This past Saturday, I attended the Coldest Night of the Year in my community of Niagara Falls. The Coldest Night of the Year is a fundraiser for Project Share, an organization that does incredible work in our community supporting food security, housing help and healthy living. On Saturday, they raised $65,000.

But their job is getting harder and harder. We know we have a cost-of-living crisis across the province of Ontario. In Niagara, 20%, or one in five households, are food insecure. Over 75,000 individuals in Niagara experience food insecurity.

When it comes to housing, a person earning minimum wage in the province of Ontario needs to work 81 hours to afford a two-bedroom rental.

We have several encampments throughout the region of Niagara of individuals experiencing homelessness. In this last fiscal year, Project Share served one in eight residents in Niagara Falls.

As a province, we must do more to tackle the affordability crisis. We must get government back in the business of building affordable housing and bring back rent controls, which this government took out. We must increase social assistance, end the practice of deeming and fund social services agencies appropriately. Finally, we must have the courage to take on corporate price gouging wherever we see it. By taking action, we can make life more affordable for the residents of Ontario.