Speaker, I live in a riding that is largely suburban. Essentially, industrial and suburban is where I live. It’s also one of the main growth areas for all of Waterloo region. These homes are being connected to natural gas. Nothing about this prevents anybody from wanting to install a heat pump later or accessing any of the grants that may be available, but ultimately, like I said, this is about prioritizing the public interest and balancing those competing interests.

In this case, we are in an affordability crisis. The number one thing is people saying, “I can’t afford a house.” I wouldn’t be able to buy my own house if I was trying to buy it today. So the number one thing we have to do is get these built and make it so that people can pay for them. If you added $6,000 to the price of my home when I was buying it, I couldn’t have afforded it, because I didn’t have $6,000 to spare.

When we’re talking about affordability, I will reiterate what I said last time: This is about getting houses built, getting people into them and figuring the rest of it out as we go, because right now, we’ve got families, young people, that can’t even afford to put a roof over their heads. That is going to be my predominant concern as a member of provincial Parliament and as an MPP for Waterloo region and Kitchener South–Hespeler.