A few days ago I emailed the OPP at oppa@oppa.ca today to ask if they were going to investigate how Ford’s government handled removing lands assigned to the Greenbelt. I don’t expect them to admit if they are investigating or not, but I wanted to let them know that someone thinks they should. You have to be apathetic or complicit to not see that the process was corrupt.

I watched, for about three minutes, Ford’s televised response to the devastating information in the Auditor General of Ontario’s special 2023 report on Changes to the Greenbelt, before it became obvious that he was just going to spew more garbage about our need for housing instead of addressing the shady, underhanded business that occurred in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing involving the Housing Minister’s Chief of Staff. Specifically, that 92% of the acres excised from the Greenbelt were suggested by two developers, or the fact that the developers purchased the 5 sites before the land was identified and excised.

We in the Haliburton Highlands have been blessed this year as far as the consequences of climate change are concerned. Unfortunately, the rest of the country and the world have not been as lucky. The Editor’s Desk of The Best of Maclean’s (August 2023) put it like this:

“This summer, all over the country, there is no escaping the impact of a warming planet.

The swath of land in Canada that burned over the last few months is unfathomable. The fires have wiped out nearly 25 million aces, roughly the size of Iceland. I did not expect the future to arrive so quickly. Experts and activists predicted wildfires, floods and smoke years ago, and yet the sheer volume of climate catastrophes in the last few months was a shock. Parts of Europe reached 46 degrees, India was hit by deadly floods, Japan had the heaviest rainfall ever and Arizona experienced record breaking heat.”

And yet Premier Ford sells off parts of the Greenbelt to his supporters with no concern for the environment, or the benefits of the Greenbelt to the environment and in mitigating climate change.

The Auditor General’s Special Report points out that “In 2007, the Housing Minister at that time (a Liberal) won a prestigious national planning award from the Canadian Institute of Planners for the Greenbelt Plan and recognition of excellence in natural systems planning.” If you search for Greenbelt information you will see the following:

“Ontario’s Greenbelt protects farmland, communities, forests, wetlands and watersheds. It also preserves cultural heritage and supports recreation and tourism in Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe.

The Greenbelt Act, 2005 provides the authority for the creation of the Greenbelt Plan (2017).

The Greenbelt Plan establishes the Protected Countryside and Urban River Valley designations. The Greenbelt Area also includes the Niagara Escarpment Plan area and the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan area (2017).

The three Greenbelt land use plans work together with A Place to Grow: Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe to protect the natural environment and determine where and how growth should be accommodated in the region.”

The Greenbelt Act created a Greenbelt Council to advise the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and other government ministries about proper use of the protected lands, but the Ford government chose to ignore their recommendations and included in the 2020 budget a section called Schedule 6 which effectively castrated all institutions concerned with environmental stewardship. David Crombie (former federal MP and former mayor of Toronto) resigned his position as chair of the council along with 6 other council members over Schedule 6. The Greenbelt Council remains gutted with no Chair and only four councillors appointed by the Housing Minister out of a possible nine. This is understandable, why have a full council if you are just going to ignore their advice.

It is obvious when you look at what the Ford conservative government has done that the premier has lied about not touching the Greenbelt and continues to deceive the people of Ontario about his true intentions. There is nothing we can do about him except expose the truth and hope people realize how corrupt he is before the next election. But the staffers involved in the selloff of Greenbelt land are not elected figures, so hopefully the OPP can look into them and their corruption. I have my fingers crossed. Although my crossed fingers won’t do anything to influence a Conservative government who refuses to acknowledge that Climate Change exists.

©Dave Skinner Aug. 2023