No. No.

I can tell you right now, Mr. Speaker, that’s what the NDP will do—the NDP will come in and will—

Interjections.

You cannot have it both ways. You can’t come in here and talk about housing but vote against it. You can’t say housing is a priority for you but then put no solutions forward. That’s what the NDP will do all along the way.

On this side of the House, we’ve been clear. We said we’re pro-housing. We want to build more homes. We want to make sure we don’t let down the people of this province.

Interjection.

Interjections.

When it comes to the number of people in this province, right now, we are seeing study after study, and we are being told—and we know this already. If you look at the last municipal election, every single candidate who was running for office heard the same thing: Housing is a huge priority for Ontarians.

If my colleagues across had actually listened in the last provincial elections, they wouldn’t be shrinking in the corner across right now. That’s the difference between a party that actually listens to the people and actually finds solutions for the people of this province and parties that don’t. That’s the difference between us and the opposition. We’re looking at bold solutions. We said we were going to take action. We weren’t going to sit on our hands and let this crisis get worse and worse over time—and it will. As I said at the beginning, it is going to get worse. If you don’t do anything about the problem—we found out in the last 15 years—it is going to get worse.

So we have put forward solutions, whether it was the first bill that we put forward—which had many solutions that would not only expedite approval processing times but that provided a lot of protection for tenants as well. You’ve heard my honourable colleagues across talk about protection for tenants. Colleagues, do you think they voted for that bill that actually provided a ton of protection for tenants? No. They voted against that bill.

We know that what we put forward, we know that the great work of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, under the leadership of Premier Ford, and every member of this caucus—we know it’s working.

Through the bills that we have put forward, in 2021, we saw a record number of housing starts in our province, over 100,000 housing starts in our province. Just to put that in perspective again, the last time we had this many housing starts was back in 1987. And it’s important to note that of the 100,000-plus we’re talking about, 13,000 of them were purpose-built rental units. That is so important to talk about. Why is that so important? Because that 13,000 was a record number; the last time we had this many was back in 1991.

Interjections.

So the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing has been clear, the Premier has been clear—every member of this caucus has been clear with Ontarians that, yes, housing is a priority for us.

This is why, through the bills that we’ve put forward, we’ve talked about making units more affordable for Ontarians. Mr. Speaker, a single-family home in the GTA adds a cost of about $116,900 to an average home in the GTA—you tell me if that’s affordable; $100,000 for a condominium in Toronto. Those fees are staggering, which is why more and more people in this province are not able to afford homes. And we’ve already seen that there are municipalities that are talking about further increasing those charges on the people, at a time when life is unaffordable, at a time when we are lowering the cost of living on all fronts. You saw the Minister of Finance, through the fall economic statement, putting measures to reduce the cost of living for Ontarians. At a time when we need to make life more affordable, we cannot look at a major purchase for a family, the largest purchase a family will ever make—you cannot make that more expensive. You have to look at ways to make life more affordable. So that means—looking at the bills that we’ve put forward—discount units, remove fees to make units more affordable for Ontarians.

Mr. Speaker, you have seen leadership under this Premier, you have seen leadership under the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, for four and a half years. I am proud to be part of this government.

My message to every single Ontarian is, I know they let you down, I know they supported them; we won’t. We have your back. You will have the dream of home ownership within reach—

It’s always an honour to rise in this House and represent the wonderful people of Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill, who have given me an opportunity to be here and to represent them.

Speaker, before I go any further, I want to thank the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing for his relentless work when it comes to solving the housing crisis in the province that we’re facing. Let’s go back to four and a half years ago, when our government was elected. All along the way, it’s this minister, under the leadership of this Premier, who has been talking about the housing crisis in our province. Every single measure that we have put forward, the opposition has voted against. They will come in here and talk about housing; they’ll vote against housing. They will come in here and talk about affordable housing; they will vote against affordable housing. They’ll talk about the need to have more housing; they’ll vote against the supply of housing in the province of Ontario. It doesn’t matter what you put forward—you can clearly see the difference between us.

That’s why, after the last election, the people of Ontario increased the number of seats for this government and gave us a bigger mandate to come back here and solve the crisis that we’re facing because of 15 years of inaction by the previous government. And it’s important to note and it’s important to remind the people of Ontario that it was the NDP that held the balance of power for three of those years. They could have made housing a priority for the people of this province, but did they, colleagues? They didn’t. They let the people of this province down.

Every single time, when you stand in this House and talk about the priority of housing, I want to ask my honourable colleagues, where were you when you had the opportunity? Where was this anger and outrage when you could have held the previous government to account? You could have made them—

Mr. Speaker, my family immigrated here, to this country. You’ve heard the government House leader, with passion, talk about what housing means to a new Canadian when they come in. We come with hopes and aspirations, with dreams. All come here to this country with a dream of having the opportunity, through working hard, to own a home one day. That was my family—all along the way, my parents both worked very hard, and finally, after many, many, many years, they had the opportunity to buy a small home, and as a result, we were then given that opportunity.

The system, the previous government and, by extension, the opposition now have absolutely let down the people of this province—not only now, but future generations. If we don’t do something about it now, imagine what it’s going to be. If you think it’s bad now, think about what it’s going to be like five years and 10 years from now.

That is why we said to Ontarians—we’re transparent with Ontarians. We told them housing is a priority of this government. We talked about it during the campaign, in the last provincial election. We said to Ontarians, “We’re not going to let you down. We’re going to do everything we can. We’re going to work with all levels of government, with partners.” Gone are the days when people are pitted against one another and nothing gets done. Under this government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, we’re going to collaborate with everyone. We’re going to work with local municipalities, we’re going to work with the federal government, we’re going to work with non-profits, we’re going to work with the private sector to build more homes all across the province so that we don’t let any Ontarians down. That is a promise that we made, and of course we’re going to keep it.

Through one initiative that the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing has put forward, we are looking at a minimum of 50,000 homes being added to the province. Of course, we’re going to be looking at that. We’re going to look at any way to increase housing.

Mr. Speaker, there’s a balance. Our strong stance when it comes to protecting the environment—you’ve seen it. We’re the leader in the country. Unlike what the opposition thinks, there’s a balance to everything. You can do more than one thing. And that’s what we’re doing. That’s what the Premier has asked us to do. We have two ministers responsible for housing in this province of Ontario. Why? Because the Premier sees a need. It’s a priority for us to make sure that we get the job done for every single Ontarian in this province.

I do want to talk about one thing: Colleagues, there is a procedure—all of you are familiar; we just got the report back—where, after we debate a bill, this then goes to committee. All along you’ve heard it—during question period, outside of here. Every opportunity that the members of the opposition have gotten, they have criticized this bill. Right? Correct me if I’m wrong. And yet, colleagues, when it came to committee, how many amendments do you think the NDP put forward?

Interjections.