Ford vows to open up greenbelt to residential development
Ontario Environment Minister Chris Ballard says he doesn’t “want to see Doug Ford driving a bulldozer through Niagara, and turning it all into houses.”
But that’s what Ballard fears could happen — after watching a video of the province’s Progressive Conservative party leader promising to open “a big chunk” of Ontario’s greenbelt for residential development.
In the video, filmed on Feb. 12 and shared with media on Monday by the governing Liberals, Ford vowed to “open up the greenbelt — not all of it, but we’re going to open a big chunk of it up and we’re going to start building.”
The plan, Ford said in the video, would help bring down the cost of housing.
“I don’t know where (Ford) thinks we get our food from,” said Ballard, who was in Niagara to announce the expansion of an initiative aimed at ensuring good food would go to people in need rather than landfill sites.
Ballard, MPP for Newmarket– Aurora, said he grew up in a farming community and has seen too much farmland paved over for new housing.
“We’re going to have to more and more rely on producing food, growing food right around here. We won’t be able to do that if there are condos and homes sitting on it. It’s a no-brainer. I don’t know what he’s thinking.”
Niagara West–Glanbrook MPP Sam Oosterhoff called concerns about Ford’s comments “fearmongering.”
“The reality is we support the greenbelt. We support our tender fruit land and we support responsible stewardship of that land,” said the Progressive Conservative MPP who represents a riding that includes a significant portion of greenbelt property.
Oosterhoff said Ford was “talking about making sure we’re swapping out land where you can’t grow a weed, that right now you can’t do anything with.”
He said the provincial Tories plan to make non-productive land within the greenbelt available for new housing, while productive farmland that currently isn’t within the greenbelt would be added in to replace it.
“People who are trying to spin this and trying to say Doug is going to just rip up the greenbelt, that’s simply not true,” Oosterhoff said.
New Democratic Party environment critic Peter Tabuns also weighed in on Ford’s comments, calling it a “reckless, secret plan to open Ontario’s greenbelt to pave over farms, forests, parks and vibrant green spaces.”
“When it comes to creating a livable, affordable province, Doug Ford is saying one thing publicly and another in private to his big, rich developer friends,” Tabuns said.
Ballard accused Ford of making deals with developers behind closed doors — referring to a statement Ford made in the video that he “already talked to some of the biggest developers in this country and, again, I wish I could say it was my idea but it was their ideas as well.”
“That’s scary because it speaks to a pattern of behaviour,” Ballard said.
“He’s doing all of this behind closed doors, talking to very rich and powerful people and companies.”
But Oosterhoff again defended his boss, saying Ford “doesn’t cut deals with developers.”
“What he does do is listen to concerned stakeholders and expresses his concern as well,” Oosterhoff said. “There’s no doubt that Doug has a blunt way of speaking and sometimes his words can be misconstrued, but I know he supports the greenbelt, I support the greenbelt and we want to make sure that we’re protecting as much of our tender fruit land in an environmentally responsible way as possible.”