Yes—as we take decisive measures to strengthen tenant protections and remedies. That’s why Ontario’s rental housing starts so far this year are more than double the amount the same time last year.

That’s why Ontario is becoming the number one jurisdiction for businesses, for jobs, and for newcomers, with more active cranes in the skies of Toronto right now than there are in New York, Chicago, LA, Washington, DC, Seattle, and San Francisco combined.

But the NDP and Liberals would rather drag us back to the past. They would rather table legislation adding more red tape to delay, obstruct and oppose our progress.

In closing, our government is committed to ensuring the well-being of the people of Ontario and making sure that tenants and landlords are treated fairly. We’ll continue to look for ways to make homes more attainable for hard-working Ontarians, while making it easier to build more houses and rental units to address the ongoing supply crisis. This work is critical because we know that when communities and residents thrive, Ontario thrives.

Honourable members of this House, it is my pleasure to rise today in response to the opposition motion concerning rent control and vacancy decontrol. The issue is of paramount importance to our government, as Ontarians are facing a housing supply shortage from decades of inaction by the previous government.

Last June, Ontarians gave our government a strong mandate to help more Ontarians find a home that meets their needs and budget. In response, we’ve taken decisive action to get 1.5 million homes built by 2031.

I’m proud to say that our efforts have already generated historic results. In 2021, our province broke ground on a record number of new home starts, with almost 100,000 starts in only 12 months. In 2022, we maintained our success and saw the second-highest number of starts since 1988, with just over 96,000 new homes—this is 30% higher than the average of the past 20 years. The same year, we saw the highest number of rental housing starts on record, with nearly 15,000 purpose-built rentals, a 7.5% increase from 2021.

Key stakeholders are taking note. Tony Irwin, president and CEO of the Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario and member of our Housing Supply Action Plan Implementation Team, had this to say: “The recently introduced Bill 97 provides needed clarity for rental providers and creates a framework to increase protections for displaced residents in aging rental stock. FRPO members appreciate the balanced approach this government is taking in tackling the housing crisis, and this bill helps to further strike that right balance.”

Speaker, there is still much to be done. Our province is booming with newcomers and job creators from around the world, and they’re coming to Ontario, looking to call our province home. Our housing supply crisis is a problem that has been decades in the making. It will take both short-term strategies and long-term commitment from all levels of government, the private sector, and not-for-profits to ensure that Ontario remains the best place to live, work, raise a family and grow a business. That is why we continue to work with municipalities and our partners to update our housing supply action plans to help build more homes and make life more affordable for Ontarians.

Our latest plan, Bill 97, the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023, is geared towards further laying the foundation for growth, while expanding on protections for renters and for homebuyers.

Speaker, we are fixing the Landlord and Tenant Board—a need we very often hear about from both landlords and tenants in my riding of Mississauga–Streetsville. We’re investing an additional $6.5 million in funding to hire 40 new adjudicators and five full-time support staff, effectively doubling the total number of adjudicators on the Landlord and Tenant Board to provide critical support in addressing the COVID-19 backlog and ensuring that cases are heard in a timely manner.

That’s not all. We are also proposing greater legal protection for tenants facing renovictions and those facing landlord’s-own-use evictions; as an example, imposing the strictest penalties in all of Canada on bad actors, with maximum fines for offences increasing to $100,000 for individuals and $500,000 for corporations.

It’s this government that is standing up for everyday people by sending a strong message to bad actors that violations of the Residential Tenancies Act will not be tolerated.

Speaker, we’re hard at work for all Ontarians to ensure that tenants and landlords are treated fairly and with dignity. That’s why we’re capping the rent increase guideline at 2.5%, based on Ontario’s consumer price index; if we hadn’t, due to recent inflation, this would have resulted in a 2023 guideline of 5.3%. We’re also proposing to strengthen tenant protections and remedies, including increasing compensation for bad faith evictions or renovictions. We want to encourage a safe and fair system when renting a property, so that the tenant and landlord can benefit.

We also know that the root issue is supply, and to stimulate the construction of new rental housing, we introduced an exemption from rent control rules for new buildings, additions to existing buildings, and most new basement units occupied for the first time for residential purposes after November 15, 2018.

Speaker, let’s take a minute to talk about how we got here. As we’ve heard, the NDP are so ideologically opposed to taking any meaningful action to increase the supply of housing that they once again plan to oppose tenant protections. They’re opposed to a housing supply plan put forward by our government for the fourth time—the same Liberals and NDP who, when they had a chance to help renters, stood by as the cost of housing skyrocketed, leading to the rental supply crisis that we are now working to address.

The Liberals talk about affordability, while they were in government for 15 years and failed to do anything about the rising cost of living except increase hydro rates and taxes.

Let’s not forget that when the NDP were last in power, rents went up—sorry; the rental guides went up: 4.6% in 1990; 5.4% in 1991; and 6% in 1992—all when inflation was significantly lower than it is today.

We’ll take no lessons from the NDP on making anything affordable for Ontarians. They said no to requiring landlords to make efforts to negotiate a repayment agreement with a tenant before the Landlord and Tenant Board can issue an eviction order. They said no to increased maximum fines for Residential Tenancies Act offences to $50,000 for an individual and $250,000 for a corporation; no to requiring landlords to disclose to the board if they have previously filed for eviction to move into or renovate the unit; and no to increased tenant compensation for bad faith evictions.

Speaker, in stark contrast, this Premier, this minister, and this government are standing shoulder to shoulder with tenants across Ontario as we—

Interjections.