Yes, developers potentially made money the day the Ontario government re-designated Greenbelt lands. They do every time new development land is approved
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, right, followed by Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark, leave a press conference following the release of the Auditor General’s Special Report on Changes to the Greenbelt, at Queens Park, in Toronto, August 9, 2023.Photo by Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press
Is Ontario’s plan to redevelop a tiny portion of the Toronto-area Greenbelt a political scandal or not?
Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk’s eagerly-awaited report Wednesday failed to conclusively resolve that question. Lysyk did find a smoking gun, but she found no conclusive evidence on it of the fingerprints of Premier Doug Ford or his housing minister, Steve Clark. Instead, Lysyk discovered that Clark’s chief of staff hastily put together the Greenbelt development plan and changed some criteria in a way that favoured particular developers.
Both Clark and Ford say they weren’t aware of the selection process details and there is no evidence to the contrary. Nor did Lysyk uncover any evidence that anyone in the government benefited from the redevelopment plan. Suspicious minds will form their own conclusions, of course.
The AG spent most of her report on an auditor’s favourite subject: process deficiencies. Had the government consulted the usual experts, it would have found that there were many reasons not to develop the 7,400 acres of Greenbelt land, which constitutes about 0.3 per cent of the two-million-acre protected area. That’s hardly surprising. Since the land was in a Greenbelt, one might have presumed there were reasons not to develop it, including reserving it for farm use, wetlands and forests.
Lysyk further argues that the province had already assigned housing targets to all Ontario municipalities, targets that would enable it to meet the Ford government’s goal of building 1.5 million houses in a decade. The AG failed to distinguish between targets and having the land to meet them, but concluded that the Greenbelt land wasn’t needed. That point of view was supported by planning directors in the municipalities affected by the redevelopment. The auditor did not address what optimistic intensification assumptions might underlie that conclusion.
In their response to Lysyk’s report, Ford and Clark were quite happy to focus on the process criticisms. The government has accepted all but one of Lysyk’s recommendations and will make sure things are more transparent in the future, they said. The main point, they argued, is that the province is in desperate need of housing, with 500,000 people arriving in the last 12 months. The government considers itself guilty of nothing more than going in the right direction too quickly.
The Greenbelt affair is shocking to some for what it tells us about how development works in Ontario. For those familiar with the industry, it wasn’t surprising to learn that developers were speculating on land in the sacrosanct Greenbelt. Many Ontario developers are as much land speculators as home builders.
It’s a long play. At least one of the parcels in the new development area was acquired suspiciously close to the government announcement, but others had been owned by developers for years, some before the creation of the Greenbelt in 2005.
Developers can make serious money by buying land that they reasonably assume will eventually be approved for development. In the case of the Greenbelt lands, developers got a big heads-up when Ford said in 2018 that he intended to open up big chunks of the Greenbelt if elected premier. That was publicly reported, although Ford later changed his mind, then changed it again.
The idea that developers would reach out to Clark’s chief of staff to suggest that their properties be re-designated isn’t surprising, either. Lysyk’s report might create the impression that the normal state of affairs is for development decisions to follow from the impartial work of professional public servants. In fact, politicians can do whatever they like. Ottawans saw that in 2021, when the city council approved a remote suburban development fronted by an Algonquin group, calling it an act of reconciliation. That wasn’t the recommendation of city staff.
Yes, developers potentially made money the day the provincial government re-designated Greenbelt lands, but they made money when it recently expanded development lands in Ottawa and Hamilton, too. In fact, developers make money every time new development land is approved.
The Ford government is aggressively trying to change Ontario housing development from a process-driven approach designed to limit housing land to one that strongly encourages housing. That’s what Ontario needs as it tries to grapple with the effects of surging immigration. The former Greenbelt lands could yield 50,000 homes.
If Ontario is to have any hope at all of meeting housing demand, the government needs to focus on results, not process. The location of new housing development is always a political decision and it’s invariably preceded by vigorous lobbying. Some don’t like that, but it’s business as usual, not a scandal.
Randall Denley is an Ottawa journalist, author and former Ontario PC candidate. Contact him at randalldenley1@gmail.com
FREDERICTON – A look at David Coon, leader of the Green Party of New Brunswick:
Born: Oct. 28, 1956.
Early years: Born in Toronto and raised in Montreal, he spent about three decades as an environmental advocate.
Education: A trained biologist, he graduated with a bachelor of science from McGill University in Montreal in 1978.
Family: He and his wife Janice Harvey have two daughters, Caroline and Laura.
Before politics: Worked as an environmental educator, organizer, activist and manager for 33 years, mainly with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.
Politics: Joined the Green Party of Canada in May 2006 and was elected leader of the New Brunswick Green Party in September 2012. Won a seat in the legislature in 2014 — a first for the province’s Greens.
Quote: “It was despicable. He’s clearly decided to take the low road in this campaign, to adopt some Trump-lite fearmongering.” — David Coon on Sept. 12, 2024, reacting to Blaine Higgs’s claim that the federal government had decided to send 4,600 asylum seekers to New Brunswick.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
FREDERICTON – A look at Blaine Higgs, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick.
Born: March 1, 1954.
Early years: The son of a customs officer, he grew up in Forest City, N.B., near the Canada-U.S. border.
Education: Graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1977.
Family: Married his high-school sweetheart, Marcia, and settled in Saint John, N.B., where they had four daughters: Lindsey, Laura, Sarah and Rachel.
Before politics: Hired by Irving Oil a week after he graduated from university and was eventually promoted to director of distribution. Worked for 33 years at the company.
Politics: Elected to the legislature in 2010 and later served as finance minister under former Progressive Conservative Premier David Alward. Elected Tory leader in 2016 and has been premier since 2018.
Quote: “I’ve always felt parents should play the main role in raising children. No one is denying gender diversity is real. But we need to figure out how to manage it.” — Blaine Higgs in a year-end interview in 2023, explaining changes to school policies about gender identity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
OTTAWA – The pressing issues of climate change and food security join more familiar ones like violent extremism and espionage on a new list of Canada’s intelligence priorities.
The federal government says publishing the list of priorities for the first time is an important step toward greater transparency.
The government revises the priorities every two years, based on recommendations from the national security adviser and the intelligence community.
Once the priorities are reviewed and approved by the federal cabinet, key ministers issue directives to federal agencies that produce intelligence.
Among the priorities are the security of global health, food, water and biodiversity, as well as the issues of climate change and global sustainability.
The new list also includes foreign interference and malign influence, cyberthreats, infrastructure security, Arctic sovereignty, border integrity and transnational organized crime.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
