding up sewer and water allocation, to get shovels in the ground. We’ll bring it forward. We’ll do it in a fair way that brings our municipalities on board as well as those who are building homes, and I fully expect that the Leader of the Opposition will get up in her place and support that legislation. For the first time, she’ll support building homes for the people of the province of Ontario.

The socialist NDP are in a frenzy. Do you know why? Because we’re creating jobs, because our municipal partners want to work with us to get shovels in the ground. Do you know who has come on board? Mayor Olivia Chow, an NDP stalwart. A former councillor, a former member of Parliament for the NDP has come on board, because she and the Toronto council understand that the best way to create jobs and economic growth is to cut taxes, work together, get shovels in the ground. It is only they who don’t understand that.

Do you know why we were able to strike a deal with Olivia Chow and the NDP council in Toronto? Because we work with them, Mr. Speaker. We work with our municipal partners, and that is why we are seeing growth across the province of Ontario, the likes of which we’ve never seen, despite policies of the federal government to hold back our economy.