Mr. Speaker, “It takes too long and costs too much”. That was the message this week from the Ontario Home Builders' Association, which met with many of us. Of course, when it was saying, “It takes too long and costs too much”, it was talking about the government.
Just yesterday, Ratehub's affordability report came out, and it confirms the consequences of what the home builders told us. The consequences are that home prices continue to rise and sales continue to decline. In fact, home prices have risen in 10 of the 13 metro areas the report looked at, including Toronto, which is the largest metro area for me.
The cost of an average home continues to rise. As I have said in this place before, in my area, in Durham and York regions, the price-to-income ratio is about 10 times, so it is essentially unaffordable for any new homebuyer to get into the market.
I am glad that our work as an effective opposition has dragged the government, somewhat kicking and screaming, to agree with our policies with respect to GST and homebuilding taxes. That is a start.
What we need now is accountability. We need to understand what accountability measures the government will impose on municipalities for the money that would be provided to defray the costs of infrastructure. The Liberals say this will bring down the price of housing. Maybe it will, maybe it will not. What I want is some KPIs. I want accountability. Could the parliamentary secretary tell me what success looks like here, and how we shall measure whether their policies actually bring down the cost of a home?