Premier Doug Ford ‘confident’ no developers were tipped off to Greenbelt changes
Staring down the barrel of two probes aimed at his controversial Greenbelt changes, Ford insists no developers were tipped off to the land swap.
Thestar.com
Jan. 23, 2023
Robert Benzie

Staring down the barrel of two probes aimed at his controversial Greenbelt changes, Premier Doug Ford insists no developers were tipped off to the land swap.

“I’m confident no one gave anyone a heads-up,” Ford told reporters Friday in London.

It was his first public comment on the contentious matter since it emerged that both integrity commissioner J. David Wake and auditor general Bonnie Lysyk are looking into opposition complaints about the surprise moves on the Greenbelt.

Wake and Lysyk’s parallel investigations came after reporting by the Toronto Star and the Narwhal, which found eight of the 15 parcels of the Greenbelt where development will be allowed were purchased since Ford’s Progressive Conservatives were elected in 2018.

Sounding exasperated, the premier emphasized that the properties that changed hands were “not government land.”

“It’s private individuals’ land that they have the right to sell to anyone they want. I’m going to repeat that it’s not government land, it’s private land,” said Ford.

“And it’s not just in the middle of some marsh or something, it’s bumped against an existing community,” he said.

“So you have a community with all the services there on one side of the road -- yep, hundreds, if not thousands of homes. On the other side of the road, you have an empty field.”

Ford said opening up 7,400 acres of the two-million acre Greenbelt -- in exchange for adding 9,400 acres of protected land elsewhere outside the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area -- is essential to meeting his target of building 1.5 million new homes in the next decade.

“Over a 10-year period, we’re going have (an additional) 3 million people (in Ontario),” the premier said.

“We need to build homes. We’re going to build the 1.5 million homes that we need over 10 years,” he said.

“We have a housing crisis, we have rental crisis. We want to make sure that we give incentives to people to build rentals. We want to make sure that they’re building non-profits and attainable and affordable homes and regular homes.”

Incoming NDP leader Marit Stiles, who, along with the Liberals and the Greens, had asked the legislative watchdogs to examine the land swap, said earlier this week that “something smells fishy here and Ontarians deserve answers.”

Stiles pointed to the “curious timing of recent purchases of Greenbelt land by powerful landowners with donor and political ties to the Ontario PC Party.”

Wake’s office said Wednesday there are “reasonable and probable grounds” for an investigation based on information provided by the NDP, including news reports in the Star and other outlets.

Lysyk said she had also received “considerable correspondence” on the Greenbelt beyond just the opposition parties.

“My office will be conducting certain audit work on this issue commencing within the next few weeks,” she said Wednesday.