Dear Editor:
I read with interest reporter Patrick Raftis’ article about his questions to Perth–Wellington MPP Matthew Rae regarding the release of the Ontario Auditor General’s report about the removal of land from the Greenbelt last December.
After reading the article I was able to draw two conclusions.
My first conclusion was that Matthew Rae is capable of reading because he has clearly read the talking points memo from his bosses, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Clark and Premier Doug Ford. His answers to Raftis’ questions were essentially verbatim of what Clark and Ford have been saying for the past week and a half.
My second conclusion was that although able to read, Rae did not read the AG’s report. Or perhaps he just conveniently skipped over the parts that don’t fit with the Ford government’s narrative. Such as the parts where it is clearly stated that the land that was removed from the Greenbelt is not needed to fulfill the mandate set by the housing ministry of building 1.5 million new homes by 2032.
Citing the 2022 Ministry of Housing Affordability Task Force report, the AG states that, “The Task Force noted that a shortage of land was not the cause of the housing affordability problem and that there was sufficient land available for development outside of protected areas (citing the Greenbelt as an example).”
The chief planners of the three municipalities where the removed lands are located, (Durham Region, City of Hamilton and York Region), informed the AG that, “sufficiently serviced (or more easily serviceable) land is already available to meet the housing targets assigned to them by the housing ministry.” They went on to say, “that the land sites removed from the Greenbelt in December 2022 were largely not serviced, were not in their servicing plans, and that many of the land sites would be challenging to prioritize and service in the near future, with some taking potentially 10 or more years to accomplish.”
The Auditor General cites other subject matter experts that support this position.
“The Association of Municipalities of Ontario, which represents Ontario’s 444 municipalities, told us that while it recognizes that housing supply is a challenge in Ontario, a shortage of land is not the issue.”
A March 2023 report from the Regional Planning Commissioners of Ontario is also cited in the AG’s report. The RPCO report states that, “large Ontario municipalities already have 85% of the 1.5 million housing units in their approval pipelines. If smaller municipalities are taken into account, the entire 1.5 million housing unit target will likely be exceeded by housing units already in the approval pipeline.”
They go on to say that, “RPCO continues to not support in principle the removal of lands from the Greenbelt as a necessary step to address Ontario’s housing needs.”
So why did Premier Ford and Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Clark decide that land from the Greenbelt was required? As I stated last week in my letter to you, it is not a question of why? It’s a question of who. A very few, select developers, who now stand to profit handsomely from the rezoning of their land.
As is very clear from the Auditor General’s report, the land is not needed to help with a very real housing affordability problem. And no amount of parroting Ford and Clark by the backbench will change that. Although I must admit, the voters of Perth – Wellington at the least have their MPP on public record. Those of us here in Wellington – Halton Hills, not so much.
Michael Vasil,
Fergus