It’s an honour to speak to the initiatives in our government’s proposed Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act.

I want to thank the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the Minister of Red Tape Reduction for his remarks this morning, and also for his tireless work to create an environment in Ontario where the dream of home ownership will not just be a dream but, ultimately, a reality for all.

I’d also like to thank the parliamentary assistants, the member from Perth–Wellington and the member from Etobicoke–Lakeshore, who will be speaking to the bill shortly. It’s great to see them here.

As the Associate Minister of Housing, I naturally want to focus on the initiatives in this bill that relate to housing, and I want to break my time into two components: reviewing the performance of our government to date on the housing front, including both the challenges and opportunities we face in this province; and secondly, how Bill 185, the Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, creates more pathways, better pathways, for more homes to be built faster in Ontario.

I think we all know the population of this province has more than doubled in the last 40 years. In my opinion, we don’t have a housing supply crisis; we have a supply crisis—period—and we need to keep up with the population growth by getting more homes built. We have a lot of opportunities to do that.

Innovation is key, and we’ll talk about that today, but we need solutions-based results. We’re going to break it down in this bill. That’s why I think this bill, again, offers some pathways to better performance and better results to get homes built faster in Ontario, and we’ll talk about those today, but I think before we do, we have to put the bill in context of what has happened already with our government on the housing front up to this point.

Let me begin with what we’ve accomplished. I’ll keep reiterating that provinces, municipal governments and federal governments don’t build houses; community home builders do. Our job is to create the environment for those people to succeed. The challenges we face require an all-of-government approach to work together so that we can create the conditions that enable community builders to get the job done.

Over the last month, I’ve had the honour of presenting funds from the Building Faster Fund to municipalities that met or exceeded their targets, whether it was in Chatham-Kent, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Caledon, Brantford—lots of unique communities throughout the province, not just large cities. We’ve had an interesting experience. I’ve learned a lot, and I’ll conclude on that point at the end of my remarks.

As I’ve travelled the province over the last six months, I’ve learned a lot about this file. I want to talk specifically about the ROMA conference in January—the Rural Ontario Municipal Association. I’m going to use one word, and it’s going to be “infrastructure.” People have heard me say this as I’ve travelled the province: Wherever I went, the word “infrastructure” was key in everybody’s presentations. Through the speed-dating events we had at ROMA and AMO with municipalities, I think the word “infrastructure” was first and foremost in everything I listened to, every delegation I was part of.

Whether it’s in my own riding of Elgin–Middlesex–London, whether it’s in the Ottawa Valley, northern Ontario, the GTHA, or all parts of southwestern Ontario, infrastructure is key.

And when I look at the 2024 budget that has been presented and is still being debated, I would say, in my humble opinion, this is an infrastructure budget. This government has listened, learned and has now acted to make sure that we create the environment to get infrastructure in the ground that’s housing-enabling infrastructure, again, to get more homes built faster.

We made historic investments that include the $1-billion Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program that was presented in the budget. We introduced the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund, which was quadrupled to $825 million. This is in addition to the $1.2 billion in the Building Faster Fund. So over $3 billion has been targeted towards building housing-enabling infrastructure.

Speaker, creating the conditions for gentle density in Ontario is key, and building up and building in is important. You are now permitted, in this province, to build up to three residential units as-of-right on most residential lots without needing a bylaw amended in your municipality.

I want to make this point clearly: Every municipality in Ontario is unique; with 444, plus the north, there are a lot of different needs, and they’re all unique. That is why each of them can determine their own paths and make their own individual choices about density in their communities. The province is a partner with our municipalities, not an overseer, as some might suggest or try to dictate.

The results speak for themselves. I would note that, in the last three years, there have been more housing starts than there have been since the 1980s. Over the last 10 years of our former government, the Liberals averaged just under 68,000 starts per year. Since our government was elected in 2018, we’ve averaged 87,000 starts. That’s an increase of almost 20,000 starts per year. But we know that more is yet to be done, and that is why we’ve introduced Bill 185, the Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act.

Our government has also set the groundwork for building more rental housing. This is key. We have lowered development charges, and we worked with our federal counterparts on removing the HST on new purpose-built rental construction, and we’ve seen success—again, up 19,000 starts last year over 2022, or a 27% increase. I am very impressed with those results. In fact, after just over five and a half years in office, Ontario has more purpose-built rental starts under our government than it did in the 15 years the Liberals were in office.

