It’s always a pleasure to be able to stand in my space on behalf of the people of Hamilton Mountain and to be able to put some input into the legislation that this government continues to put forward. This one, like many others, has a catchy title, has a lot of gimmicks, but not a lot to really, truly make a difference for the people of the province once again.

This is Bill 162, and wait for the title: Get it Done Act. Wow, have we heard that many times in the last six years. I’m pretty sure the Premier actually had—wasn’t it “get it done” nameplates made up for their desks? Wasn’t that a thing? “Get it done,” right? This has been the Premier’s shtick—

Interjection: For the people.

We hear those stories continue to hit the floor of this Legislature in hopes that the government actually will get it done and actually fund appropriately our services that people desperately need to be able to function. We’re seeing that in mental health and addictions. We’re seeing that in homelessness. We’re seeing that in our health care system. We’re seeing it in our education system. We see it in social services. We see it in the children’s aid society. I meet with them on a regular basis. They are completely underfunded. They have no idea how they’re going to be able to function under the current system. They’re working to keep families together and at home; proactive work to ensure that they’re creating stability in the home and they’re keeping the family unit together. Yet they can’t even manage to do that because they don’t have the funding that it takes. And when a family needs mental health supports, they can’t get them a meeting because it’s wait-lists. In Hamilton, I believe, for a child, it’s an 18-month wait for mental health services.

So what’s happening? We’re seeing parents actually giving their children up to the children’s aid society, praying that they’ll have the supports necessary to be able to help their kid. And what’s the children’s aid society doing? They’re bunking them in hotel rooms because they don’t have foster homes. They don’t have kinship. They have no supports. They don’t have beds or rooms for children’s mental health to be able to support these kids like they need. That would be something the government could get done. That would be something that we could get behind and say, “Yes, kids are our most valuable resource. Let’s get it done.”

The autism services: We’re seeing that we have over 60,000 kids on a wait-list. When this government came into power six years ago, we had 24,000 kids on the wait-list. This government likes to crow that 40,000 kids are getting service—that is so not true, and if they are getting services, it’s very minimal. They’re barely getting speech therapy, maybe a little bit in school if they can. They’re literally languishing on wait-lists.

Then, when they finally get a determination of needs meeting, which is the check box to see what level they’re at and what kind of services they get, to appeal that process is almost a year again. So now you have your next determination of needs meeting every year and you’re not even through your appeal process fighting the small amount of money that you received the year previous. If the government wanted to get that done, we could get behind it and get it done, but they don’t want to do that.

They want to take tolls off of highways that don’t have tolls, and the only toll that actually does exist on the 407, they’re going to keep it there. We tried to give them solutions. We said, “Here, get it done.” No way—they don’t want to hear solutions. We could have taken the trucks off the 403 and 401 and put them on the 407 and freed up some time. I bet you I would be able to drive home in less than three hours, for an hour drive, if we took some of those trucks off the road.

Again, I see members nodding their heads over there because they know these are good solutions. They could get it done if they had the will to actually want to help people in this province, but they don’t.

They’re going to charge them $7.50 for every six-month period for their driver’s licence fee—that’s going to do a lot. Statutory photo card of $3.50—okay.

Talk about fixing messes: Do you know how much time, Speaker, we’ve actually spent in the Legislature fixing messes for bringing forward bills, reversing bills—the whole thing? Listen to this: 27 wasted days here in the House and in committee debating bills and government repeals and reversals. Bill 124—you remember that—unconstitutional wage caps; Bill 28, the “notwithstanding” clause and education workers—boy, that was something that they didn’t get done. They had to get it done. They had to reverse it. They had to reverse their bad decisions. Bill 35, reversing Bill 28—although no time was spent because we let that go for unanimous consent because we were trying to help them get through a mess that they created, without spending a whole bunch of time here in the Legislature because they had already wasted so many days.

Bill 39 repealed the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve Act. Bill 112, dissolving region of Peel; 136, reversing the greenbelt charges and the repeal of the DRAP act; 150, reversing urban boundary changes—and speaking of Bill 150, in this legislation they’re actually putting stuff back that they reversed in Bill 150.

Is this what we call getting it done, when we actually have true crises in this province? People are sleeping in tents in every community in our province. In every community we have people that are homeless, that are struggling with addictions, that can’t make ends meet. We have people who are going to work and they live in tents because they can’t afford the rent. They could have got that done. We’ve put several bills forward. They could have got that done, to actually make rent affordable in our province, and yet they’ve ignored that because they’re wasting time on their own shenanigans and then having to backtrack to repeal the information.

