Thank you very much, Speaker. Good afternoon. Being proud Hamiltonians, I think that you will appreciate that I wanted to start my speech today by congratulating the Dundas Real McCoys. They won the Allan Cup two consecutive years in a row and so I think that’s worth it. And I want to shout-out to Ralph Taggart, Darren Haydar and Don Robertson for all of the hard work and the grit they put into that talented team. It’s a historic back-to-back win, and it happened in Dundas, so congratulations.

I also just wanted to quickly congratulate Will Jones. Will Jones is a member of the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club, and he’s going to be heading to the Olympics this summer—

Applause.

Now, here we are. It’s crazy, to be honest with you, that we are here debating a bill—follow me on this: This is a bill that is reversing the reversals that the government put in place to the changes that they made to urban boundaries across the province.

Before I even get into the substance of the debate, I want to say the scale and the scope of the wasted time and the wasted resources that this government has spent rolling back all of these bad policy decisions that they made is really unconscionable at the time of a housing crisis.

For a long time, I took this government at their word that the question was really about housing. But the more we see, the more evidence that’s revealed—like the 4,000 pages of documents that we just released today—shows that this was not about building housing; this was about making sure that developers and connected individuals of the Premier were given preferential treatment. This goes all the way to the Premier’s office.

This kind of meddling, which is the lightest of words that I can call it, has not only set us back on our goal to build housing for people who are desperately in need of good housing, it has left a stain on this province. Really, why are people so cynical about governments and politicians? It’s because of this kind of action. It’s exactly because of this kind of action.

It is shocking that we are now in a place in Ontario where housing starts are going down, not going up, and that we are in the middle of an RCMP investigation to get to the bottom of this insider dealing and preferential treatment. The time and the money and the energy and the good will that have been squandered by this government when it comes to housing are really, really deplorable.

What I would like to say when we look at this bill that we have before us: People have been making fun of the bill—you know, “Get nothing done.” But I would like to say, as I go through my 15 minutes here this afternoon, I think the question that should be on everyone’s mind is, get it done for who? Who is this government working for? Who are they listening to, and who are they getting it done for? The evidence will show that it is not for the people of the province of Ontario.

I would like to begin to talk about the very fact that this is a bill that reverses a previous reversal on municipal boundary changes. This is amending legislation that they just passed. And this is all, as I said before, while this government continues to be under investigation by the RCMP for the $8.3-billion greenbelt gravy train, as would have it.

Again, what we should be debating here this afternoon is, really, effective ways to get people housed. But instead, we’re spending this time looking at this government trying to paper over their mistakes to try and get us back to square one.

I’m going to concentrate mostly on schedule 3—well, let me just start. Schedule 1: Here’s what I want to say. This government went full frontal, if you will, on the assault on the greenbelt. The greenbelt grab was so clear and obvious. The meddling in municipal planning, the MZOs that are currently under investigation by the Auditor General, the greenbelt grab—this was fully in front of us: “We are going to take these lands, and we are taking them on behalf of our developer friends.” It became quite clear that that is what has happened.

Many people across the province fought this. I had never seen people so engaged because they knew that this was not in their interest, and they could see with their plain eyes that this government was working against their better interests. People all across the province, young and old, rallied and protested against this, and the noise became so loud—I really have to say, I remember when we were in communities in front of MPPs’ offices, people were outraged—outraged—by the cynicism of this.

But now what we see is a government that—do we think this government has stopped this greenbelt grab? No. Evidence is showing that you haven’t stopped it. You have just learned to do this a little bit more by stealth. What you are doing now is not a full, obvious assault on the greenbelt; it’s little pieces in all your bills, all these, I could say, skirmishes, like little guerrilla warfare to get done what you still want to get done, which is to take public lands, to take farmland, to take good planning away from the people of the province and give it to developers. This bill before us is one in a series of assaults that you can find in this government’s policy and legislation.

