TORONTO — MPP for Guelph Mike Schreiner addressed the annual conference of the Rural Ontario Municipal Association in Toronto on Tuesday morning. The following is an excerpt from his speech:
“Yesterday, our caucus had so many productive conversations with rural municipal leaders about the challenges their communities are facing.
And we heard them loud and clear: housing, housing, housing.
For decades, governments have failed to put forward the bold solutions necessary to get more homes built without paving over our farms, forests and wetlands.
Instead of reigning in soaring housing costs and creating more opportunities for attainable home ownership, the current government has repeatedly rolled out the red carpet to wealthy, well-connected insiders looking to make a quick buck.
That is why I recently tabled the Homes You Can Afford in Communities You Love Act, which would update outdated planning laws to legalize more types of homes in existing neighbourhoods all across the province.
It’s a common-sense solution to meet our provincial housing targets without the need for costly sprawl – breathing more life into our communities along the way.
By building more kinds of homes where people already live, we can help young Ontarians locked out of the housing market by creating more ownership opportunities close to the people and places they love.
We can protect the prime farmland that fuels our $50 billion food and farming sector.
And we can get back to building homes for ordinary people – not wealthy speculators.
I am proud to stand alongside the local leaders demanding better for Ontario’s rural communities, and we’ll keep fighting hard to legalize housing.”