That’s a total of 72 hours in the Legislature, which is 19 days, and a total of eight days in committee—

It’s the same.

Thank you. We have to move to next question.

That’s right. It’s a good solution.

Speaker, I’ve been thinking about it, and I really believe that this government truly does not want to get rid of the carbon tax, because if they did somehow, they would have nothing else to talk about, literally. You go in the halls and they’re walking the corridors, “Carbon tax, carbon tax,” bumping into each other, bumping into walls.

My question is simple. Do you believe they believe that if they repeat the words “carbon tax” over and over and over enough, it may actually change the scary and embarrassing fact that they’re under RCMP investigation?

There are many actions of this government that nobody is proud of, and I’m sure that they are not proud of them either. So to say that they want to change the channel—yes, absolutely. They want to change the channel on lots of the decisions that they have taken in the past, whether we talk about the greenbelt, we talk about the MZOs, we talk about many of the decisions, many of the bills that this—we talk about Bill 124. They don’t want to talk about this too much because of the damage it has done to our health care system, and the list goes on and on. So talking about the carbon tax is a way for them to change the channel, not to help people struggling to make ends meet.

I want to thank the member opposite for bringing her perspective to the floor of the House, and of course, talking about the issues that she perceives to be important and that are obviously of great concern to many of us. We’re seized with the concerns that she’s raised, but of course, as government, we do have some unique insights that others don’t have, and sitting around a cabinet table, as I did once, you do see other issues.

However, I would like to talk to the member, who has been here long-standing—and by the way, she reminded me of my old time over in the opposition, where I was very critical of the government. It’s always important that we have people that take us to account. However, I just wanted to know: She does have a growing community in Hamilton, one that I think is a world-class city. I’m just wondering what she would like to see get done for her constituents in terms of infrastructure in Hamilton and how she thinks that we should go about doing that.

And counting, because they’re still doing it. They haven’t learned their lesson, and I doubt they will. We try to put good initiatives forward, initiatives that we’ve learned from people in our community, like real stakeholders that tell us actual things that are happening on the ground. We bring it here. We hope that they listen. We hope that they will get that done. But they refuse to listen because they think if it’s not their idea, if it’s not coming out of their little think tank, then nothing else matters. That’s really unfortunate because it’s the people of Ontario that suffer once again under this government’s regime. Time and time again, we try to help them along, but instead they come out with gimmicky bills called Get It Done Act, and they’re actually not getting anything done that the people of this province are asking for.

And what was the other piece that you were talking about? I had something. Oh, when they’re doing their counts for homes, they’re actually counting beds for long-term care. Those are not the family homes that we need. Those are not the one-bedroom units, the four-bedroom units that we need. It’s really unfortunate that they choose to change the numbers around to suit their own needs, instead of actually really finding ways to get those shovels in the ground and those units built as quickly as possible. They wanted to build a highway—they’ll get that done—but making homes for people seems to be a not-getting-it-done act.

Did the Liberals before get it done? No, they did not get it done. They caused their own chaos and their own problems. But that doesn’t mean that you get to have a free rein just because the Liberals were bad. You’ve been there for six years. Six years you’ve been there, and we’re in a worse position now than we have ever been. And if you don’t believe that, then you should actually spend some time in your community, or come to mine. I’m happy to walk you around.

We’re going to go to questions.

I just want to say quickly that I’ll give her my parents’ number, and we can tell my parents, who are in their nineties, that they don’t live in a home—because I find that really not very nice.

But I just want to say to my colleague opposite that when we look at getting it done, we look at where we were in the 15 years before Premier Ford came to office. The manufacturing sector was done. We had the highest debts of a sub-sovereign province. We had taxes galore. What we have done is said that we will not increase any taxes. In fact, we’ve cut taxes, like the gas tax. I’ll tell you why, Madam Speaker: because affordability at the grocery stores and wherever we go and spend our money to live is first and foremost on a person’s mind.

My question is simple: Is getting it done not keeping taxes low, as we have done?

Thank you.

Interjections.

Second reading debate deemed adjourned.

Pursuant to standing order 36, the question that this House do now adjourn is deemed to have been made.

The member has up to five minutes to debate the matter, and the minister or parliamentary assistant may reply for up to five minutes.

This House stands adjourned until 9 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, March 6.

The House adjourned at 1808.

You’re absolutely correct.

When you’re talking about affordability, how are you suppressing people’s wages? It’s talking out of both sides of your mouth, and the only one who—oops, sorry. I withdraw.

