I also would like to invite some folks who are here today for National Housing Day: Savhanna Wilson, Peter Martin, Daniella Leacock, Tracy Murdoch, Leslie R. Gash, Steve Lurie, Dicle Han, Harmy Mendoza, Eric Mariglia and Floret Williams. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’m always excited when somebody comes from eastern Ontario. I’d like to welcome the mayor of Cornwall, Justin Towndale, who’s here for Good Roads.

Good morning, Speaker. I’m also very proud to rise in the House today to welcome a number of housing advocates. They’ve travelled from across Ontario. I’d like to welcome Genna Ross, Jenna Yuill, Brian Harris, Beth Edwards, Bobbie Gunn, Cynthia Meshorer, Laura Paley, Sameer Butt, Shannan Humphreys and Dr. Siu Mee Cheng from Street Haven.

I’d like to welcome to the House today a great barrister in the province of Ontario who has appeared in every level of court up to the Supreme Court of Canada, and a great friend, Paul McDonald.

I’d also like to welcome Tony Stolk, a great resident of Durham region and a great community activist.

I also welcome Travis Mellema, chief of Lanark county paramedics, along with Mike Nolan—champions for the community paramedic program.

It’s my pleasure to also welcome housing advocates: Kenneth Duru, Mary Ziraba, Shenikah Solomon, Marlene Coffey, Kizito Musabimana and Tabitha Gachoka. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

On behalf of our Associate Minister of Housing, he has asked me to please extend, and I’d like to extend my welcome, to Neal Roberts, the chief of the Middlesex London Paramedic Service, who is here to join us today at Queen’s Park.

Je voudrais aussi souhaiter la bienvenue aux personnes qui sont ici pour National Housing Day : Nicola Andrews, Aishwarya Minocha, Naima Badru, Bee Lee Soh, Vee Gandhi, Talisa Beaudoin, Belinda Marchese, Kegan Harris and Helen Armstrong. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I want to announce that Martel Spracklin from grade 8 is a page captain today. He’s from my riding, the best riding in Ontario, Etobicoke Centre.

I have several individuals here today to celebrate National Housing Day: Shulan Tien, Jennifer Stone, Gracie Robbin, Rachel Seaward, Marlene Ham, Frederick Cox, Glen Hutzul, Chanel St. Pierre, Reihona Abduli, Shannon Hirsch, Silvia Samsa, Andrea Hatala, Victor Willis, Kevin Thomas, Karen Mitton, Bailee, Melissa Bosman, and Hayley Wine. Welcome to your House.

Today is National Housing Day, and we are very happy that we’re being joined by a number of advocates, including some very important organizations: Street Haven, Ontario Coalition of Women Shelter and Supportive Housing Providers, Elizabeth Fry Society of Northeastern Ontario, Rwandan Canadian Healing Centre, United Way Greater Toronto, and Evangel Hall among them.

I’m looking forward to speaking at your reception later today.

That concludes our introduction of visitors for this morning.

Speaker, that’s actually incorrect. We’ve been moving on the recommendations of the task force; the Leader of the Opposition knows that full well.

We’ve also reached out to our municipal partners to ask them to identify which of the task force recommendations we can move on very quickly, Mr. Speaker. We are having a housing forum next week in Toronto with many of our partners so that we can identify, again, further actions that were identified in the task force recommendations. It is our intention to ensure that we move very aggressively. We’ve also told our municipal partners if growth is not going to be out and if it’s going to be within existing boundaries, then they should all expect to do their part and we will accept nothing less.

I will say this, Speaker: The NDP have brought forward a plan that is uncosted, that literally cannot happen. We saw yesterday the very disappointing federal economic statement when it comes to building housing across the country. But we are going to continue to double down, work with our municipal partners, work with home builders, work with advocates that across the system to build a full range of housing—market housing, affordable housing, attainable housing—because that is what is needed to build a bigger, better, stronger province of Ontario.