So, again, we’re on a clear path to success, but I’ll keep reiterating, more is yet to be done. These facts clearly show that our government’s actions are working when it comes to building more homes and market housing across the province. And Ontarians recognize we have more to do.

Again, we’ve talked about listening, learning and acting. We had a housing supply forum back in November 2023, and we had all the stakeholders there, everyone who was involved in the housing continuum. I want to thank them. Their input into this bill has been very important, especially those on the HSAPIT committee—the Housing Supply Action Plan Implementation Team; it’s a unique acronym—led by Mayor Drew Dilkens from Windsor. They have a wealth of knowledge, great experience. We appreciate their input, and we see the results of that input in this bill today.

Now I would like to talk about how this proposed bill is going to focus our efforts in getting more houses built faster.

Student housing: I want to hit on not all initiatives, but some of the key initiatives I think are important. First, let’s consider some of the proposals for student housing.

I’ll tell a quick story. I have a neighbour down the road whose son was going to the University of Guelph. I went to the University of Guelph, and I remember it was easy for me to get into a residence my first year. Housing was—you just didn’t even think that it was an issue. This poor guy had trouble finding anywhere to live in Guelph—anywhere. Residences were full. Basement apartments were not available. Finally, after about two or three months, he found a spot to hang his hat and lay his head every night. It’s wrong.

That is why in this act we’re proposing, we will remove barriers faced by universities when building student housing, that will accelerate approval times for those institutions. The change would enable universities to build faster and better and meet the needs of their student population. This would also ensure that students have access to and are aware of student housing options that are safe, affordable and within an easy commute to campus. Importantly, it’s also better for local communities because it frees up housing, creating more supply, which, again, at the end, is the bane of the housing crisis in this province.

Speaker, the building code—I know it’s not exciting, but when you think about building codes, I’ve learned a lot, and I would like to highlight some of our measures that would build homes faster, and at a lower cost.

The building code is being updated. We’ve also recently completed building consultations on advanced wood construction, like mass timber or encapsulated mass timber, which I think is an important part of our housing supply issue. Although the code is not part of the proposed legislation, its focus on increasing housing supply, innovation and supporting public safety are completely aligned with the goals of this bill.

The building code allows buildings using encapsulated mass timber construction to be up to 12 storeys tall, now moving to 18 storeys—which I think, again, supports going in and going up. The use of mass timber would provide the home building sector with a great opportunity to build innovative new housing. It’s a great opportunity to lower our carbon footprint, and it will be a great boost to our northern economy in this province.

We also have Ontario’s Forest Sector Strategy, which offers significant opportunity to shift housing construction off-site and into factories—like modular homes. This would support even more efficient and rapid construction processes, using renewable forestry resources grown and harvested right here in Ontario, by Ontario workers and for Ontario families. Our province is blessed with abundant natural, renewable resources and a highly skilled forestry sector, so let’s put these magnificent assets to work.

Improving consultation and providing municipalities with greater certainty to get homes built faster is key, and this is a part of the bill I really, really like. When home builders start a project, they may be obligated to provide financial assurance to put infrastructure in the ground to support the homes they will be building—infrastructure such as sidewalks. This financial assurance is commonly provided through a letter of credit or cash. We will be consulting on a potential regulation that would enable landowners to specify the instruments municipalities may use to secure obligations that are municipal conditions of land use planning approvals. I know it’s a lot of words. You can think about it. It may not be exciting, but this is key. This will include pay-on-demand surety bonds.

Speaker, wider acceptance of surety bonds by municipalities could help free up money, free up cash, free up capital for home builders so they can pursue additional home building. It would also make some projects, which currently can’t obtain financing, more viable. So, again, it’s another tool in our tool box to allow us to get more homes built faster, more shovels in the ground in a better way.

These targeted changes will have a far-reaching impact on increasing our housing supply.

As you see, Speaker, our government has been working hard to help get shovels in the ground faster and lower the costs of building new homes, and the red tape reduction part of this bill is going to be key. I know the parliamentary assistant to red tape reduction will be speaking about that shortly and will do so very eloquently. A lot has been done. A lot needs to be done.

