It’s a pleasure to rise in this chamber to discuss Bill 200 with everyone.

Let’s start by facing the facts: The Premier is in damage control. After the disastrous reception of Bill 185, the Premier realizes he needs to give a little something for everyone. Instead of passing landmark housing policy, he’s trying to pump out a little goodie bag to keep stakeholders quiet over the summer.

Who is really driving housing policy? Is it the Premier, who’s got the minister on a leash, or is it the other way around? I guess we’ll never know. Or we could wait for another minister to write a book about their time trying to keep a struggling ministry afloat, which is a book that I would preorder.

This bill gets too much credit—because let’s talk about flip-flops. And I’m not talking about the kind of flip-flops the Premier might have been wearing at last night’s backyard barbecue. I’m talking about the kind of flip-flops they’re trying to camouflage in this bill. Schedule 2, the Ontario Heritage Act—that’s a flip-flop. Schedule 5, the Planning Act—again, that is a flip-flop.

When this government flip-flops, you never know whether it’s going to land in the clear, and on this occasion, they’re doing the right thing. But how much uncertainty, how much spooking of the housing sector had to take place in order for them to get here? The answer is: too much.

By forcing municipalities to determine whether their listed heritage sites would be designated according to an unrealistic timeline, they have forced them to reroute valuable administrative resources that municipalities needed to get homes built, that they couldn’t use to get homes built. But this government isn’t concerned about that. After all, Bill 185 entirely abandons the “1.5 million homes by 2031” housing target.

At least this bill realizes the error of the government’s ways and flip-flops to give municipalities more time to give notice of intention to designate homes as heritage sites. It’s good that this government can realize when it’s wrong, but I think the people of Ontario would appreciate if they weren’t wrong every day, because these flip-flops are costly, not just for the taxpayer, but to everyone waiting for a place to call home.

Madam Speaker, I wish that was the end of it; I genuinely do. But when you make your way down to schedule 5 of this bill, you realize there is yet another flip-flop staring you in the face—and again, not the Premier’s flip-flops from last night. I’m talking about the legal protection this government legislated for itself with regard to ministerial zoning orders. Do you remember that—when the government covered its own hide for reversing on all those MZOs? Yes, so that was with changes to the Planning Act. All those developers that the government dragged down into the mess of their own making—well, the government railroaded them too. They were left out to dry without any recourse for legal action. That didn’t sit well with Ontario’s development industry, even those that weren’t involved with the Premier’s greenbelt-giveaway fiasco.

The government wants to hand out MZOs to build transit-oriented communities. Well, no one trusts the government anymore on those MZOs. They don’t believe those MZOs mean anything. And if those developers have those MZOs cancelled, they wouldn’t have any insurance that they could then avail themselves of legal action. Never in the history of Ontario has there been a government that has created so much uncertainty in Ontario’s housing sector.

Let me be clear: I am in support of transit-oriented communities. We need to increase density, and we need to do it in major transit areas. I want to make that clear to the minister and his entire office, because it seems they have their wires crossed on this issue. But I want to make sure that the whole House and all the people of Ontario realize—

Interjections.

I want to make sure that the whole House and all the people of Ontario realize the absurdity that is this government having to walk back legislation to reassure home builders that they will still be able to sue them if they flip-flop on their MZOs. That’s where we are, folks. That’s how low this government has taken us.

We will support this legislation, but it’s embarrassing that we have to. I can understand why this government is rushing this bill through in one day, because it is frankly so embarrassing that so much of this bill even had to be written. It makes sense why they don’t want to take it to committee, because the stakeholders would flame them there. Well, perhaps that would happen more behind the scenes, as it already has. Regardless, it would be pretty awkward.

The housing sector has had enough of this government jerking it around. When it comes to health care, I have come to the conclusion that this government’s neglect is intentional and deliberate. But I do believe that the government’s mismanagement of the housing file boils down to another one of Ford’s finest signature blends: NIMBYism and incompetence.

