A question for the minister responsible—one of the things that I know he cares about, from previous discussions we’ve had about the need to speed up housing, is what happens sometimes when processes aren’t quite right. The minister intervened when the urban boundary expansion impacting my city of Ottawa led to some very questionable decisions with respect to how developments took place. To his credit, he took action on that front. But it disturbs me this morning, as we debate Bill 185, to read some advocates in the sector worried that this could repeat. There could be the repetition of, according to Environmental Defence, more “greenfield scandals” if we don’t ensure proper protections are in place that make sure that further development isn’t only sprawl development of single homes stretched onto wider terrains.

The government knows that everybody in this House wants housing to be built. We’re here to collaborate with developers, particularly for non-market housing.

I’m worried, and I’m wondering if the minister could respond about whether or not the processes that are now going to be set in place with this speedy development could tumble us into more problems that we’ll only have to correct later.

It is now time for questions.

Thank you to the minister and his parliamentary assistants for speaking about this bill.

There are lots of conversation about homes recently—and I was reminded yesterday of the motion about intimate partner violence. We had nearly 200 advocates here. One of the things that we heard very clearly from them was that one of the reasons that people can’t escape violence at home is because of the affordability of housing, and rental housing, in particular.

It has been almost six years of the Conservative government being here. During that time, it has never been more expensive to rent in Ontario. I didn’t hear anything about rent in here. I think this is something we need to address, not just for students, not just for everyday people renting—but people fleeing violence deeply, deeply need that deeply affordable rental housing. Could the minister comment on that?

I speak to many parents of university students who tell me that their children have made the decision to live at home and commute an hour each way due to the increased cost of renting.

In my riding of Burlington, we’re fortunate; students are able to attend the world-class colleges and universities in the city of Toronto, Hamilton, Oakville, Guelph, St. Catharines.

Can the member please inform both the students and the parents in my riding what our government is doing to help through this piece of red tape legislation?

It’s a very good question. It’s twofold.

We’ve been removing obstacles so that we can get more purpose-built rental housing built in the province of Ontario. We have done some excellent work on that. We have the highest level of purpose-built rentals.

The definition of affordable housing, which is something that we all agreed upon in this House—implementation of that. As of June 1, we’ll remove development charges across all of that sector. That is also good work.

We are also in the process of, hopefully, being able to conclude an agreement with the federal government with respect to the National Housing Strategy. As the member knows, Ontario has done some really, really good work on that. We remain committed to funding Ontario’s portion of the National Housing Strategy, which identifies homes for victims of intimate partner violence. We will continue funding that program.

Ultimately, we’re trying to remove the obstacles that will get more types of homes built across all sectors, because the number one challenge is that not enough homes are being built. High interest rates are a challenge on that as well. This bill is targeted to get more shovels in the ground.

This has been a growing problem across Ontario and, frankly, across Canada. As I mentioned in my speech, the federal government made some unilateral cuts to post-secondary education which facilitated the need to build more homes, student dormitories, very, very quickly in all parts of the country.

We are one of the first provinces to move to as-of-right student dormitories, student housing on our university campuses—I would say long overdue. We have instances where universities have been waiting—in the University of Toronto’s instance—10 years to build a student dorm. That’s too long. Every dorm that we build is another home that is available in the community. Our campuses across Ontario will benefit from this. Frankly, if I’m being honest, I hope that across Canada, all provinces will do the same thing. I suspect we will be leaders nationally on this, as well.

I suspect the member is more specifically talking about the right of appeal to a tribunal with respect to boundary expansion, where a municipal partner is either unwilling to respond or responds in a fashion that the proponent doesn’t agree with. We thought it the best approach to remove it exclusively from the hands of a municipality and from the minister’s office and to put it to an impartial third-party adjudicative body, as was done in the province of Ontario up until 2003. As I said, I believe this is the fairest way of doing it; it’s a more open way of doing it. All the parties will be able to provide evidence on this, and a third-party adjudicator will make that decision, removing it from the exclusive domain of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

I thank all the speakers for their comments on the red tape reduction bill and the housing-related—it’s very, very exciting legislation, and I like the way the associate minister phrased the budget as the “infrastructure budget.”

My question, because I think this is such an important part of the program: The $1.8 billion that we propose, if the bill is passed, to have implemented—I was in the infrastructure world; I know how important it is to get these important assets financed. The great thing about water and waste water infrastructure is that there are revenue streams attached.

