Speaker, the previous Liberal Party leader and current mayor of Vaughan recently admitted that the housing affordability crisis actually started while he was in office, while the provincial Liberals were in power. As a municipal member for the last 22 years, I certainly witnessed all of that kind of challenge, and that the Liberal government, supported by the NDP at the time, took zero action on the housing crisis.

Can the member opposite speak to—if you’re so impassioned about moving forward and addressing the housing crisis, why didn’t you push the previous government to act sooner?

After 20 years of municipal experience, one of the things that my municipal government, and I know a number of other municipal governments, had approached this body about was fixing the Line Fences Act. After all these years, we are finally getting to fixing the Line Fences Act, dealing with that outdated, burdensome piece of legislation.

Can the member opposite please explain why the previous Liberal and NDP government didn’t do any of that, and if they are going to actually object to modernizing this and prevent improving the tools that the municipalities need to continue their services?

Madam Speaker, as a representative of a riding that incorporates a lot of the forestry industry in my area, I am really pleased to see that with this bill, we’ve joined British Columbia and Quebec on a consultation and a commitment to adapt the building code, that it would allow for up to 18-storey mass timber buildings. I’m hopeful that the member opposite will actually stand and indicate his support for this initiative, for that industry and for improved apartment buildings.