I’m honoured today to recognize Black History Month, a month where we honour the heritage, courage and contributions of Black Canadians.

As a person who identifies as white, I regularly reflect on the systems of privilege and the systems of oppression that exist in our society. I think by constantly reflecting on systems of privilege and oppression, we can ensure that Black history is not just a month, but every month. Then, we can dismantle systemic anti-Black racism in our society.

As a school social worker, I’ve worked alongside many families. So I want to take this moment to ensure that we wish love and kindness for all young Black people in our school system so that they can be safe, they can be healthy, they can be loved, and they can love themselves as they are. Let’s ensure that everybody in this chamber continues to tap people on the shoulders. Too often, I’ve been in spaces that are very white, and people need to be tapped on the shoulder so that they continue to climb the ladder to these leadership positions today.

I’m grateful for all of you who are tapped on the shoulder and continue to tap people on the shoulder. This is how we can combat anti-Black racism and hate that persists in our community and online. Don’t forget about our online spaces. Let’s create regulations to make sure that those are healthy spaces for Black people too. It’s only getting worse. So we need to do these things so we can build an equitable, accessible, safe—safe—and caring Ontario for all.

I’m grateful to talk about the organizations in my community that fight everyday to have racial equity and to celebrate Blackness: AFRO, Kind Minds, ACCKWA, the Waterloo Region Community Foundation, Caribbean Canadian Association of Waterloo Region, just to name a few. The work they do is so vital and appreciated.

I also want to recognize my mentors who remind me all the time how to be a better ally: regional councillor Colleen James, city councillor—

My question is for the member from Beaches–East York. This bill calls highways low-impact environmentally. Can you explain why highways are not low-impact to the climate?

First, I want to thank the minister, who rolled back the changes of our official plan, changes that were done in haste and without consultation last November because they got it done wrong. I acknowledge that when you get it done wrong, you fix those mistakes. This is a wise choice because the decision was made in haste. It caused confusion and shock in my community and undermined local government. I felt this as a city councillor and as someone who was part of the planning process.

Our planning process that we embarked on included the voices of municipality leaders, community leaders, experts, citizens, stakeholders, environmental groups etc., to ensure that we allotted the right amount of land to meet the housing targets we had for decades to come but also were mindful of our forests, our farms and our wetlands, taking only what we need. Our community is dependent on groundwater, one of the few communities in Ontario that uses solely groundwater for our drinking etc.

Unfortunately, the ministry has got it done wrong again, and we continue to waste time and money from cash-strapped municipalities, undermining our local farming economy. Lands were added to our regional official plan 6. Our process used expert data, and we were concerned about impact. This recent addition of hundreds if not thousands of hectares of land does not use good process. Even the province’s own housing task force clearly stated, “Land is available, both inside the ... built-up areas and on undeveloped land outside greenbelts....

“Greenbelts and other environmentally sensitive areas must be protected.” Farms that “provide food and food security” need to be protected. “Relying too heavily on undeveloped land would whittle away too much the already small share of land devoted to agriculture.”

Speaker, this government continues to get it done wrong by doubling down on a flawed process to pursue a sprawl agenda which only benefits wealthy developers.

Former mayor of Toronto and cabinet minister David Crombie said, “The last thing Ontarians need in a housing crisis is a new law that supports building the wrong” kind “of housing in the wrong places at the wrong prices”—his words.

Speculators in my area—our area—are having a field day. They are buying up all the farmland on the countryside line and sitting on it so they can cash in big when the winds turn their way, which has been happening. Our own Waterloo Federation of Agriculture said and protections are now permeable, and our farmers are leaving the province. This flip-flopping is costing our $47-billion farming economy that supplies more than 750,000 jobs. It’s costing us the next generation of farmers. It’s also costing us a livable planet for my kids and our children by doubling down on a way of life that leads to soul-crushing commutes and financially unfeasible municipal costs.

Speaker, I call on the minister to reinstate the regional official plan 6 for the region of Waterloo, to respect our thorough and world-class process, the community, the money that we spent, the time and love we put into it to honour the clean water and air that sustain my children and all of our children.

I’m ready for questions.

I think farmers also recognize that climate change impacts them more than anything else. And I will say that the oil and gas companies take 18 cents a litre in pure profits, and that’s more important than money people get back in their pockets.

But what I’ll say is the process that they went through in this way is asking cities to bite the hand that feeds them. It was not a fulsome process. We had a world-class process that led to this result. It was democratic. It involved all levels of government. But instead, we’re cherry-picking municipalities and asking them to push back on a PC government that actually holds the purse strings to the very funds that they rely on. It is biased and problematic at best.

I know from my city council—I’m not an expert planner; I never was, and I never claimed to be. I relied on experts in my community to make my decisions. So, to me, to abandon a world-class process was getting it done wrong.

Thank you to the member from London West. What I’ve experienced, and I know from my municipalities, we have had to hire so many additional planning staff in order to meet the expectations of this government. Meanwhile, most of our funding is being cut. We aren’t getting the same funding from our developers. Our city has always said, “Growth pays for growth.” That’s not the reality anymore; instead, we keep doubling down, downloading more and more responsibilities, and less and less money, onto municipalities. Do you know what that leads to? Property tax hikes.

So, in a time of unaffordability, we are coercing our local municipalities to raise property taxes, which is really not helpful, and that’s as a result of the flip-flopping.

One thing that is not good bang for your buck is new highways like the 413. This is something that will balloon out of control. It will cost billions and billions and billions of dollars to save people 30 seconds. Meanwhile, we need two-way, all-day GO in our area. We need an LRT to—