Municipalities have borrowing limits that are very restrictive. So I wonder if we could further hear from the associate minister on the impact this huge new program will have on getting those projects started that otherwise would not be started, and the impact it will have on the housing market.

Thank you to my colleague from Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound.

I’ll give you a quick example, and I think you could probably relate to it in your riding—similar to mine. Dutton Dunwich is a community of 3,200 people. In 2019, they wanted to put in a new waste water system, upgrade it. It was going to be about $3.5 million. They decided not to do it, to postpone it. Here we are in 2024. They got the bill to do the very same project: $13.3 million. So it overwhelmed them. They had to stop the ability to build—it’s a growing community.

I believe our waste water enabling fund, along with the infrastructure dollars put in the budget, along with the Building Faster Fund, which is available for small communities as well, is going to go a long way to help these communities—I’ve got 10 of them in my riding; I’m not sure about the member’s. It’s these smaller communities that really are at a crossroads when it comes to waste water management, waste water—

In northern Ontario, we are very interested in getting rid of red tape for government-owned homes that need to be put up on the market.

I have given the example of Gogama. Three years ago, I wrote to every single minister to say, “There are 11 homes in Gogama that are owned by the government. There are 1,800 workers across the street who sleep in bunkers, who want to buy those homes. Please put them up for sale.” They told me they had to go through due process. I wrote back two years later and got the exact same letter—they have to go through due process.

When are we going to get rid of the red tape that keeps this government from putting the houses in Gogama, in Foleyet—all over my riding—that they own up for sale? People in northern Ontario want to buy those homes.

It warms my heart; I never thought that I would be here and hear the NDP wanting me to privatize anything, so I thank the member.

I honestly do not know the specific homes that she’s speaking of—although I suspect it’s probably an infrastructure-owned program.

I do agree with the member opposite on this. I think what she’s getting at is how important it is to build homes in northern Ontario, especially given the economic importance of northern Ontario to the success of southern Ontario. There are very unique challenges in the north, absolutely, no doubt, that require additional supports that aren’t required in southern Ontario. This bill helps unleash some of that, as well.

The more important feature, I think, is really the infrastructure piece, the $1.8 billion in infrastructure which will help unleash a lot of this development that has been stifled, as well, in northern Ontario—even more so than in southern Ontario, in many instances.

On February 27, Calgary welcomed athletes from across the country to the Special Olympics winter games.

I’m honoured to rise today to recognize Ella Robinson, Alex Cappuccitti and Rebecca Osmond, three competitors from my constituency of Ajax. The Special Olympics provides athletes with intellectual disabilities an incredible opportunity to showcase their talents and shine in a world that can often be challenging. Through these games, barriers are dismantled and new heights are reached. The accomplishments of these three champions are a testament to this, as they collectively brought home a total of nine medals. Ella secured first, second and third place in three race categories. Alex impressed with bronze medals in all four of his speed skating competitions. And Rebecca added to the team’s success by placing second in five-pin bowling.

As we watch Ella, Alex, Rebecca and all these athletes experience the joy and camaraderie of victory, we are reminded that this event transcends the boundaries of the playing field. It is an event that forms a community and fosters friendships that last a lifetime.

My heartfelt congratulations to Ella, Alex and Rebecca for representing Ajax with strength, unity and determination.

A special thank you to Donna Edwards, who has been an amazing coach and leader in Special Olympics for many years.

I recently had the opportunity to tour Ark Aid Street Mission’s Cronyn-Warner site.

I’d like to applaud the city of London and all of the phenomenal service and community partners working on the whole of community health and homelessness strategy tables.

It was rather cold as we walked down Dundas Street from Ark Aid’s main location, punctuated by our entry into the warm Cronyn-Warner location. I want to thank the Diocese of Huron and the board at Warner Place for providing the location at a fraction of the market rate to care for the marginalized people in our community.

Ark Aid has served 900 unique people this year. We heard from Rob, who struggled with accessing health care while homeless. He was proud to tell us about his improvements and his future goals. None of this would have happened without Ark Aid and housing.

Funding for these spaces and others like SafeSpace and many more will end on May 31 this year. Homelessness in London will not end on June 1. If funding doesn’t flow, 100 dedicated and caring staff will be unemployed; 120 resting places will become vacant—vital and necessary, but vacant. I was shocked to learn that the providers will have to warehouse all the mattresses while people sleep rough.

I call on government members to listen to their conscience and fund these beds now. Think of the people who are rebuilding their lives and whose hopes and dreams will be much further away without the basic human necessity of housing.

