This question is for the Premier. Last week, I met with housing advocates in Peterborough and in Barrie, and I heard how this government’s refusal to spend federal housing money on housing is putting so many projects at risk.

Under its agreement with the federal government, this government promised to build nearly 20,000 new affordable homes over 10 years, but six years later, they’ve built barely 1,000. The province didn’t keep its end of the deal, and now the federal government is taking back $357 million, leaving a giant hole in our housing budget.

My question is, why is this government so opposed to building affordable housing that they’d risk losing $357 million?

My question to the government is why, again, is this government abandoning its responsibility to fund and deliver new affordable homes in this province?

Public funding for luxury spas? No problem. Give $8.3 billion to greenbelt speculators? Sure thing. Fatten the Premier’s office’s budget? Why not? But provincial funding for affordable housing? Nada.

Why does this government hate publicly funded housing so much that it is choosing to give up $357 million in federal funding?

Interjections.

This question is for the Premier. Recently, through a freedom of information request, the NDP has obtained nearly 4,000 pages of records from the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing that discussed the Premier’s infamous greenbelt grab. The documents include emails that were forwarded to Ryan Amato, the former chief of staff to the former Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. One thing that kept coming up in these documents is several uses of the phrase G-asterisk or G-star.

So my question to the Premier is, does the Premier have any idea what that means or why it would be used in internal communications with Mr. Amato and the minister’s office?

So my question back to the Premier: Was anyone directed to avoid or conceal references to the greenbelt in their written communications so they could avoid being captured in a freedom-of-information request?

So I’m going back to the Premier again, hoping for an answer: Did anyone in the Premier’s office direct others to avoid email or use code words when discussing the special project of carving up the greenbelt, and when is the Premier going to be disclosing this to the RCMP?

Interjections.

Speaker, back to the Premier: The reason this is important is because it is part of a growing mountain of evidence that the government has deliberately tried to cover up the details of its $8-billion greenbelt grab. Last year, the Auditor General uncovered evidence that government officials had inappropriately used personal email accounts and devices when discussing the greenbelt grab. Today’s FOI shows more of the same between Mr. Amato and Mr. Sackville in the Premier’s office.

Back to the Premier again: Is it standard operating procedure to have staff use personal devices and accounts when discussing the “special project” known internally as “G*”?