Dear Editor:
On Aug. 9, Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk released her report on the changes that the Ford government made to the Greenbelt in December. I believe the report should be compulsory reading for every Ontario citizen and taxpayer.
Despite having “promised” during the last election that his government would not remove land from the Greenbelt, they have gone ahead and done exactly that. So why remove land from the Greenbelt if it is not really needed, especially knowing that there would be political fallout from doing so?
As the report shows, it’s not so much a question of why, but more one of who. Who stands to gain? The AG’s report shows that it was a small group of developers who will reap the benefits of having their land selected to be removed. Based on 2016 tax assessment values the land will have increased in value by approximately $8.2 billion. With the stroke of a pen.
How were these “lucky” corporations selected? When Lysyk investigated, she found the Greenbelt Project Team was given 14 of the 15 selected sites by housing minister Steve Clark’s chief of staff Ryan Amato, who had been in close contact with the developers whose properties were later rezoned.
Approximately 92% of the 7,400 acres removed from the Greenbelt were land sites passed on to Amato from two developers.
When Ford and Clark were questioned by reporters as to how it was that an un-elected civil servant had controlled the process to such an extent, they claimed that they had no knowledge of how the sites were selected or the process by which it was decided.
Were they truly ignorant or was it a case of “Don’t ask, don’t tell?” As Lysyk put it in her report, “the minister ought to have known that the chief of staff was the primary recipient and provider of lands to the Greenbelt Project Team, especially given the high-profile, politically sensitive and controversial nature of the Greenbelt Project.”
It’s called ministerial responsibility, however it seems that in the Ford government there is none.
As is clear from the AG’s report and other cited documents, there was no reason to remove any land from the Greenbelt. It was and is clearly a reward to Ford’s political benefactors.
When Doug Ford won the PC Party leadership I wrote our MPP and I expressed my concerns about who exactly was supporting Ford in that race and what may be the future consequences. It seems that the chickens have come home to roost.
Clark’s chief of staff will be thrown under the proverbial bus, however I imagine that several options in the development industry will present themselves to him in the near future.
And no doubt Ford and Clark will be joining the “gravy train” when the time comes. And the Greenbelt will be diminished and the precedent has been set. I hope that I may be proven wrong about the loss of Greenbelt.
Michael Vasil,
Fergus