Mr. Speaker, I have a lot of respect for the hon. member on the other side, and the hon. member knows that. I would say that, when it comes to development charges, the situation in Ontario, from my understanding, is significantly different from the situation in British Columbia.
The situation in Ontario is that the cities obviously have limited means of raising revenue. They need to put in infrastructure to build new subdivisions and so forth. Whether it is DCs on commercial buildings, which are, frankly, very high in York region, or DCs on residential, which are, again, high, we have differing opinions from different mayors. I know that the mayor of Vaughan, who I have known for many years and am quite good friends with, and who I have much respect for, has decided to go down one pathway in looking at their DCs.
The mayor in Markham has decided to go down a different path with the DCs. If we speak to other folks in Ontario municipalities, the former mayor from Huntsville, who is in the House and is an honourable gentleman, would also know that those DCs pay for the infrastructure.
We need to be frank. If we did not have the development charges in Ontario, it would fall on the property tax base, and we would have huge increases on property taxes. When the official opposition leader criticizes the municipalities or criticizes the HAF, what he is implicitly saying is that the Conservative Party of Canada—