That’s time for the questions and responses. Thank you very much—

Interjections.

Interjections.

Interjections.

All right. We’re going to move to further debate.

I recognize the member for Chatham-Kent–Leamington.

I’m honoured to rise today to speak to the third reading of Bill 185, the Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024. This pivotal piece of legislation seeks to reduce the critical barriers red tape causes to productivity, economic development, growth and our prosperity. Unnecessary, redundant bureaucratic burden impacts the lives of everyday people in my riding of Chatham-Kent–Leamington. These are the very people who are working hard to build our homes, who work in businesses of all sizes—the people who employ others. That’s why we’re focusing on creating the conditions to help individuals, families and businesses thrive everywhere in Ontario.

Since 2018, our government has made significant progress by bringing forward regulations focused on reducing costs that are helping create a more competitive market environment across the province. We’ve also saved people, businesses, not-for-profit organizations and the broader public sector over $1 billion in gross annual compliance costs that they would have otherwise had to face. We’ve also reduced the number of regulatory compliance requirements affecting Ontario businesses and other regulated entities by 6% as of September of last year.

We know that more work needs to be done. As the province continues to grow, we’ll keep working hard to improve government services and reduce unnecessary burdens on people and businesses. We’re striving to make life easier for all people of Ontario by introducing significant burden reduction and regulatory modernizations. Our government is on a mission to support municipalities to build homes for people throughout Ontario and create improved quality of life by building stronger communities for everyone, from students to families and seniors.

Since 2018, we’ve saved Ontario’s businesses $1 billion in gross annualized compliance costs. That’s a big deal. Our most recent rating by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s red tape report card is proof our efforts to reduce red tape are working in tangible ways—ways that we’re all feeling.

Housing supply shortages have become a significant challenge for many communities across the country, and Chatham-Kent is no exception. I’ve heard from people of all ages from across my riding how delayed processes, high interest rates and limited supply have created significant obstacles for many homeowners and renters in our communities. In the face of these challenges, immediate and urgent action is required to facilitate the development of a wide range of new housing units to enhance housing affordability for everyone.

Bill 185 represents this opportunity. It’s a concerted effort to remove barriers that often delay or deter construction projects. By simplifying regulatory procedures, expediting approvals and promoting innovation in housing development, this legislation aims to unleash the full potential of our housing market and underscores the commitment to fostering a dynamic and inclusive housing sector that meets the diverse needs of our growing provincial population.

We’re proposing a regulation to ensure ministries develop business service standards for permits and licence services to help businesses understand how long they can expect to wait for a decision about a permit or licence they may need. This legislation would, if passed, allow families to have a realistic horizon on when their home, structure or condo would be built. For individuals, families and businesses, this is critical, because saving time saves money.

Madam Speaker, municipal infrastructure projects are vital to fostering our economic prosperity and enhancing quality of life for everyone. It’s important to make these crucial investments now to power our municipalities and sustain the province’s expansion by maintaining essential systems like water and waste water networks and facilitating connectivity to roads and bridges.

Chatham-Kent is home to more bridges than any municipality in the province of Ontario, and that’s something that weighs on our citizens’ minds.

With the goal of building at least 1.5 million homes by 2031, it requires partnership with municipal governments. Municipalities know their communities best. They know where it makes sense to build homes.

Under the leadership of Premier Ford, we’re supporting municipalities by giving them the tools they need to build homes. We’ve set ambitious housing targets and are holding municipalities accountable and rewarding them for their successes—the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program, the $825-million Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund—

Interjection: Game-changer.

In my home of Chatham-Kent, they have received one of the first cheques of $440,000. In an area that they didn’t expect any homes built, they hit it out of the park. This money contributed to much-needed infrastructure projects for our new housing targets. As a result of our government’s efforts to eliminate needless administration processes, our local builders are expediting construction of homes across Chatham-Kent–Leamington.