Let me just finish with a story or two that I think complements what we’re trying to accomplish on this side of the House with respect to getting more homes built faster.

I was amazed, as I’ve travelled the province, met at ROMA, met with the mayors, met with those that received cheques from the Building Faster Fund, those that earned the funds based on meeting or exceeding minimal targets of 80% of their housing target—again, communities over 50,000. Every one of them was so appreciative, because that money is going to be invested into water, waste water, roads—whatever infrastructure they need. It’s key. It’s important to get things done.

What I found interesting as well is, in the last month, I’ve had many members come to me and, as I travelled the province, many municipalities talked to me, phoned me and said, “I don’t think the numbers were right. Can you go back and check the records? Can you go back and see? Because I really think we qualified for some funding in the BFF.” And of course, we did our due diligence and took a look at it effectively. We have a standard across the province; CMHC does the adjudication.

The point is—it reminds me of my business days—that when you incent people effectively, properly, with the right tools, they listen and they watch; they’re measured, and they want to be accountable. What I found exciting was that in the whole process of handing out these cheques, people want to earn these funds.

We didn’t hand out our proportion of the $1.2 million—all of it—this year, but it’s important to note that what’s left over, what municipalities didn’t earn, they can apply for to get some of those infrastructure dollars, again, for waste water, water, roads, whatever it may be, to support infrastructure in this province. It is the one constraint we have in Ontario to get more homes built faster—it is the biggest constraint we have, bar none.

I’m excited to go back and talk about the budget, the “infrastructure budget,” as I call it—the $1 billion added for infrastructure, the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund, $825 million; and the Building Faster Fund, over the next two-point-odd years as we move forward.

Speaker, everyone deserves a roof over their head. It is crucial for everyone, wherever you are in the housing continuum, whether it’s affordable, whether it’s attainable—and we’ll talk about that in a minute—or market-based housing. One of the things I’ve been tasked with is to look at the whole attainable portion of housing, whether it’s modular housing or factory-built housing, and I’m pretty excited about the opportunities that we have there.

People often say, “Define ‘attainable’”—well, we can do like we did with “affordable,” and we will define it based on community. What “attainable” means in northern Ontario versus, say, Kenora, versus London, versus Hamilton, versus Toronto, versus Brockville, versus Renfrew—it’s different everywhere. But I see it simply as, “attainable” means you do not qualify for affordable housing because you make too much money, but you don’t qualify for a mortgage because either you don’t have enough of a downstroke or down payment to qualify, or you can’t cash-flow the mortgage rates.

We would put a call out to the federal government to continue to advocate for getting these interest rates lower, to take a look at the indexing of interest rates that CMHC has put on—maybe taking a look at reducing that. But ultimately, we need to repurpose some surplus lands we have in this province, surplus lands municipalities have, and look at new and innovative ways to get shovels in the ground faster so everyone can get a roof over their head.

We’re not just talking about first-time homebuyers; that’s important. We’re also talking about seniors who want to downsize. In my own community of Dorchester, I can tell you there are a lot of people who would like to downsize to a smaller home. I think my wife and I would be on that list; we don’t need the house we have. But to find a smaller home at the right value—that inventory doesn’t exist.

Again, if we can create the environment—like this bill supports and concludes—I think we can see those results in the coming weeks, months and years ahead.

Speaker, I will conclude here. Thank you for your time. I yield the floor to my honourable friend from Etobicoke–Lakeshore.

Thank you to my colleague from Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound.

I’ll give you a quick example, and I think you could probably relate to it in your riding—similar to mine. Dutton Dunwich is a community of 3,200 people. In 2019, they wanted to put in a new waste water system, upgrade it. It was going to be about $3.5 million. They decided not to do it, to postpone it. Here we are in 2024. They got the bill to do the very same project: $13.3 million. So it overwhelmed them. They had to stop the ability to build—it’s a growing community.

I believe our waste water enabling fund, along with the infrastructure dollars put in the budget, along with the Building Faster Fund, which is available for small communities as well, is going to go a long way to help these communities—I’ve got 10 of them in my riding; I’m not sure about the member’s. It’s these smaller communities that really are at a crossroads when it comes to waste water management, waste water—