Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner was visiting Grey Bruce today as part of a tour across the province.
Schreiner says he started his tour off at the 60th Annual Grey Bruce Farmer’s Week in Elmwood, where he spoke to farmers about Bill 21, the Protect Our Food Act.
The bill, which he co-signed with Independent MPP for Haldimand-Norfolk Bobbi Ann Brady, made it through the first reading in May.
“I have a bill in front of the legislature to protect farmland. I think it is so critically important to our economy, our food security and our food sovereignty,” says Schreiner. “The agri-food sector contributes 52 billion dollars for Ontario’s economy, employs over 875,000 people. One in nine jobs in Ontario are in the agri-food sector. We are facing economic threats unfortunately from south of the border and so protecting the largest employers of the province is critically important.”
After spending time at Farmer’s Week, Schreiner visited the United Way of Bruce Grey in Owen Sound with Grey Highlands Coun. Joel Loughead, who was the Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound candidate for the Green Party in the 2025 provincial election.
Schreiner met with SOS outreach workers at OSHaRE to talk about affordability and housing.
“People are struggling right now and I have been impressed for a long time about the work that the United Way here is doing. I wanted to come up and see some of that work first hand,” says Schreiner. “Foodbank use is at an all-time high in Ontario right now and a lot of that is being driven by the fact that people simply can’t afford the rent or their mortgages and so we have to address this housing affordability crisis.”
As part of his tour across the province, Schreiner says he wants to hear directly from people and organizations on how they are operating with the affordability crisis.
“So when I go back to Queen’s Park in March we can put solutions on the table. It is one thing to criticize government as an opposition party, and that is part of our job, but I think a more important part of our job is to put solutions on the table and the best way to come up with those solutions, are to talk to people and listen to people,” says Schreiner.
Schreiner thinks the Green Party has a lot of solutions they are already putting on the table.
“I want to improve them and that is part of why we are doing this listening tour across the province. What I have heard from people is there are three key areas we need to be looking at,” says Schreiner.
His three key areas include legalizing or making it easier to build multiplexes and midrises within existing urban boundaries to quickly increase the supply of homes people can afford without paving over farmland. Another priority for Schreiner is protecting renters, many of which he says are facing eviction. He also wants both provincial and federal governments get back into providing funding for affordable, non-profit, co-op, social, and supportive housing.
“We are not going to solve this crisis until the government re-engages and starts providing the funding that co-ops, non-profits, social, and supportive housing providers need to build deeply affordable homes,” says Schreiner.