Toronto, Canada’s biggest city, has expanded to include six boroughs and many surrounding areas. With its high housing prices and ability to attract both immigrants and other Canadians, areas progressively further from Toronto have also become pricier and suburbanized. The highways around Toronto are among the busiest in the world. Canadian housing is in high demand and quite overpriced in many urban areas, compared to wages, and no level of government has been courageous in making changes in part because current homeowners do not want to see a decrease in property values. Younger generations justifiably complain about being priced out of certain markets, many having to rent or live in places they deem less desirable.
In an effort to limit urban sprawl, previous governments had defined a greenbelt around Toronto where construction was highly restricted. Some of this area is farmland or forest. The Ontario government had originally pledged not to build on protected land. However, with the need to build new homes they decided to sell a small amount of these lands to developers. The Auditor General claimed the process was flawed, and may have given a windfall of up to $8B to developers who had recently purchased land most considered protected. Many people were unhappy; some politicians lost their positions as further details emerged.
After holding fast for ten months, today the Ontario Premier apologized, admitting fault and saying he had broken an election promise and would fully reverse these changes. While he may have had little political choice, it seems a relatively smart move. I was trying to remember the last time I heard a politician frankly apologize for breaking a promise, since many promise the moon but deliver much less.
“It was a mistake to open the Greenbelt. It was a mistake to establish a process that moved too fast. This process, it left too much room for some people to benefit over others. It caused people to question our motives. As a first step to earn back your trust, I’ll be reversing the changes we made and won’t make any changes to the Greenbelt in the future.”
Ontario created the Greenbelt in 2005 to protect agricultural and environmentally sensitive lands in the Greater Golden Horseshoe area from development.
Last year, the province took 7,400 acres of land in more than a dozen sections out of the Greenbelt to build 50,000 homes, citing the housing crisis, and Ford has faced large amounts of opposition to the plan since then.
My view is that although in principle I’d prefer to see a Liberal or NDP government, Doug Ford has managed controversial challenges well, including the pandemic crisis, and this is another example. Unlike his late drug-crazed brother and former Toronto mayor, he seems well-grounded and, incredibly, maybe even has some integrity.
I say kudos to Doug Ford, and I may even vote for him next time.
An $8 billion land scandal that had his best buddies - who attended his daughter’s wedding and bought tickets to a Stag & Doe party for them - making out like bandits, directed by a political staffer and you think this makes him show integrity?
This is the same guy who spent 4 years blaming the Liberals for wasting $1 billion cancelling a gas electricity plant for political reasons, not because Kathleen Wynne’s cronies were going to make a killing on it.
Bring on the RCMP investigation, I want to see him charged for corruption and run out of Queen’s Park on a rail.
I don’t think there’s any doubt there was corruption going on. Two cabinet ministers and two senior staffers have resigned over it. It doesn’t look good on Ford but it’s not clear that he was personally involved. I was actually a lot more upset about the Dalton McGuinty gas plant scandal, even though it runs against my usual party and political preferences. McGuinty was a habitual liar. I’m not seeing that in Ford.
As a world class city, parts of its subway will soon have access to the Interwebz from different providers. Impressed? Howzaboudit? You wouldn’t get that in literally every other major city, eh?
And now Monte Mcnaughton has resigned to take a private sector job. While not necessarily related to the green belt scandal, it is indicative of cabinet members seeing the future.
He gave Brian Mulroney a freaking medal and a mil prize. For being on the board at Chartwell, the for profit nursing home that army medics found so poorly run and conditions so awful, they felt the need to speak up. Doug’s choking money from healthcare so he and his buddies can get rich sending your gran to a Chartwell home in Brampton. It’s the same graft, different day.
You’re right, he managed ALL of that and more, quite handily, with a shameless straight face. He’s choking money out of education to monetize that next. He gave a 99 year lease to a highend spa, for a ‘for profit’ theme park on what was free access public water front park, widely used and enjoyed by generations.
Conservatives can’t seem to work out, their parents could end up in crappy nursing homes away from them, their children will likely never afford homes, and they’ll be paying large for healthcare. But the big guys among politicians and donors will get rich enough off of it they’ll not have to worry. The average conservative voter can’t seem to see it not going to help them or their kids outcomes positively at all. They are sealing the fate for a shittier tomorrow for their kids it seems to me.
A vacuous apology by a guy that thinks he’s the mayor of Toronto instead the Premier of Ontario.
He apologizes for moving to fast, for breaking his promise. Bull - he’s sorry that the sleazy opportunism and cozy relationships with developers came to light and would not go away. Had the fury died down sooner there is no way in hell you would see Doug Ford having a Damascus moment about his Greenbelt policy.
There is some truth to these criticisms. However, ultimately they will be judged by voters who do seem to be annoyed. Yet it is up to the Ontario Liberals, NDP and others to provide a better alternative. In my opinion, they have struggled to do so. The NDP critic at least makes the news. The Liberals seem unable to pick a charismatic leader who can challenge the government agenda. I would like to see them do better.
I agree Ford’s concern seemed to be with the opinion of fellow pols and not the acts themselves. But he surprised me during Covid and I was surprised he apologized. He is a more skilled politician than credited.
The Liberals have struggled with leadership since at least the serial liar McGuinty. Kathleen Wynne was pretty smart but managed to get herself even more hated than McGuinty. They won’t even have a permanent leader until November, and I have no great hope for any of the candidates. As is usually the case, the NDP has the best leadership but just isn’t mainstream enough to get much traction.
Doug Ford managed to exceed expectations in a global pandemic by hitting basic competency…and benefited from it. Still hasn’t addressed building code changes, school ventilation challenges, or long term care solutions. Or the structural issues around health care. Then there’s the abdication of responsibility around the occupation in Ottawa or the refusal to testify at the subsequent inquiry.
I mean you could have almost seen this current fiasco coming following the King Council patronage plums awarded earlier.
Still the opposition is a mess so we’ll see what plans the PCs have going forward - the thing is I don’t know what that is.
You are not wrong there. I’m a card-carrying Ontario Liberal Party member trying to decide who to vote for as leader. I’m leaning towards Bonnie Crombie as the one to beat Doug, but I think in many ways she’s more like an old-school Red Tory than a Liberal.