We have the space. We have caring people ready to help. All that is needed is political will. Housing is foundational, housing is fundamental, housing is a human right, and housing is health care.

Ontario’s 2024 budget revealed this government’s plan to rebuild the economy while continuing to invest in health care, housing, infrastructure and more, without raising costs for families.

In long-term care, the $155 million in funding in 2024-25 will allow for continued progression on building 58,000 new and upgraded long-term-care beds across the province—like the completed homes in Carleton Place and Almonte, and the Broadview long-term-care home in Smiths Falls currently under construction.

We’re investing just over $3 million to assist up to 3,500 people in connecting to primary care in Perth, Ontario, and $4 million to help up to 10,000 people at the Periwinkle site in Kingston. This budget also green-lit the reconstruction of Princess Street in Almonte and the reconstruction of Battersea Road in South Frontenac.

Access to high-speed Internet and mobile service is a necessity of modern life. That’s why we’re investing $71 million through the Eastern Ontario Regional Network to continue getting more communities online faster than ever before.

These are only a few of the highlights of the 2024 budget, which is supporting economic growth in Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston and across Ontario.

Our government is committed to creating stronger communities for the future, improving Ontario’s productivity growth, and building prosperity for generations to come.

In Ontario, yesterday’s acknowledgement that intimate partner violence is an epidemic, spurred by the Ontario NDP’s Bill 173, is a step forward. It is encouraging to see the government finally support this recommendation. However, the result must be genuine action, not more delay tactics.

Speaker, 18 months ago, I urged the government to review and to act on the Renfrew triple femicide inquest’s 86 recommendations to eradicate this violence. Leadership is about facing these truths, and the truth is, the government is acting too slowly. This Conservative government has a plan by experts that has been on their desk for over two years. It is concerning that the government committed to an in-depth study. The time for studies is over. The time for action is now.

In Niagara, we endured a tragic femicide only a few months ago, and while we have the best service providers anywhere in the world, they need our help right now. We need immediate, robust solutions: education and training within our criminal justice system; comprehensive and permanent funding; bringing forward an Ontario Clare’s Law; and secure funding for survivor services.

Let us honour those who have suffered and those fighting for change by committing to immediate, decisive action on gender-based violence—not another study and not another delay.

It’s wonderful to rise to talk about some important investments that our government is making, through our recent provincial budget, across Ontario, whether it’s the $1.8 billion for housing-enabling infrastructure, critical infrastructure to get more homes built across our province, whether it’s the $1.2 billion in the Building Faster Fund; $200 million for recreational facilities over the next 10 years; $15 billion to build new schools, doubling the amount of funding for capital this year in our provincial budget for our schools; and, of course, $50 billion over the next 10 years for hospitals across this province, from Toronto to Windsor, to the north and to Ottawa. We’re investing in Ontario, investing in the people in Ontario.

I know it was important to see the $50 million for stabilization of health care capacity in our northern and rural communities. It was also great to hear that we’re going to make the clinical extern program permanent. I know this is very important to our rural hospitals.

It was also great to see our government continue to build on our historic investments in primary care. Over $500 million will be invested to expand primary care across Ontario to ensure more people can get care closer to home.

Unfortunately, all the members of the opposition voted against the provincial government. They voted against primary care expansion. They voted against victim quick response programs. It is shameful.

We will continue to stand with the people of Ontario.

Once again, this year, I had the pleasure of attending the Halton Industry Education Council’s 20th annual Women as Career Coaches mentorship event. Congratulations to the team at HIEC for reaching this milestone and for your continued efforts bringing together women and mentors.

For 20 years now, this annual event has brought together young people and adult mentors for an impactful, inspiring and uplifting evening. During the evening, guest speakers share their career journeys and advice with youth who are just starting to think about potential careers. Career coaches sit at tables with young women, engaging in lively conversations, answering questions and offering encouragement. Throughout the evening, a lineup of inspiring speakers talk about their journeys and career paths, and youth have an opportunity to participate in a panel discussion. The evening is designed to provide the next generation with the opportunity to discover a wide range of potential career paths and perhaps think about new career opportunities.

Working together, we can inspire youth to feel confident and optimistic about their futures and their place in the world of work.

In the early 1990s, I was a high school teacher, and I can tell you, at that time, our schools were well funded; our buildings were well maintained. There was money for sports teams, extracurriculars and special education. And every child had a textbook for every subject that they took.

