To the member who spoke so eloquently about why housing is necessary in his community and about the experience of that retired PSW: Can you explain what types of infrastructure you’d also like to see the government committed to in terms of making life better for Ontarians, for your residents? Obviously we need affordable housing. Can you speak to the benefit of other things like community centres, like libraries, like transit that works?

We know right now that Metrolinx has been dragging their little feet a little bit long in terms of the Eglinton LRT construction. We know that the community in Mount Dennis that’s relatively near to your community as well is also feeling left out of the consultation process with Metrolinx with this government.

What would you like to see in terms of infrastructure, and what is the benefit of infrastructure to housing in your community?

It’s a privilege to stand on the behalf of the fine people from St. Paul’s to speak on this bill with regard to building more housing. Affordable housing is what we’d hope it’s building.

I’d like to ask the member if they feel, from their interpretation of this bill, that it’s actually going to create the real, deep affordable housing that we need in our communities today.

I’d also like to ask the member to reflect on whether or not rent control is something that comes up at the doorstep, day after day, when they’re knocking or on the phone. It’s certainly something that comes up in St. Paul’s.

I’d also like to ask whether or not this bill addresses demovictions and illegal evictions, which are a couple of other things that folks in St. Paul’s are quite disappointed about and are looking to this Conservative government to provide answers, leadership, accountability, so they can feel safe and secure in their homes and not have to worry about being pushed out of St. Paul’s or any other community in Ontario.

To the Premier: Wanda is a senior living at 55 Brownlow with her daughter and granddaughter. As we speak, her and their neighbours are facing demovictions. They’re being told that the city must rush through approving their demovictions because if they fight it, the Ontario Land Tribunal will leave them with nothing. Planners are telling tenants they need to take away their homes today so that this government’s tribunal—one stacked with their buddies, I might add—doesn’t take away their housing tomorrow, all while giving Wanda and her family nowhere else to go.

My question is to the Premier. Will you repeal Bill 23? Will you stop demovictions? Will you bring back rent control? Where is Wanda, where is her family, where are neighbours and tenants across Ontario supposed to go? Will he speak to them? Will the Premier of Ontario speak to the tenants in our gallery today and let them know that their right to housing is a human right that they will respect?

Interjections.

This is a petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas demolition evictions are becoming commonplace across Ontario in the middle of an affordability crisis, this practice displaces tenants from their communities, diminishes the supply of affordable housing, causes environmental waste, contributes to the growing number of people experiencing homelessness province-wide, and disrupts the lives of fixed-income seniors, families, and low-to-middle-income tenants;

“Whereas displacing tenants from their homes has a negative effect on their livelihood, social supports, sense of community, and mental health, the protection of housing as a human right in the middle of an affordability crisis is vital to guaranteeing their quality of life;

“Whereas development is important to build the stock of housing of Ontario, the practice of needlessly demolishing buildings is counterintuitive to this goal and does not consider the long-term ramifications for current tenants, the broader community, or the environment;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to stop the needless demolition of rent-controlled buildings across Ontario, reinstate universal rent control, ensure rental housing replacement protections for all tenants, ensure that people are housed in the middle of an affordability crisis, and that Ontario is growing the stock of affordable housing, not destroying it.”

I couldn’t agree more. Thank you to the residents of 55 Brownlow and across St. Paul’s and other ridings for signing this petition. I’ve affixed my signature and will hand it to Ethan for tabling.

This is to the Premier: Advocates for survivors of intimate partner violence have echoed at this year’s pre-budget hearings the same recommendations following the Renfrew county inquest. Ontario needs a plan for housing survivors of intimate partner violence. Shelters are overflowing. Women have to stay in shelters longer and longer because of the challenges in finding their own safe and real affordable housing, and this Conservative government does not have a plan. This is a priority for Ontarians. Is housing survivors of gender-based violence a priority for this government?

Will the Conservative government provide adequate, stable, long-term funding for women’s shelters, for real affordable housing, for transitional housing in this year’s budget? I don’t want to hear about five years from now—in this budget.

I met with OMA recently and learned of the devastating family doctor shortages that we’re seeing across the province. In my community, in midtown, at 1366 Yonge Street, we have a wonderful medical centre that offers many services across the spectrum. There’s a pharmacy at the bottom. It helps many of our seniors have ready, accessible, community-based medical services. This is, of course, being torn down to build what we suspect will be, once again, luxury condos that no one can afford.

I’m wondering if the member could share if the fall economic statement says anything, really, about building real affordable housing and if it says anything about dealing with the crisis we have in front-line health care workers, like our doctors, like our nurses, like the very people at 1366 Yonge Street, who need their medical centre to stay alive and well.

My question is to the Premier.

