This is a petition created and signed by residents of Don Valley West, including, I am pleased to say, our local city councillor, Jaye Robinson, concerning the lack of planning and support for infrastructure improvements in tandem with provincially imposed targets for development. It reads as follows:

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas people want to live in a community with good access to services and amenities;

“Whereas the city of Toronto adopted the Yonge Eglinton Secondary Plan (2018) with predominantly mid-rise density for the Bayview focus area, which was supported by the community following extensive consultation, but was overridden by the government of Ontario, permitting high-rises in 2019 without further consideration or consultation;

“Whereas the scale of the high-rise development applications proposed in the Bayview focus area creates needs for public infrastructure, such as schools, medical services, daycares and parks, which exceed those provided for in city (and provincial) planning;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“That the government of Ontario immediately restore the Bayview focus area plan as approved by the city of Toronto in the Yonge Eglinton Secondary Plan (2018).”

I wholeheartedly endorse this petition. I will affix my name to it and ask page Silas to bring it to the Clerk.

I rise today to talk about the housing crisis and my riding of Don Valley West. The average rent in Toronto for a one-bedroom has reached $2,500. In the recently tabled budget, the government projects lower housing starts than they projected last year, and at this rate, they will miss their 10-year housing goals by at least 50%. Yet still, the government insists they have a plan. So far, their plan seems to be only about tall and sprawl, neither of which is sustainable.

In my riding of Don Valley West, we are still feeling the impacts of their irresponsible decision to waste taxpayer money and override city council’s Midtown in Focus plan. Now, they are allowing 35-storey-plus towers of mostly one-bedroom condos at a handful of choke points like Bayview and Broadway—not because it’s good for our community; in fact, the city and residents say exactly the opposite.

Our neighbourhood is losing a valued medical building, along with its family doctors, to a 32-storey development, which will leave thousands more without a family doctor. Speaker, we need housing, but we also need a plan for our communities, where families and retired seniors can live too; a plan to ensure schools which are not overcrowded, parks and hospitals, that have made Don Valley West a great place to live.

Speaker, I would respectfully ask the government to let cities be planned by our planners, to allow sustainable mid-rise density in our neighbourhoods, along with a plan for new schools, parks, community centres to keep Don Valley West the great place it is to live.

I would like to address the pressing matter of the flawed Bill 23 and the Conservative government’s broken promise to protect our greenbelt. Paving over farmland reduces local food production, which contributes to higher prices and makes it harder for Ontarians to put food on the table. Thousands of people are reaching out to this government through their MPPs, through petitions and rallies, asking them to reconsider. Is this government listening?

Their own housing task force says, “A shortage of land isn’t the cause of the problem. Land is available, both inside the existing built-up areas and on undeveloped land outside greenbelts.”

The land in the greenbelt, meant to be permanently protected, provides our food, clean drinking water and clean air. Proposing to replace it with different land, protected only until this government breaks that promise too, would be laughable if it were not so sad.

Bill 23 threatens existing affordable rental housing. My constituents in Don Valley West and Thorncliffe Park, many of whom are new Canadians, are worried that the 50-year-old apartment buildings they live in are being worn down and can be torn down under this bill and not replaced, forcing them out of their community. They need affordable housing in their community, not houses in the greenbelt that line the pockets of Conservative donors and greenbelt land speculators.

With petitions of thousands opposing Bill 23, it’s clear that Ontarians do not support this bill and want major amendments made. Is this government listening?