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Rick Byers

  • MPP
  • Member of Provincial Parliament
  • Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound
  • Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
  • Ontario
  • Suite 105 345 8th Street E Owen Sound, ON N4K 1L3
  • tel: 519-371-2421
  • fax: 519-371-0953
  • Rick.Byers@pc.ola.org

  • Government Page
  • Jun/1/23 10:00:00 a.m.
  • Re: Bill 97 

I thank the member for his comments. As I think about all the housing initiatives that our government is doing, I think of my own family situation where I’ve got three sons—twenties and early thirties. They don’t have the opportunity in housing that us older baby boomers have had. Back in the last millennium, when I started my first job, you could get a job and find a place to live. That math worked. For this generation, our generation of young folks and many who are coming, that math does not work. For me, that is what’s fundamental about what we’re doing. As I said in the previous question, none of this is easy. If it was easy, we wouldn’t have this problem.

Will the member join us in this goal of getting 1.5 million homes built so that those young people can find a place to stay?

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  • Jun/1/23 9:40:00 a.m.
  • Re: Bill 97 

I thank the member for his comments. I also heard the broad agreement to build more homes. I’ve heard that from several speakers across the aisle, which is great news, and we agree. That’s why we’re committed to building 1.5 million homes.

This is a tough task. If this was easy, it would have been done in the past and we wouldn’t have this problem. But housing, if you look at policy directives that need to happen, is up there among the toughest, in my opinion, because it requires many governments working together, industry, all sorts of different factors, and that’s why we haven’t had this problem. But we need to do it. The young generation needs it. That’s why this bill, as well as many others, will increase the housing supply. I ask the member, are he and his party willing to support this bill to get that job done?

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