'No one had preferential treatment,' Ontario Premier Doug Ford says of Greenbelt developers
CTV
Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters that 'no one had preferential treatment' when it came to choosing what Greenbelt land would open for development.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters that “no one had preferential treatment” when it came to choosing what Greenbelt land would open for development days after a bombshell auditor general’s report suggested the decision making favoured certain developers with ministry access.
The comment was made at a news conference in Mississauga Friday morning, where the premier was announcing that 40 additional supportive housing units will be operational next year.
During the news conference, both the premier and Housing Minister Steve Clark were inundated with questions about the auditor general report, which indicated staff “favoured certain developers” with direct access to the housing ministry. The report also found the process lacked transparency and failed to consider environmental, agricultural and financial impacts of the changes.
“No one had preferential treatment,” Ford told reporters before pivoting to talking points about the housing crisis, which his government has used as the reason for developing the Greenbelt.
“We're changing it to build homes for people that need it.”
The auditor general’s report, which was released on Wednesday, noted that no evidence could be found to support the claim that removing land from the Greenbelt was needed to meet the government’s housing goals.
The premier and housing minister have argued the provincial housing affordability task force, as well as the other sources of information cited in the report, are over a year and a half old.
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