Let’s not forget about the role conservation authorities play across the province in making sure that development happens in appropriate places. That’s their job: to protect wetlands, to protect people’s basements from flooding. This government now is asking conservation authorities across Ontario to audit the lands under their protection to see if there’s surplus land that can be made available for sale. They’re also taking away the conservation’s authority, undermining their ability to protect these lands and forcing them to issue development permits under duress when conservation authorities identify that this is not in the best interests of the people.

We also have the government that’s going to change the provincial policy statement. Despite the fact that municipalities across Ontario have already made infrastructure plans and fiscal plans related to these policy statements, this is going to be changed.

We have Bill 185 right now that is in committee. Bill 185, again, puts the thumb on the scale of justice on behalf of developers. Bill 185 is a clear assault on planning in the province—good planning. What it does is, there’s a clause in that bill that will allow developers at any time to go to any municipality and ask for land to be rezoned. If a municipality says no, they can then take it to the Ontario Land Tribunal, which we know is being stacked as quickly as it can by Ford insiders who will side on behalf of the developers. If the municipalities say yes and agree with developers, no third party can appeal. So this is all skewed in favour of development that may or may not be in the right place.

It also provides absolutely no ability for municipalities to plan their infrastructure costs. Let’s be clear about it: These costs are borne by taxpayers. Who pays for these unplanned infrastructure requirements if a developer, all of a sudden, in the middle of a municipal planning session, now says, “Okay, we’re going to make this development, and we need roads and we need sewers and we need schools and we need fire,” and whatever—all the infrastructure? That’s on the backs of municipalities and municipal taxpayers to provide that, whether or not the municipality has the ability to fiscally plan and provide for that.

Again, this is stealth: little pieces here, little pieces there that are going to accomplish exactly what the greenbelt grab was trying to do. They haven’t gone away. They’re not over it. They’re just doing it in a sneaky way, hoping people won’t actually be able to identify it because there’s parts in all these bills that the government is putting forward. This bill is also proof positive that the government is still at it, still working on behalf of not the people of the province of Ontario, but insiders and developers.

Schedule 1, which I’ve talked about extensively before, amends the Environmental Assessment Act, which will expedite the expropriation of property without an environmental assessment. Many of the people in Wilmot who are set to lose—is it 7,000 acres in Wilmot? It’s a huge amount of farmland. They point to this schedule that means that land can be taken and rezoned without an environmental assessment. That’s in this bill.

What I want to focus on in this bill is schedule 3. In schedule 3, the government’s at it again. It’s a mystery as to why this government keeps insisting on expanding boundaries and jurisdictions that over and over and over again have said that they don’t want that. So schedule 3 outlines a number of changes to official plans across municipalities such as Barrie, Belleville, Halton, York. Waterloo, particularly, is one that’s aggrieved by this. Why are these here? These were moved before, had to be withdrawn, and now they’re back again. So why does this government continue to do this when there is clearly municipalities that said loud and clear that they do not want their boundaries expanded?

We had a—what do we call it? We had a ministerial briefing. I couldn’t remember what it’s called for a second. In the ministerial briefing, we asked for evidence as to why these 13 changes are in this bill. Who asked for them? Where did they come from? They were not able to provide any answers as to where the requests came from or whether there was any evidence that these changes met with the provincial policy statement or met with existing planning and zoning regulations in the province. There was no answer to that. So again, who is running the show here? Like, how are we doing planning in the province? Is it all being driven by the Premier’s office? There is no clear answer as to what municipality and why they had requested this.

We know that this government is really concerned with upper-tier municipalities and wants to download the responsibility to lower-tier municipalities. I’m going to talk about Caledon in a bit and show what complete planning chaos that has resulted in when lower-tier municipalities, who don’t have the complex of expertise in planning, can actually be persuaded by developers and by perhaps other actors in the scene to move forward on things that aren’t good planning and good policy.

We moved a number of amendments as we always do. And of course, every single amendment that we moved was voted down by the government.

