Ontario Greenbelt development plans were 'biased': AG report
CTV
The Ontario government’s decision to open up parts of the Greenbelt for housing “favoured certain developers,” a scathing report by the province’s auditor general has suggested.
The Ontario government’s decision to open up parts of the Greenbelt for housing “favoured certain developers,” lacked transparency and failed to consider environmental, agricultural and financial impacts, a scathing report by the province’s auditor general has suggested.
Of the 7,400 acres of land removed from the Greenbelt, the report found 92 per cent could be tied to three developers. Fourteen of the 15 sites were proposed directly by Housing Minister Steve Clark’s Chief of Staff.
The remaining site was proposed by a six-person team of public servants tasked with assessing land sites for possible removal.
The report also found Clark’s Chief of Staff altered criteria for land removal when the majority of the sites would not be approved within those parameters and implemented a three-week timeline for the assessment. The team, the report found, had to operate under strict confidentiality terms that prevented them from contacting partnering ministries as well as municipalities and conservation authorities.
Ninety-three confidentiality agreements across multiple ministries were signed over the course of the project, the report found.
The findings were released in a “Special Report on Changes to the Greenbelt” by Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk on Wednesday.
An investigation into the Doug Ford government’s decision to remove 7,400 acres of land from the Greenbelt for development began in January after a joint request from all three of the province’s opposition leaders.
