I move that the standing orders be amended as follows:

Standing order 24(a) is deleted and the following is substituted:

“Every member desiring to speak must rise in his or her place and address the Speaker, in either English, French or an Indigenous language spoken in Canada. If a member wishes to address the House in an Indigenous language, they shall, prior to taking their seat for the first time, notify the Clerk of the House of the language in which they intend to speak so the Speaker may arrange appropriate interpretation and translation capabilities.”

For 30 days following the adoption of this motion, standing order 24(a) is suspended and the following is substituted:

“Every member desiring to speak must rise in his or her place and address the Speaker, in either English, French or an Indigenous language spoken in Canada. If a member wishes to address the House in an Indigenous language, they shall notify the Clerk of the House of the language in which they intend to speak so the Speaker may arrange appropriate interpretation and translation capabilities.”

With that, I’ll turn over my time to the Minister of Indigenous Affairs.

No further business.

Speaker, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to allow members to make statements in remembrance of the late Mr. Daryl Kramp, MPP for Hastings–Lennox and Addington, with five minutes allotted to His Majesty’s loyal opposition, five minutes allotted to the independent members as a group and five minutes allotted to His Majesty’s government.

The choice that we made is to overachieve targets by 170% when it comes to renovating and upgrading old housing stock. The choice that we have made is to ensure that we’re at 60% of the target that we are asked to achieve. What is happening is that the federal Liberal government, supported by the NDP, is unilaterally cutting funding to the province of Ontario of over $357 million, on top of the $400 million that they have already shortchanged the people of the province of Ontario.

Our municipal partners agree with us that this is a unilateral cut by the federal government. We remain at the table. We are not going to make up some program because the federal government—the Liberals and NDP—have decided to change the goal post. We meet a target, they change the goal post.

What this is is an immature federal government doing what they do best: pitting one region of the country against another. They’re treating Ontario differently than every other province. We won’t stand for it. We’ll continue to make investments that are right—

What is happening here is classic Liberal and NDP. Because we are meeting our targets—170% of the target; because we are meeting 60% of the target—we’re still months, years away from having to hit the 100% mark. We’re crashing through those targets for the people of the province of Ontario.

What they’re doing is pitting one region against another region. We saw it with the carbon tax. We’re seeing it on housing. You know who can help make a difference? It is the NDP in Ottawa, who hold the balance of power. Instead of supporting a $700-million unilateral cut to the province of Ontario, take down an immature government that pits one—

Interjections.

Oh, Speaker—

Interjection: Where do you start?

Let’s get this straight: The Liberal leader, who takes one position one day, another position the next day, one position one day, another position the next day—it’s like one of those weather vanes in a hurricane; you never know which way they’re going.

Do you know what the reality is? We made the decision to work with our municipal partners, and do you know what they told us? The number one obstacle to building homes is the infrastructure deficit that was left behind by the previous Liberal government. They said that because of the infrastructure deficit, there’s not enough sewer and water in the ground to build millions of homes. That is why Liberals advocate for policies that will build hundreds of homes while we want to build millions of homes. We are not ashamed to work with our partners to put infrastructure in the ground to build millions of homes so that everybody can have the dream of home ownership.

If I was to borrow Bonnie Crombie’s housing plan, I would have the massive record that she had as the mayor of Mississauga. What did we see? The population of Mississauga actually decreased when the population of the province was exploding. In fact, in her last months in office, she had a massive start of 12 homes in her community. So thank you very much. I don’t think this caucus here wants to borrow anything from that small group of individuals over there who, for 15 years, stood in the way of building homes.

You know who agrees with me? The former Liberal cabinet minister who testified at one of our hearings and said that the crisis started under the Liberal watch, Mr. Speaker.

What I’m going to do is this: I’m going to put infrastructure in the ground, and I’m going to make sure we build millions of homes instead of the hundreds that they would like to build.

Speaker, if you seek it, you’ll find unanimous consent to proceed immediately to the afternoon routine, and at its conclusion, the House shall recess until 4 p.m. today.

I move adjournment of the House.