But it turns out that a broken clock can be right twice a day, and that is the case for this government in some sections of the bill. This bill does get some things right, against all odds and in spite of this government’s signature blend of incompetence. For example, it offers a 10-day cooling-off period, after the purchase of new freehold homes, to cancel their contract without reason or penalty. This is to ensure that new homeowners can make sure their purchase was the right choice for themselves, and so they’re fully equipped with all of the information that they need. Surprisingly, this government is actually taking the advice of the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board and the Ontario Real Estate Association, although it is still flouting many of the Housing Affordability Task Force’s major recommendations.

Do you know what, Madam Speaker? A chance for homebuyers to make sure their purchase was the right choice? Some time for them to make sure they’ve got all the information correct?

Frankly, I think this government should legislate a 10-day cooling-off period for itself when it passes legislation, just so that we can all make sure.

This bill also bans consumer notices of security interest. There are far too many examples of people who have been caught unaware of NOSIs registered on their property and who have subsequently been subjected to exorbitant fees that feel extortionary. Something has to be done about that. While retroactively banning consumer NOSI registrations will be a good thing for homebuyers and we support that, this government must ensure that it puts the protections in place so that this change only affects bad-faith actors, not good-faith actors. Some of the people who have been impacted most are people who are elderly, who are new to our province, or who don’t speak English. Banning consumer notices of security interest is indeed an important step to introducing more fairness and equality to people who own homes. Ultimately, we need to do what is best for the 350,000 homeowners who will be protected by this policy, but this government needs to do it responsibly.

On to legal protections: It is understandable, especially for this government, that they would want to put legal protections in place for themselves regarding NOSIs. But in the same breath, they are also legislating legal protections for any action taken by Teranet. What’s up about that? Does it have anything to do with NOSIs? Is this about cancelling a contract and changing vendors? This bill offers no transparency, and this process, frankly, offers no time to even figure it out.

Does the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery have any of these answers? Does the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing? Does anyone? Does the Premier know—or is this coming from somewhere else entirely? Those of us on this side of the House would like to know.

While we’re on the topic of transparency, let’s talk about builders’ cancellation disclosures. This bill would require the public disclosure of builders’ histories of cancellation disclosures, providing consumers with greater confidence and peace of mind. This is a good thing for homebuyers. It keeps everyone honest, and we support it.

But I find it odd that we are talking about homeowner protection and we are living in a time when the government can’t even ensure that a home is physically protected from crime, break-ins and armed robberies. This bill has some worthwhile elements to it, but it’s disgraceful that this government hasn’t included anything to do with helping Ontarians protect their homes and their families from crime. In my community, break-ins have been on the rise ever since this government took office, and far too little has been done to make them feel safe in their homes. For this government’s next bill, I do hope that they will take this into consideration.

Just one last thing, on MZOs: With all the talk about MZOs, how about this government actually using them to build homes instead of as political favours? If you want any proof that this government treats MZOs as political tools, look no further than 175 Cummer in the Minister of Long-Term Care’s riding. That inaction is forcing the city of Toronto to pay millions in storage for modular homes.

We’ll pass this bill, but will the government get its act together?

I want to end by concluding with just how regrettable this accelerated and expedited process is for denying a fulsome review of everything in this Legislature. I will say now what I said before, which is that this bill is an embarrassment and didn’t need to happen—an embarrassment so great that a bill that is being touted as a housing bill wasn’t even put out under the housing minister’s name; it was put out under the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery.

In conclusion, I thank all members of the House for participating in this debate and for putting this bill forward. I regret that it has been done in such an expedited manner, but I look forward to the ensuing stages of reviewing this later this afternoon.

It’s an honour for me to rise here today to add some remarks on Bill 200. To my mind, this marks some of the best collaboration I have had the opportunity to witness within this chamber in my six years as a legislator.

We’ve all seen the horrific stories of seniors, people living with disabilities and new Canadians who have been targeted by these insidious HVAC scams. It’s been absolutely unconscionable to see that these companies will end up using ridiculously long contracts that actually are longer than the lifespan of the unit, and that the contracts will also have these appliances accrue interest year over year. What appliance gets more expensive the more you use it? It makes no sense. The fact that they will take a bite out of the value of a homeowner’s home is absolutely unacceptable.

