Doug Ford defends Greenbelt land swap, says Liberals also made changes

With his Progressive Conservatives embroiled in controversy over a Greenbelt land swap, Premier Doug Ford is lashing out at the Liberals for changes they made to the environmentally sensitive swath.

Thestar.com
Dec. 7, 2022
Robert Benzie

You guys did it, too.

With his Progressive Conservatives embroiled in controversy over a Greenbelt land swap, Premier Doug Ford lashed out at the Liberals for changes they made to the environmentally sensitive swath.

“I find it so rich and so ironic, hearing from the Liberals that changed the Greenbelt 17 times,” Ford told the legislature Tuesday.

“You should do your homework,” he lectured Grit MPPs during the legislature’s morning question period.

That’s a reference to the fact that over 12 years, the previous Liberal governments of premiers Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty made small changes, totalling around 340 acres, to the two-million-acre Greenbelt.

In contrast, Ford’s Tories have announced a land swap to allow 15 parcels -- or 7,400 acres -- to be developed for housing in exchange for adding 9,400 acres of farm fields and wetlands elsewhere.

An investigation by the Toronto Star and the Narwhal found eight of the 15 areas have been purchased since the Tories were elected in 2018, including one just two months before the surprise Friday afternoon announcement that the Greenbelt was being opened up.

“The premier’s own housing task force did not say we need to swap land in the Greenbelt to get housing built,” said Liberal MPP Stephanie Bowman (Don Valley West).

“Who is telling him that paving over the Greenbelt is the solution to the housing crisis and are they the same people who will stand to profit from this decision?” demanded Bowman.

“We can all agree that we need more homes for Ontarians,” she said.

“However, it appears that private land developers and at least some members of this Conservative government are the only ones who think paving over farmland and the Greenbelt is the solution.”

NDP MPP Jeff Burch pressed the Tories to say whether they had discussed “proposals to develop these Greenbelt lands with (developers) ... or lobbyists” before the Nov. 4 announcement.

Government house leader Paul Calandra said Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark has said “on a number of occasions” that no one was tipped off to the changes early.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner, meanwhile, said Ford’s comparison to what the Tories are doing to the Greenbelt to what the Liberals did is apples and oranges.

“What the previous government did was not right, but it is minimal in comparison to what the Ford government is doing,” said Schreiner.

“I mean, what Ford is doing is an unprecedented attack on environmental protections and on the Greenbelt.”

Schreiner said the moves “are going to create a speculative bubble within the Greenbelt that’s going to make it very hard for farmers to be able to afford land to be able to farm profitably -- because all that land is now going to be part of land speculation.”

The Tories insist the changes are needed in order to meet their target of building 1.5 million new homes in the next decade for a fast-growing province.

But critics warn that allowing Greenbelt development will create even more urban sprawl in and around the Greater Toronto Area.