Accountability in Greenbelt controversy leads back to Premier Doug Ford, political experts say

The Ontario government's now-cancelled decision to build housing on protected land has claimed the jobs of two cabinet ministers and seen the government cut ties with three senior political staffers.

Recent polls show the Greenbelt controversy has weakened support for Premier Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservatives, but it remains to be seen how much lasting damage the attempt might cause to Ford himself, even though he appears to have ordered it.

One political observer says he's likely to survive the crisis given that he's apologized and reversed course, but political scientists and a former Liberal cabinet minister say, regardless, the responsibility for initiating the policy and allowing it through cabinet lies with him.

Policymaking at Ontario's cabinet level has, in general, evolved over the years, says Nelson Wiseman, emeritus professor of political science at the University of Toronto. But one thing that hasn't changed is that the premier sets the agenda and is responsible for any decisions. 

"Nothing goes to cabinet without the premier wanting it to be at cabinet," Wiseman told CBC News.

"The ultimate responsibility here is with the premier."

The controversy ignited when the province removed 2,995 hectares of land across 15 sites from the Greenbelt last year and added about 3,804 hectares elsewhere — to comply with legislation stating the total size of its protected area cannot be reduced.

The government claimed the land was needed to meet its goal of building 1.5 million homes in 10 years.

But it broke a campaign promise by Ford — made when he first ran in 2018 — that the PCs "won't touch" the Greenbelt if elected. 

Reports from Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk and Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake — both released in August — found that the process to select lands was rushed, biased and favoured certain developers.

Lysyk's investigation found the government's process for choosing which sites to remove was influenced by a small number of well-connected real estate developers with access to Amato, who personally selected 14 of the 15 sites that were to be removed from the Greenbelt.

Clark and Amato have both since resigned. So did Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery Kaleed Rasheed and Jae Truesdell, director of housing policy for Ford's office. The Ford government also said it would also stop working with Amin Massoudi, a former staffer who now runs a consulting firm.

Ford and his staffers have maintained they were only looped in late in the process and all denied knowing how the sites were selected. The integrity commissioner agreed that the premier's office was "kept in the dark." 

But the process got started with Ford's mandate letter to Clark in 2022, in which the premier, newly re-elected to a second term, told his housing minister to "complete work to codify processes for swaps, expansions, contractions and policy updates for the Greenbelt," by that fall.