The reason we are here is because the dithering Liberal government did not respond to this crisis properly. They banned door-to-door sales, but yet there was no enforcement to that. It was like they took care of a side issue. They looked at the method of this scam, but not actually the beating heart of this scam itself. The beating heart of this scam is the NOSI or the lien.

Despite the fact that door-to-door sales are banned, these companies have found other ways in, they have pivoted. They will contact people through email, they will set up phone calls, they will tell people that they have won prizes, thereby gaining entry.

I want to thank all of the investigative reporters, whether it’s W5 or CBC Marketplace, who have had hidden-camera investigations, which have really shone a light on what this scam actually is.

It’s been really unfortunate that Liberal inaction has allowed these companies to continue to get away with this for so many years. So here we are today, dealing with this issue in a collaborative, proactive way.

I’ve got to say, I was initially not all that impressed when the government first mentioned the study of NOSIs. I was a little bit worried. I thought it would be imbalanced, unfair and that people wouldn’t receive justice. I’ve been following this for a number of years. It’s something that I’ve cared very passionately about, and I’ve got to say that there’s been so much work done in this space, and as legislators, we cannot ignore what has happened in people’s lives.

After thinking about this for some time, I’ve tried different ways to develop legislation to combat it. There’s been many different approaches, but we have to cut the head off of the snake with this scam. We have to get rid of the beating hart of this scam which is the NOSI or the lien.

I want to thank Dennis Crawford, who has been incredible to work with. He’s done excellent work fighting for and informing people about this scam. And I also want to thank people who came forward and shared their stories with us.

There was Linda Palmieri, a constituent of the MPP from Humber River–Black Creek. We had staff litigation lawyers from the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, Sarah Tella and Bethanie Pascutto.

This fall, when discussing the consumer protection bill, Bill 168, I was asking this government time and again if retroactivity was going to included within any discussion of NOSIs and we weren’t really given much cause to support any upcoming legislation, because there was really no indication that retroactivity was going to be provided. I was really quite worried that this government wasn’t going to go far enough, so as a result, I tabled my bill, Bill 169, and I want to thank the member for Humber River–Black Creek, our consumer protection critic, I want to thank the member from Waterloo and I want to thank the member from Parkdale–High Park for also being my co-sponsors on this legislation.

I’ve got to say, I did prefer my title, but I decided not to go and change that during Committee of the Whole House. It was the Removing Red Tape for Homeowners (No More Pushy, High-Pressure HVAC Scams) Act, but with that legislation, it did both things: It looked forward and it also looked backward. It included that retroactivity which is central and is key and is something that we must do.

It’s not fair to go and say, “Now is year zero, and we’re going to start looking after people and make sure that they aren’t being scammed.” We need and we have a moral and ethical duty to make sure that people who have been victimized and exploited by this scam are also protected, and so I want to thank the government for including that within Bill 200.

I’ve got to say, on the day when I tabled this legislation along with my co-sponsors, I had the opportunity to ask, in question period—and there aren’t many times where I’m, quite frankly, speechless, but when I asked the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery about this, and the minister indicated that they would be following Bill 169 and including retroactivity, I was so glad. I’m so glad to see that we, together as legislators, are going to take care of an awful mess that has been left for years—to take care of this predatory, horrible industry which exploits people and takes money out of their pocket.

I want to thank also police services, advocacy organizations—all the people who have been trying to get change within this space for a number of years.

I also want to share some feedback that I have received, and it was written to me:

“Without the opposition pushing this issue forward, the government may not have acted until later, and their action may have been less comprehensive than what has been proposed in the announcement.

“Thank you, Terence, for your leadership on this important public issue!”

I want to also send a message from this Legislature to those predatory scam companies. I want to ask them a question: How on earth is it possible that you can live with yourself when every dollar in your pocket is based on human suffering? I want to ask: How could you look yourself in the mirror and pretend that you’re a decent person? This Legislature today has shown that we are on to your scams. You can try to pivot. You can try and slither away, but we will continue to respond with legislation to make sure that this does not happen to seniors, people living with disabilities and new Canadians. Stop scamming people and put your efforts into a real, decent job.

Thank you very much for the time, Speaker. Again, I commend the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery. I want to thank all members here for providing me with this opportunity to speak today.