This government’s Bill 23 changes the definition of affordable housing from one based on income to one based on average market prices. Under this new definition, a family would need an income of at least $130,000 to afford a so-called “affordable” home in the city of Toronto. This is far beyond what most education workers, teachers, library workers, nurses, PSWs, transit operators, tradespeople—or most workers in Ontario—make, quite frankly, in a year. It’s more than what many of us MPPs in this room make in a year.

Will you amend this bill’s definition to give working Ontarians the chance at a home they can actually afford?

My question is back to the Premier—I would love it if he would actually answer his questions, as the Premier: What in this bill protects tenants in my community of St. Paul’s? Where is the real rent control, vacancy control, demoviction or renoviction protections that make rentals affordable?

My question is to the Premier. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that person-centred care, secure housing of choice for life and participation in community life are human rights for people with disabilities. But for Jonathan, a constituent of mine with developmental disabilities—he’s been deprived of each of these as he’s been warehoused in a hospital for over a year. The very basics he deserves as a human being, like a hug from his mother or simply having his nails clipped, have been kept out of reach from him. Meanwhile, the wait for the supportive housing he needs in community is up to 40 years long.

My question to the Premier: Can the government explain the choice to deprive Jonathan of his fundamental human rights? And can the government explain why the Premier has not responded to Janet Abramson, who is sitting in the gallery, who is Jonathan’s mother? For over a year now she’s been asking the Premier for five minutes on a phone call and they will not respond.

Can the government explain why Jonathan is being left behind in hospitals? Why is he being left behind? He needs supportive housing today.

My question is back to the Premier. Report after report shows that investment in independent living doesn’t just respect Jonathan’s human rights, it is far more cost-efficient. Without it, people with developmental disabilities end up in hospitals or long-term care, where their care is compromised because of this government’s cuts. This is why we, the official opposition, prioritize the building of 60,000 supportive housing units in Ontario, because it’s an investment that is fiscally responsible and also ethical.

My question is back to the Premier. This government talks a big game on being fiscally responsible. Will you turn your words into action? Will you house Jonathan? Will the government create independent living for tens of thousands of people with developmental disabilities who deserve to live their best life? And will you give her five minutes on the phone? Your staff said you were too busy. She’s right there. Look at her. Thank you.

Thank you to our member for that eloquent one-hour lead on the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act.

The issue with this bill, as we’ve all discussed many times over, is that the bill doesn’t actually address real affordable housing and supporting folks in our communities who are struggling with affordable housing. I’m thinking of one constituent in St. Paul’s in particular who has been on the list for approximately a decade for affordable housing.

Does the strong-mayor bill address the issues of the need for, for instance, rent geared to income, supportive housing, transitional housing, affordable housing?

What if a strong mayor doesn’t believe in rent-geared-to-income units or doesn’t believe in creating real affordable housing?

How is that going to help my constituent on ODSP, who is also now considering medical assistance in dying instead because she can’t get housing?

Yesterday was my first stop on our ice cream tour across Toronto–St. Paul’s. We hung out in one of my favourite neighbourhoods, the Winona and Vaughan neighbourhood. We went to Cy Townsend Park. Today, we’re going to be at Marian Engel Park, in our Melita Avenue neighbourhood.

It was all fun with the kids. The kids—of course you’ve got to love the innocence of children; they were not bothered. But I tell you, the adults at the park hanging out with me, the parents, the post-secondary age young adults, their concern was all about affordability. I spoke to a 23-year-old university student literally with tears in her eyes. She feels that there is no moral value, no character left in the province, in this House, because she feels that the government is not listening to her—and many people’s—concerns around affordable housing. She, like many of the parents, simply wants to be able to make ends meet, wants to be able to have a better future and wants to be able to live in St. Paul’s and stay a while.

What’s happening now is we’re being besieged by demovictions, by renovictions, by skyrocketing rent increases that folks just simply cannot afford. Even No Frills, on Alberta, where I go grocery shopping as well, too, is becoming more expensive for too many of us. So we really want the government to hear from St. Paul’s.

Affordability is a crisis, and you’ve got to—

Thank you to the member, the Conservative member, for talking about the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act. The member spent all of their time talking about building homes, yet the bill does not include anything on housing. In a riding like mine, Toronto–St. Paul’s, where we have 60% or so renters, the government can talk about owning a $750,000 home, but many in St. Paul’s can’t afford that. Many can’t even afford their rent. So I’m wondering, if this bill is really about housing, why is there no mention of ending exclusionary zoning, why is there no mention of real rent control, why is there no mention of banning above-guideline rent increases? Furthermore, why don’t you talk about what the bill is really about, and that is creating strong mayors that this province and this Premier can control?