But at the same time, what we saw in the province of Ontario is that there was a supply problem, particularly on the rental side. People just were not getting back into the rental construction business. Thanks to the policies of this government, we have seen record-high purpose-built rental starts.

At the same time, Speaker, we started advocating more than a year ago, and the Minister of Finance put in one of his budgets, that we wanted to remove the HST from purpose-built rentals. Unfortunately, it took the federal government a little over a year to confirm our ability to do that. But the results have been spectacular. Partners are getting back into it, and we’re very encouraged by what we’re seeing across the province.

She talks about tuition, yet she voted against reducing tuition by 10%. She voted against the freeze. Yesterday, they were asking questions, asking us to increase tuition fees for students. We’re not going to do that. We’re going to make sure that we have a vibrant post-secondary education. They voted against removing tolls. They voted against removing the licence plate stickers. When the Minister of Finance brought in a tax credit for the lowest-income-earning Ontarians, virtually eliminating them from the income tax rolls, the NDP voted against that. They voted against the Minister of Education’s groundbreaking daycare reforms that saw rates halved—

Today is the National Day of Housing and I want to acknowledge the advocacy of the many people and organizations who are taking action today.

This question is for the Premier. Ontario’s housing crisis has many causes, but I want to focus on three. The first: exclusionary zoning and the outdated planning rules that actually make it illegal to build homes people can afford in the neighbourhoods they want to live in. Ending exclusionary zoning was a top recommendation of the government’s own Housing Affordability Task Force.

So, Speaker, to the Premier: Instead of taking those recommendations, why did he waste a year giving preferential treatment to his greenbelt speculator friends?

The NDP is proposing a massive expansion of affordable and non-market housing. We want to double the current supply so people have homes that they can actually afford to live in. Back to the Premier: When will his government make the necessary investments to build the affordable and non-market homes that this province needs?

This brings me to the third cause: financialization. By ignoring non-market housing and leaving everything to the private sector, we are seeing housing being treated as a commodity, not as a human right. Under this government, we’re seeing more and more rent gouging and unethical evictions. Tenants are being unfairly displaced. We’ve even heard of a tenant in Toronto–St. Paul’s whose landlord raised their rent by $7,000 a month.

Speaker, will the Premier support the NDP’s call to bring back real rent control, or does he think that a landlord should have the right to raise a person’s rent by $7,000 per month?

To the Premier, when will your government implement the solutions that Ontarians are asking for?

Bad-faith evictions have skyrocketed under this government, yet the Landlord and Tenant Board has issued just 13 fines for bad-faith evictions in four years—13 in four years.

To the Premier: Is this because the Premier has stacked the board with his party’s unqualified friends instead of protecting the rights of tenants?

I would like to introduce my good friend Dr. Mitra Kafle and his wife Durga Kafle, parents of our legislative usher Justin Kafle. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to introduce Lyn Adamson, Sarah Spinks, Kate Azure and Gail Fairley, here from Seniors for Climate Action Now.

For National Housing Day, we have many people here—it’s great to have you here—including Narmatha Vannarajah, Krishni Ganesan, Janet Bennett-Cox, David Turnbull, Roslyn Shields, Sean Kidd, Josephine Flores, Sheila Lacroix and Althea Santos. It’s great to have you here.

I want to join with the minister to stand in thanking Good Roads and all the fantastic work they do, and invite all members of this House to go to the Good Roads reception at 5 o’clock. Thank you for everything you do, Good Roads.

I want to welcome the Good Roads Association to Queen’s Park today. I want to thank their president, John Parsons; Scott Butler, executive director and manager of government relations; and Thomas Barakat, for the great work they do. I also invite members to join their reception this evening.

I’d like to welcome housing advocates Mina Mawani, Zefanie Smith, Lori-Dale Palmer, Cory Roslyn, Laverne Blake, Anna Morgan, Britney Bempong, Ainsley Chapman, Farrah Al-Mutawa and Don Young. Welcome to Queen’s Park.