Wrong person. I shouldn’t have asked you.

Interjection.

I want to talk a little bit about what some stakeholders said, with the remaining time that I have.

I talked a little bit about what AMO said. They’re cautiously happy about the development fee charge changes, but they are concerned that they don’t go far enough. They’re concerned about the MZO framework; so are we—although it is better than what it was before.

The Ontario Real Estate Association also sent in a statement. They’re happy about eliminating parking minimums; they’re pleased that it will be easier to build more garden, laneway and basement suites; they’re good with permitting mass-timber structures up to 18 storeys; they support standardized designs to reduce delays and costs for modular homes—so are we. Some of this stuff is good. But what they’re concerned about is this government’s real reluctance to say yes to upzoning along major transit corridors and this government’s outright refusal to allow four units as-of-right province-wide.

I honestly think you folks are the last ones left who can’t bring yourselves to say yes to fourplexes. It’s so interesting. I wonder when you’re going to cave. I’m guessing six months. That’s my prediction. Six months, and then you’re going to cave, but we’ll see—I’m hoping it’s less.

Environmental Defence have a lot of concerns around the provincial planning statement. They wrote: “Together, the new law and the proposed provincial planning statement would effectively wipe out the protective” municipal boundaries that protect farmland and the greenbelt, wetlands and wildlife. They’ve got a lot of concerns about that. They’re also concerned that Bill 185 would remove any expert Ontario Land Tribunal oversight over multi-billion dollar decisions by municipal council around approving sprawl. They wrote: “It’s hard to think of a more enticing target for corruption than unchecked municipal decisions to approve sprawl.” Strong words. “By rubber-stamping an application to needlessly extend a settlement boundary and bulldoze farmland or wildlife habitat, a small-town councillor could confer hundreds of millions in windfall wealth upon a real estate speculator who bought up farmland at a low price.” It’s concerning, because once we pave over farmland, we’re not getting it back. If we’re talking about making sure that Ontario’s economy thrives, we should be doing everything we can to preserve, protect and expand our farming sector. It is a huge growth generator, and it needs land.

This came from Bill 23, but it’s still relevant today—this is from Carolyn Whitzman, an expert adviser with the Housing Assessment Resource Tools project. The reason I like Carolyn’s work is because when she’s talking about the housing supply crisis and the housing affordability crisis, she talks not just about how many homes we’re building, but who we’re building for. She breaks it down, and she concludes that for upper-middle-income people—they usually can find a home. That’s not where the shortage is. But when you’re looking at people who are in the 50% to 80% of household income, they’re short—we need to build about 160,000 homes for them; they’re more affordable homes. If you’re looking at people who earn 20% to 50% of the average household income, we need to build about 483,000 homes that are affordable for this demographic. And then, for people who earn up to 20% of the average household income—these are people on Ontario disability, Ontario Works—we need to build 85,000 homes to meet their needs. And I really don’t see in this bill a serious effort to look at who we’re building homes for and who is missing out, because people who are middle-income, working class, on social assistance, they are not finding homes that can work for them, that they can afford, and they’re also having difficulty keeping the home they’ve got, because they’re being renovicted or demovicted, pushed out, moving to Alberta.

I want to conclude by talking about what we see as solutions to our housing affordability and our housing supply crisis. I want to be clear: I want a home. I want everybody in Ontario to have a home that they can afford to rent or buy. That’s what I want, and in a province as rich as ours, we can do it. It’s not an issue of money; it’s a lack of political will.

I don’t want encampments, because I want people who live in encampments to be offered a permanent home, offered a supportive home so that they can rebuild their lives, live good lives. I think we can do that too.

I want people who move to a big city, go to school, start a career—I want them to find a home that they can afford to rent, have enough money at the end of the month to go out for dinner and save. I think that makes a lot of sense.

When many of you were younger, that opportunity was available to you, but it’s not available to young people today. I want an Ontario where, if people save, they can afford to buy a home; maybe it’s a condo, maybe it’s a starter home. Right now, that dream is just completely destroyed for so many people.

And I really don’t buy this argument that people love to rent. When you poll people and you ask them, “If you could afford to buy a home,” most people say, “Hell yes, I would love to buy a home,” and I think that’s important. Home ownership matters.

Our party, what we support is building 1.5 million homes. We agree with the government on this target. We do need to build 1.5 million homes, and we need to make sure that the homes that we build will actually address the housing affordability crisis and the housing supply shortage. That means building homes on public land. That means buying up purpose-built rentals and converting them to non-market housing. It means making it easier to build homes in areas that are already zoned for development. It means saying yes to four-plexes.

We shouldn’t dismiss—we need as many measures as we can approve. There’s no one measure that’s going to solve the housing crisis, so we do need to approve fourplexes, we do need to allow increased density along transit corridors, we do need to make it quicker and easier to build multi-family homes. We know this, it’s important, and it will require not just changing zoning rules; it’s also going to require investment. It shocks me that this government is choosing not to invest in affordable housing. We need it; it’s important.

It is essential, if we want to make housing affordable in Ontario, that we focus on renters too. The 1.7 million people who rent—I’m sure some of them are contacting your office. They have it so hard. Unless you’re earning two six figures in your household and you’re renting, you have it hard. It’s hard to find a place, it’s hard to keep a place, most people living in constant fear of eviction. Many people in my riding have these constant above-guideline rent increases. I think we can do better for renters. It is time for vacancy control in Ontario. It existed before, it stabilized rent; it’s time for that again.

It’s also time to bring in strong renter protections so that if people do have an issue with their landlord, they have a number to call, they have a bylaw officer that can investigate, they have a Landlord and Tenant Board that can hear their case promptly, and by that, I mean 30 days, not two years—30 days. It makes sense. Tribunals are so efficient compared to the court system. I think we can do the right thing on that.

Then, it is also essential to address the supportive housing crisis and the homelessness crisis we have in Ontario. We can do it. I know we can. I urge this government to move forward on expanding the homeless protection funding that you have. I urge this government to reinstate municipalities’ power to use development charges for affordable housing and shelters. I urge this government to come and present an affordable housing plan to the federal government that includes more than just building 1,187 homes so that we can get that federal government money. People’s lives depend upon it.

We have encampments in our riding. It is so hard for those people who live in those encampments. It is so hard. They don’t want to be there. People don’t want to live in an encampment, but when they’re offered the option of moving to a hotel for three weeks in Scarborough, having to get rid of all their belongings and then knowing that they’re going to lose that hotel in a short period of time, that’s not an option. We need to provide real options to people so that we can end homelessness. Other countries have done it; so can we.

I look forward to committee. I look forward to the amendments that I hope will be introduced. I look forward to hearing from stakeholders that will come in and give their opinions. I will be introducing amendments; I always do. I thoroughly enjoy it. I hope they’re taken seriously and listened to. And, yes, I want to see this bill improved.