I’d like to take an opportunity to thank some of our local home builders that came out to celebrate this success. These included Maple City Homes, the O’Neill Development Group, Liovas Homes, Abraham group, J. Rauti Custom Homes, and many more that are dedicated in their efforts to work with municipalities and with our government to get homes built and shovels in the ground now.

Madam Speaker, I’ve been in conversation with parents of college and university students in my riding who are seriously concerned about the increased cost of renting and a lack of affordable student housing.

We want to make sure students have access to clear and comprehensive information about their housing options before they go off to school. As part of the proposed legislation, all publicly assisted colleges and universities are required to publish detailed housing policies. These include options—what’s available for on-campus and off-campus housing. These policies will ensure that students are aware that safe, affordable options are available to them within a close commute to their campuses. We’ll make sure that institutions implement regular reporting on student housing, providing ongoing transparency and accountability to students and their parents.

It’s an anxious time for parents in my riding who are supporting their kids who are going off to post-secondary school for the first time. A journey down the road to St. Clair College in Chatham or my alma mater, the University of Windsor, is a big deal for families—and it’s where my son is attending this fall.

The choice of a 60-minute commute to campus each day or local options that can be on-campus or off-campus housing can be scarce, they can be scary, and they can be expensive.

Parents across Chatham-Kent–Leamington and across Ontario need realistic, affordable options to support our next generation of leaders.

Beyond the immediate benefits to homebuyers and renters, the Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act will have a positive ripple effect throughout our economy. The construction industry is a significant driver of economic growth, providing jobs and supporting various related industries. As more housing projects move forward, we will see increased employment opportunities for construction workers, engineers, architects, and many more skilled trades, providing for the prosperity of our province.

The reduction of red tape in housing development has also important implications for producers of agriculture. By streamlining the regulatory processes, we can better manage the important balance of clearly defined areas designated for residential development and those reserved for agriculture production. This strategic approach allows for the growth of our communities while protecting food production—and that sector, of course, sustains all of us.

Reducing bureaucratic barriers can encourage the development of innovative housing solutions that integrate well with agricultural areas. We can also promote the construction of farm worker housing that’s critical in Chatham-Lent–Leamington. It’s housing that’s modern, safe and convenient. These options are for the workers who work our fields, our orchards and our greenhouses. They support the workforce, but they also support a safe, consistent food production system that Ontario relies on.

Bill 185 makes significant progress. It’s a milestone in our ongoing mission to address the housing crisis, it supports food production, it supports our kids going to college and university, and it encourages economic prosperity for everyone in Ontario.

Our government is committed to serving all of Ontario. We’re making significant strides toward that goal. If passed, this proposed legislation will pave the way for more success stories across the province.

This legislation facilitates the construction of homes; creates more job opportunities; protects valuable agricultural land by supporting the adoption of innovative practices in farming, planning and the relationship between municipalities that make that planning process work and the province that guides it. This balanced approach ensures we can grow sustainably, providing opportunities for both current and future residents; to do so, we must continue to remove bureaucratic barriers and allow us to build prosperous innovation throughout Ontario. It’s inclusive housing for everyone.

For this reason, the House should support this bill, and I’ll be supporting it.

I thank the member for Niagara Falls for the question.

Who we’re helping? I’ll summarize what I said.

We’re helping students with access to homes on or near campuses—on university campuses, on college campuses, even in Niagara region.

We’re helping farmers develop reasonable, remote, on-farm housing that’s close to the farm, where they want to be. It’s safe.

Innovation means the food systems that feed all of us, and those acres of farmland that may be used to produce a certain number of kilograms per metre squared of agriculture now produce 16 times that much in controlled environment agriculture greenhouses, and they can be built anywhere.

This bill is all about options. It’s all about building a strong relationship between municipalities—444 of them—in the province of Ontario. It’s about investing in infrastructure that can actually build homes. It can build on-campus housing that’s happening right now in the member’s nearby riding at the University of Windsor, our alma mater. So it’s about options—it’s about respecting people, and a wide range of different housing types and different housing needs.