I just want to say, one amendment that we moved was with respect to a change that was being made in Burlington. The amendment we moved would have removed the minister’s re-designation of certain environmentally sensitive lands in Burlington from north Aldershot policy area to urban area. The lands in question are part of the Eagle Heights properties owned by Penta Properties, now known as Alinea Group Holdings. These properties include greenbelt lands and are very environmentally sensitive. This is why Halton region established special policies for north Aldershot, including these lands, and reaffirmed these policies when it adopted its regional official plan.

Interestingly enough, the Integrity Commissioner report described how Penta had hired a Ford friend and lobbyist and Ford wedding guest to lobby the government to have these properties removed from the greenbelt—more evidence that we’re still at the same game here. It’s insider influence. It’s special treatment.

We tried to move an amendment to take that out. The government, of course, at committee used their majority to side with this insider preferential treatment.

We did the same thing—we moved an amendment—to remove the ministerial amendments to Waterloo’s adopted regional plan that forces the region to vastly expand various urban boundaries.

We know that the affordability task force made it clear that the housing crisis was not caused by a lack of land. Let’s be clear: This was your government’s own hand-picked affordability task force. I should also note that BC is killing it when it comes to housing starts. They said quite clearly that they were inspired by and used the recommendations from the province of Ontario’s affordability task force. So we are laggards here—laggards. I think we’re building one tenth I think, if that, of housing that’s happening in BC. Had this government listened to their own affordability task force and not spend so much time trying to tip the scales, we would have been so further ahead.

So that is another amendment that we tried to move to make sure that the region of Waterloo’s good planning would continue.

I also would like to note, because we’re talking about tolls on highways, we moved an amendment that would allow the government to exempt truckers from tolls on Highway 407. So we know that moving traffic to the underused 407 from the overused 401 would reduce traffic and would reduce burdens on commuters. And if the question is really about saving commuters time so they get home to their families sooner and safer—which is important—why is this government continuing to vote down this idea about removing tolls for truckers on the 407 so we can expediate traffic in the province?

I want to just also say it’s really important to talk about this Wild West of planning chaos that this government has unfolded. If we look at Caledon—I’m going to quickly read from an article the highlights of what has happened in the town of Caledon: So Mayor Groves “faced angry residents and made a series of misleading statements, claiming bylaws under her name that suddenly appeared out of nowhere on a council agenda … to push through huge developments along the controversial GTA West Highway”—which is the 413—“will ensure proper planning and the types of homes people need.

“Lawyers and consultants hired … to make recommendations on the massive 35,000-unit development” also wrote the mayor’s bylaws—were in a position of conflict of interest.

“Residents demanded to know if the lawyer … hired under Groves” was working for the same developer who stood “to make billions of dollars from the scheme.” They found out that they are.

So the same interest developers that are working to make sure that the 413 goes through and that the housing developments go through by changing the planning rules work for the developer. It’s a huge conflict of interest. This is happening under this government’s watch and, I would say, with this government’s encouragement.

“The regional reports ... from Caledon ... show $12.9 billion would be needed just for water infrastructure to support only a third of the … units” that were being built, and “no explanation … about how tens of billions of dollars will be covered to create all the infrastructure needed....

“Facing mounting backlash, including calls for a criminal investigation, Groves suddenly” backtracked, just like this government is backtracking.

I think it’s interesting that some of the constituents that were there had—the same sort of things that we’re saying—to say about this government, about what they’re forcing them to do. I would say one constituent said quite clearly: “‘Stop hiding behind the excuse of a housing crisis,’ one delegate replied.”

And so, I think that’s the point here. This government talks about the housing crisis, which there is, but we have to ask the question: Why is this government continuing to meddle, but not making any progress when it comes to building housing in this province? I mean, who is this government working for when they build on farmland and then they don’t protect precious soil? Who is this government working for when they don’t focus on food security but instead focus on development for their friends?

Finally, I would say, we do need housing and we need it now. So why is this government prioritizing building on land which is the costliest and slowest to develop? We need housing now and we need to see a government—instead of putting these sneaky little pieces of legislation that will ensure you continue to get what you want for the insiders and the preferential treatment behaviour that you’re under investigation for, we would like to see a government that prioritizes people that actually need homes to live in.