Ballot item number 87, private member’s notice of motion number 77. Ms. Kusendova-Bashta.

It’s always wonderful to spend some quality time with my colleague from Guelph. I know we spend time together in our respective ridings because we share, obviously, some service managers in that. I’m always happy to spend time with Mr. Green.

The member from Ottawa South and the member from Thornhill, earlier, were mentioning that we are digging. We are digging; we are digging foundations for new homes in Ontario, I’m proud to say.

From day one, we’ve been focused on building more homes for the people across this province.

What you hear from the typical opposition parties is about more obstacles being put in the way of actually getting more homes built, more shovels in the ground—just like the members who usually sit around the member from Guelph. He is surrounded by independent Liberal caucus members who did just that—especially the member from Ottawa South, when he was part of the government. They put obstacles in the way of building more homes. At committee, we heard from a former minister in the Wynne government. The mayor of Vaughan said that the housing crisis began at the cabinet table when he sat it at. So this has been ongoing, and they have put obstacles in the way.

We’re seeing now that we’re actually getting more homes built across Ontario. Our housing supply action plans are working. We’re seeing rental-housing starts increase year over year; they are at the highest levels ever in the province of Ontario. And this is despite the high-interest-rate policies of the federal Liberal government, and the high-carbon-tax policies which are putting so many people out of the market for that new home.

What we’re going to do is return the dream of home ownership to the people of the province of Ontario by getting more shovels in the ground, reducing costs and removing obstacles.

Irony—it’s ironic. You can say that.

The reason I’ve been asking, over and over again, questions about the housing crisis, putting forward proposals to legalize housing so we can build homes that ordinary people can afford in the communities they love is because we’re facing an unprecedented housing crisis. And let’s be clear: That crisis is the primary driver of the affordability crisis people are facing.

There is no city in Ontario where a minimum wage worker can afford a one-bedroom apartment. As a matter of fact, a minimum wage worker would have to earn $25.96 to afford average rent for a one-bedroom apartment. In Toronto, even two full-time minimum wage workers cannot afford a one-bedroom apartment without spending more than 30% of their income.

On top of that, the dream of home ownership, especially for a whole generation of young people, is falling further and further away. Housing prices have tripled over the last 10 years. Incomes haven’t even begun to keep pace. You now have to work 22 years of full-time work for a typical young person to save a 20% down payment on an average-priced home. Those living in the GTA have an even tougher time, having to save for 27 years to be able to have a down payment. It will take the average Torontonian making a median income of over $90,000 to save over 25 years to be able to afford a home.

That’s why, three years ago, the Ontario Greens put forward a housing plan that some called a master class plan in delivering the solutions. One of Canada’s top housing experts said the Ontario Greens have the best housing plan of any political party in the country. Why? Because we’re legalizing fourplexes and four-storeys, six-to-11-storey buildings on major transit corridors. We’re getting speculation out of the market, because homes are for people, not speculators. We’re making proposals to build deeply affordable, non-profit, co-op, social and permanent supportive housing to address chronic homelessness. And we’re putting forward proposals to protect renters.

A little over two years ago, the government’s own hand-picked Housing Affordability Task Force put forward 55 recommendations. Two of those key recommendations that came from the task force are directly related to the bill I put forward, Bill 156, Homes You Can Afford in the Communities You Love Act, legalizing gentle density and missing-middle homes so we can build homes that people can afford in the communities they love without paving over our forests, our farms and our wetlands.

What has been the government’s response to their own Housing Affordability Task Force? It hasn’t been to build more homes. It hasn’t been to implement recommendations to legalize housing. It has been to impose sprawl and open the greenbelt for development so a handful of wealthy, well-connected speculators can cash in billions while the people of Ontario still struggle to have an affordable place to call home.

That’s why I asked once again, yesterday, in this House if the Premier will get it done for people—not speculators—by supporting my bill to end exclusionary zoning and legalize housing so we can build homes that people can afford in the communities they love. One analysis shows that if only 18%—imagine this—of single-family homes within core urban boundaries became fourplexes, that would build two million homes. The government’s goal—the goal we all agreed on—is 1.5 million homes. We could do it just with fourplexes—I’m not suggesting we will deal with just fourplexes, but we could do it. That would not only be more affordable for people, but also for property taxpayers and municipal governments, because that’s where the infrastructure already is. We don’t have to build more sewer lines, waterlines, transit and roads, because they’re already there.

That’s why, when the government continually refuses to answer the question—yes or no; will they legalize housing so we can build homes people can afford, close to where they work, in the communities they love? I’m hoping they’ll answer it tonight.