This legislation makes…

This legislation makes affordability and safety of occupants worse unless Ontario steps up buildings standards that both protect people from smoke and extreme heat as well as lower energy cost through better insulated and more air tight homes with heat recovery ventilation and heat pumps that are far more efficient than gas. Either that, or allow cities to still have their own energy requirements. Regardless it's time for the province to stop being stuck in the foolish premise that inefficient buildings are somehow affordable. Proven time and time again, it's more costly to retrofit buildings than building them right the first time. House prices are largely detached from construction costs meaning when we weaken standards we are getting less value -- we have million dollar homes that cost a fraction of that to build that cannot even protect people from wildfire smoke, reduce dependence on fossil fuels or offer low energy costs. That is a crime.