Ontario will 're-evaluate' sites in Greenbelt land swap as part of sweeping review, Ford says

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says his government will"re-evaluate" controversial Greenbelt land swaps pannedby twoprovincial watchdogs as rushed and flawed, but insisted development will move ahead if the sites "stand on their own merit."

At a news conference Tuesday, Ford said the re-evaluation will be part of a wider review of all Greenbelt lands and development applications. The previous Liberal government mandated in 2005 that Greenbelt lands be reviewedevery 10 years. The last review was completed in 2015, meaning the province is moving up the timeline by about two years.

Paul Calandra, who stepped into the role of housing minister after Steve Clark resigned the post on Monday, will establish the parameters of the review along with a non-partisan provincial adjudicator, Ford said.

"There is going to be a complete review from top to bottom," Ford told reporters.

The lands earmarked for removal and development late last year will need to survive the process, Ford said. He added that in the meantime, the adjudicator will continue working withcurrent landowners which include some of the largest developers in the province about their plans for building on the land.Ford also committed to publicly releasing any finalized agreements between those landowners and the province.

WATCH | Ford announces a 'top to bottom' review of the Greenbelt:

'Were going to review the whole system,' Ontario Premier Doug Ford says of Greenbelt land swap

1 year ago

Duration 2:40

Ford said his government acknowledges the process "wasnt up to snuff" and a non-partisan provincial adjudicator will review all Greenbelt lands and development applications.

When asked ifthe pending review could see more Greenbeltland opened for housing development, Ford did not rule it out.

"First of all we are going to see what the review says," he said. "And we will analyze it. It will be up to the minister to make that decision."

Ford shuffles cabinet following resignation

Clark announced he would step down as housing minister on Labour Day morning, days after a scathing report from the province's integrity commissioner found he violated ethics rules as his ministry selected Greenbelt sites for housing construction. His resignation triggered a cabinet shuffle just hours later.

Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake faulted Clark for not properly overseeing his chief of staff, Ryan Amato. Wake said Amato was the driving force behind the selection of lands that would come out of the Greenbelt.

He recommended to the legislature that Clark be reprimanded, but it's unclear if that will happen once MPPs resume sitting on Sept. 25or what it would look like.

A similarly damning report from Ontario's auditor general,released on Aug. 9, found the process washeavily influenced by a small group of politically connected developers. Amatoheaded up that effort and had direct contact with some of those developers or their lawyers, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk said.Amato resigned on Aug.22, but both Clark and Ford insisted for weeks that Clark would stay on as minister.

Ford told Clark in a mandate letter shortly after the 2022 election to come up with a process to open up the Greenbelt by fall 2022.

Even though the ministry had received about 630 Greenbelt site removal requests since 2005, a team of civil servants struck by Amato were limited to looking at 22 sites, Lysyk found. All but one of those sites were identified and provided directly by Amato himself.

Of the 15 sites ultimately removed, 14 were brought into the project by Amato, Lysyk said. More than 90 per cent of the land was in five sites passed on to him by two developers he met at an industry event, she found. The owners of the 15 sites could see their land value rise by $8.3 billion, the auditor said.

Amato said in his resignation letter he is confident he acted appropriately but that he didn't want to be a distraction to thegovernment's work of getting housing built.

TheRCMPiscurrently weighing whetherthere are groundsfor a potential police investigation into the land swaps.

The auditor general ultimately made 15 recommendations, including 14 directly related to improving the process for evaluating development applications. The remaining recommendation was for the government to revisit the land swaps.

"I wasn't happy with the process. We are correcting the process," Ford said Tuesday.

"We are going to make sure there is merit to every application that comes forward. That said, there is nothing more important than building more homes for the people of Ontario."

Opposition parties push for more answers

Last fall, the province took 2,995 hectares of land across 15 sites out of the Greenbelt and replaced themwith about 3,804hectares elsewhere.

Ford has previously said he expects construction of the 50,000 homes expected to be built on those lands to start by no later than 2025 and for "significant progress" on approvals to be made by the end of this year.

The premier did not immediately have information on how long the newly announced review is expected to take, but the last one took two years.

One of the 15 original sites slated for development, located in Ajax, Ont., will be put back into the Greenbelt after the property was listed for sale by its owner, according to the government.Ford said last week that the intent to sell the land was never disclosed during negotiations with the province.

WATCH | Opposition reaction to Ford's Greenbelt review:

Here's how Doug Ford's political opponents responded to the ongoing Greenbelt controversy

1 year ago

Duration 1:49

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles, Interim Ontario Liberal Leader John Fraser and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner all spoke Tuesday after Ford said there will be a wider review of all Greenbelt lands and development applications.

In response to Ford's news conference, NDP Leader Marit Stiles again repeated her call for the legislature to be recalled from its summer break so that the land removed in the swaps can be returned to the Greenbelt. She called the review process a "sham.

"It a colossal waste of time and money," she told reporters. "The premier needs to immediately reverse course."

Meanwhile, interim LiberalLeader John Fraser called the land and application review "irrelevant" and said Clark's resignation "was only the first step" in the government rectifying the situation.

"The next steps are for the premier to open the books and to return the lands. By opening the books, I mean we need to see the emails, the calls, the meeting notes, the texts" that resulted in the land swaps, Fraser added.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said he, too, worries the review will lead to more development on the Greenbelt.

"I believe the premier today declared open season on the Greenbelt," he said.

"He clearly doesn't understand how important it is to protect the farmland that feeds us. Especially at a time when people are struggling to pay grocery bills, we need to protect our local food supply chains."