Thank you so much, Chair.
Colleagues, it's nice to see you. I'm wishing you all the best for the new year.
When Mr. Barrett began the introduction to his motion, he talked about affordability. You know, that's a concern Canadians have. There's absolutely no doubt about that. That's why as a government we have brought in reduced child care fees. If you think that isn't helping families, I know that for my own family, the reduction of fees by half here in Ontario has made a huge difference. That's not just for my family but also for families all across the country. In fact, yesterday I was at the YWCA in Hamilton to see their child care centre and to talk to the staff about people who have been living in poverty who are now able to access child care.
When it comes to housing, the opposition always neglects to mention that the Leader of the Opposition lives in government-subsidized housing and then goes out and talks about how we're not doing anything. Monday I was in Burlington, Ontario, to announce $21 million for the City of Burlington to accelerate housing in that city. Last month in my riding, we announced $55 million for apartments. There are low-interest loans for developers to be able to build rental units in Oakville. Affordability is an issue. We acknowledge that, and that's why we are working towards that.
One of the things Mr. Barrett and Mr. Brock talked about was the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner. Mr. Barrett said that, in his response, the commissioner said they wouldn't be releasing any documents, and rightly so. As members of Parliament, we all expect that when we speak to the Ethics Commissioner, that information will be held confidential. There's an expectation that when we have those conversations, when we lay out something that we want an opinion on, that's not going to be made public. In fact, if that were to change and those documents were to be made public, quite frankly no one would consult with the commissioner, because there would be a fear that privileged, private and other information could be made public in the future.
That's a fundamental aspect of that office. In fact, as a parliamentary secretary, I have to file a report with the Ethics Commissioner annually. There's no way that it would be appropriate for those kinds of documents to be made public, nor would it be appropriate, anytime any MP or the Prime Minister consulted with that office, that those conversations would be made public. There's an expectation that they will be private.
That's critically important for us to remember. The Prime Minister did communicate with the office before his trip this Christmas. Rightly so, the office has said that it can't share that information.
Mr. Chair, I know that others want to speak to this motion, so I will leave it there for now. Thank you.