In the early 2000s, when my kids were in school, the government of the day started making cuts to schools, and I joined the Toronto Parent Network to fight those cuts.

In 1995, the government took control of our education taxes in Toronto, and since then, in almost every year, they’ve handed the Toronto District School Board a funding shortfall.

This year, the funding shortfall is $28 million, and the TDSB trustees are being asked to make drastic cuts to staff programs and services in order to balance the books. More important than that, there’s a $239-million ongoing funding shortfall for programs that this government is simply not funding—and this includes special education; it includes money for textbooks, and it includes money for sports and extracurriculars. And now the TDSB is considering cutting seniors’ daytime programs. They’re considering cutting grade 6 outdoor education trips and more. This is absolutely reprehensible—to be making cuts to our schools, particularly for this generation of students, who have survived through the pandemic and need more supports, not less.

I’m calling upon the government today to reinstate the funding for the Toronto District School Board and for every school board across this province, so that our students do not face another round of cuts.

I’d like to applaud the Scarborough Walk of Fame, which has been around for over 20 years. This organization promotes community togetherness and regional distinctiveness by commemorating Scarborough’s many well-accomplished icons.

The walk of fame celebrates Scarborough’s rich cultural mosaic and inspires future generations by revelling Scarborough’s natives in the diverse domains of arts and culture, community, education, environment, entertainment, fitness, health and science, and sports. Additionally, it stimulates economic activity and visitor influx in Scarborough and the surrounding area. Contributing to Ontario’s reputation as a vibrant and inclusive province, the Scarborough Walk of Fame enhances the province’s cultural diversity as a cultural landmark.

l would like to thank the chair of the committee, Mr. Glenn De Baeremaeker, his colleagues, sponsors and a strong team of volunteers on an exhilarating exhibition of the Scarborough Walk of Fame, 2024. It was wonderful to be there amongst my colleague MPPs and other dignitaries who have seen the showcase of the inductees yesterday.

I want to thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to bring this message.

Guelph’s efforts to address homelessness show what a caring community we are.

Shortly after I was elected in 2018, I met with Dominica McPherson, director of the Guelph and Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination, to strategize how we could implement their vision to end homelessness in Guelph. We started working to bring people together. I’m proud of the way that all three levels of government, city and county staff, social service agencies, private developers, health care leaders, community funders, and citizens have worked tirelessly to successfully build three permanent supportive housing projects in five years.

The community’s efforts culminated with the announcement of operational funding for supportive housing in last month’s provincial budget.

Securing first capital and then health care funding for supportive housing have been top priorities during my time here at Queen’s Park.

We have a long way to go to end homelessness, but I want to celebrate the progress we’ve made by celebrating those people who have got us here: Sheila Markle, Daria Allan-Ebron and Leisha Burley from Kindle Communities; Melissa Kwiatkowski and Raechelle Devereaux of Guelph CHC; Kristin Kerr, Stonehenge; Gail Hoekstra, Stepping Stone; Kristen Cairney, Wyndham House; Helen Fishburn, CMHA; Emmi Perkins, Guelph OHT; Mark Walton, Guelph General Hospital; Jason Ashdown, Skyline; Glenna Banda, United Way; Chris Willard, Guelph Community Foundation; Luisa Artuso, Wellington county; Shakiba Shayani and Michael Keegan, Guelph chamber; Mayor Cam Guthrie; MP Lloyd Longfield; Dominica McPherson, and many others in our community.

Today I rise to highlight a crucial initiative that we organized to support our community in understanding the three levels of government in Canada. Richmond Hill is home to a growing number of immigrants who may not fully comprehend the intricacies of our political landscape, as well as the system. We usually do not meet in person, but this time, instead of a virtual meeting, we have an in-person meeting so that we can facilitate the communications between the speakers and the attendants.

Recognizing the challenge, I’m proud to have April Monday Matters on April 22. This is a non-partisan and educational initiative designed to empower our residents with the knowledge they need to engage effectively in our democracy. This initiative will provide a platform for the constituents to learn about the three levels of government and understand their roles and responsibilities.

We’re honoured to have former politicians, including former parliamentary secretary and MP for Willowdale Mr. C.S. Leung; former minister and MPP Mr. Steve Gilchrist; and former mayor of Whitchurch-Stouffville and chairman and CEO of York region, Mr. Wayne Emmerson, to share their insights. We trust that residents in Richmond Hill will benefit, to effectively participate in this democratic process.