The types of housing we’re seeing now with controlled-environment agriculture, or greenhouses—it’s state-of-the-art. It’s inspired by on-campus housing at universities like Carleton, Ottawa, University of Windsor. It’s safe. It’s clean. It’s secure. By allowing planning to have more infrastructure, to have the waste water, water resources and all the services go to the farm where the housing is located—on-farm campus, where all the supports and resources are there. You have modern, state-of-the-art farms that have housing complexes that don’t resemble anything you’ve ever seen, other than a modern, safe, clean, enjoyable university dorm—separate living quarters, good air exchange, separate eating facilities, washroom facilities.

These valuable workers will live on their farm campus like they would at a university campus—safe, clean, healthy and secure.

I was happy to visit the University of Windsor recently. They have a beautiful hall called Alumni Hall—highly coveted, sought after. Right next to it is its twin hall, stalled in different various stages of construction. That construction and all those planning processes can be released, and 20,000 spaces for new college students and university students can be released with the passage of this bill, because it releases the burden from universities and colleges to go through this myriad of different planning processes and appeals to actually allow this to support families of students everywhere in Ontario.

I pride myself on knowing a whole bunch of stuff about a very little amount of experience—so what I did is, I asked the experts. I asked home builders. I asked a full range of home builders—the niche home builders to the great big guys with the big projects and skyscrapers and multi-family residences. I said, what are the pressures? What do we need to install that wide range of housing options? They said our pressures are coming from three areas: high interest rates—once the interest rates go down, that pent-up need, that pent-up ambition to move on to the next level is released. Two, planning processes—planning processes and delays—and third-party, fourth-removed complaints about someone 50 kilometres away that can stall a critical housing development that can offer a wide range of housing options for a wide range of different people in different markets. That’s what’s happening—interest rates, supply and planning processes. I am very proud to say that this bill remedies a big portion of that.

Thank you for your time, Speaker.

Report continues in volume B.

In under six years of the Conservative government, we’re losing 319 acres of prime farmland every single day. Ontarians can’t afford to buy groceries. They can’t afford to pay their rent. They can’t afford to buy a house—homeless encampments in every community in Ontario. They can’t afford to buy a house. Poverty rates are the highest level in our history—highest debt in the province of Ontario’s history.

So my question is, other than your friends, your developer friends and the Weston family, who are you guys really helping?

Questions?

I want to thank my friend the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington for his remarks, as well as the member from Carleton.

Just spending so much time in the municipal sector, both as a councillor for eight years and about 20 years as a civil servant myself, working on housing applications, I’m delighted to see this bill, because, quite frankly, there is a lot of process involved, a lot of ways that we are stalling the ability to provide housing for people.

I’m hoping the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington can elaborate a bit on the kinds of changes that he sees for his community happening. Potential developments had been stalled, and with the passage of this bill, we’ll be able to see them realized.

I enjoyed the presentation by the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington.

His riding is very similar to mine, and I know that in his riding many young people go off to university or college and they seek to have some housing available to them on-campus. Just like people who leave my riding of Essex, they might go to other places seeking university education or a college education, and they’re looking for on-campus housing.

The good people from McMaster University recognized that this proposed legislation in front of us will allow universities to build student housing more quickly and at a lower cost, while reducing pressure on area market housing for students. So McMaster University recognizes the good work that this proposed legislation will do. My question to the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington is, would he comment on that?

I want to follow up with the member about what you had to say with respect to housing for migrant workers, agriculture workers, because I think this is a really critical issue.

So many of us don’t want to remember the pandemic and all the difficulties it brought upon people in the province, but I remember reckoning with the fact that nine migrant workers died between January 2020 and June 2021. When a study was done—all of the various coroners’ reports, housing experts who were thinking about this—they linked the issues with cramped conditions of housing and the inability of workers to effectively isolate.

I remember a gentleman from Jamaica, I believe it was—he was in his forties—who died on his own while he was isolating, or attempting to isolate.

I’m wondering if you can elaborate—because this is a shared priority we have—on how we can make sure migrant farm workers, who come to this country to feed their families, are safe.