It’s a privilege to welcome members of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association to the Legislative Assembly today. They have a delegation here and I’d like to introduce four of them: Laurie Tucker, president; Sandev Purewal, president-elect; Barb MacFarlane, vice-president; and John Karapita, CEO. They have a reception from 5 to 7 in rooms 228 and 230. All MPPs, of course, are welcome. I hope to see you there.

I think the member opposite has a reading comprehension issue, because that is not what we have been saying at all.

Here’s the thing: They continue to raise the same issue over and over because they don’t want to talk about things like the fact that the carbon tax is going up. The only stated position of the Liberal Party on the carbon tax is that it’s good for people.

Interjection.

Well, I’ll tell you something, Mr. Speaker: There is some hope. They have a new leader, and the new leader has never heard of the issue before, so here’s what she needs to know: The carbon tax is going up by 23% on April 1, and that should be job one.

I’m wondering if the member is asking me if we will pierce the independence of the Landlord and Tenant Board adjudicators. I’m hearing an inconsistency. I’m not quite sure what direction they want us to take in terms of the independence of adjudicators and the enforcement of orders. For us to reach in and make the adjudicators do something—now that would be a question; that would be something that we would have to discuss.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like a clarification, if I could, in the second question.

We are investing in the Landlord and Tenant Board. We have doubled the number of adjudicators. We’ve added more staff. We’ve had more hearings than we’ve had intake. We are making sure that they’re properly resourced and people are having a place to have their hearings.

But tenants also need a place to live. You can take Mississauga as an example, where they only built 12 housing starts in the last term and the development charges are up 27%. That’s a problem because, no matter whether you have a hearing, you wouldn’t have a place to live.

The individuals who apply through an open process are evaluated by the chair of the tribunal, and recommendations come forward for appointment. And I don’t want to speak on behalf of the chair who does the interviews and does the recruitment because that’s a hands-off process, as you would expect it to be. But I can tell you, any mayor of any municipality in this province likely has some exposure to how things work in terms of committees of adjustment and otherwise.

So through you, Mr. Speaker, back to the member: What disqualifies that member?

Interjections.

We have 1.5 million homes to build, and we want to make sure that matters are moving through that tribunal. And if you want to accuse us of meddling because we’re getting homes built, I will tell you, there are rules and professionals in place to help get the job done, and we will get those homes built.