Auditor general to release report on Ford's Greenbelt land swap today
CBC
Ontario's auditor general is set to release the results of her investigation digging into Premier Doug Ford's controversial Greenbelt land swap today.
The Ford government removed environmental protections on approximately 2,995 hectares of Greenbelt land in December — while adding more land elsewhere — to build 50,000 homes. It's part of its plan to build 1.5 million new homes in the next decade to ease Ontario's housing crisis.
Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk agreed in January to look into the financial and environmental impacts of that decision following a request from the leaders of all three opposition parties.
Lysyk is set to publicly release her findings at an 11 a.m. ET news conference at Queen's Park. Ford and his housing minister, Steve Clark, are then scheduled to speak to media at 1 p.m. You can watch both news conferences live in this story.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the report isn't about Ford, but rather Ontarians' trust being restored in their government.
"It's about accountability," Stiles said in an interview. "We're concerned about what this means for the future of farming, agriculture and our important ecosystems."
Stiles said she wants to see the government "do the right thing" and reverse the decision.
The Greenbelt was created in 2005 to permanently protect agricultural and environmentally sensitive lands from development and covers some 810,000 hectares area of farmland, forest and wetland from Niagara Falls to Peterborough.
As CBC Toronto first reported, several well-established developers were among the owners of the land that was removed from the Greenbelt. Some of those developers have made financial donations to the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario or its politicians.
The CBC Toronto analysis also revealed several of the properties were purchased after the Ford government came to power in 2018 while the properties were fully or partially off-limits to development. This includes five plots in the Township of King that were purchased together in September for $80 million.
Opposition politicians and other critics raised concerns about what developers might have known in advance of the government announcing the policy. Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Housing Minister Steve Clark have denied tipping off developers.
In July, two prominent Toronto-area developers who own land that was removed from the Greenbelt as part of the policy change— Michael Rice and Sylvio De Gasperis — filed separate court applications attempting to avoid answering questions from the province's auditor general, arguing the summons oversteps the auditor general's authority to scrutinize provincial government finances.
Lysyk is releasing the results of her investigation before her term as auditor ends in September.
Critics like Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence, are hoping the auditor general's report provides some answers.
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