Another Ford wrecking ball

A wrecking ball.

It would be hard to find a better demonstration of what Doug Ford’s government thinks of Toronto than that.

When the Ford government sent in a demolition crew this week to tear down provincially owned heritage buildings in Toronto, it ran roughshod over the desires of local residents, the area councillor, the chief planner and the city itself.

It also seems to have thrown its own heritage guidelines right out the window.

All in the middle of a pandemic no less. That shows the province isn’t just bypassing rules and norms; it’s ignoring its own stay-at-home order designed to curb the spread of a deadly virus.

And for what? There’s no rush here.

The Dominion Wheel and Foundries Co. buildings, which the community would like to turn into a performing arts hub, have long been empty. There’s been no public consultation. There isn’t even a development application — not a public one anyway — to build on the site.

That makes Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark’s claims that he’s skipping over all due process to “accelerate” the creation of affordable housing and “help Toronto achieve their affordable housing targets” particularly suspect.

Ministerial zoning orders — normally a rarely used tool and for good reason — can authorize development regardless of local planning rules or even environmental concerns. In this case, Clark’s ministerial zoning order allows for three new buildings up to 43 storeys.

The MZO says nothing about affordable housing. Not how many units of affordable housing will be built. Not what level of affordability they must meet. The order is completely silent on this issue that is supposedly so important to the government that it’s willing to take this extreme, undemocratic step.

That means all the Ford government is really doing with this MZO is running roughshod over municipal government (again) so it can hand a developer a nice empty block in the middle of Canada’s largest city.

Toronto desperately needs affordable housing and getting more of it built is a lens that all development applications should be seen through. But it’s not an either/or proposition.

It’s not protection of heritage or affordable housing. It’s not following local planning rules or affordable housing. It’s not public consultation or affordable housing. It can and should be all of those things.

That’s what would have been brought to the fore in a normal process, if the province hadn’t squashed the right to discuss and debate.

And it isn’t doing that just on this one site or even just in Toronto.

Last year, Clark issued more than 35 MZOs in communities across the province. In some cases they were on environmentally sensitive lands that would normally not allow development; in other cases they benefited developers who have donated to the Progressive Conservative party.

MZOs were never meant to be used this way or this often. The Ford government issued more orders in a single year than successive Liberal governments issued in a decade.

In the face of this unnecessary and unacceptable use of provincial power, citizens, not to mention municipal governments, have few strong tools at their disposal.

There’s a petition: Save the Foundry — Respect Local Planning.

Toronto’s planning and housing committee is demanding a stop to demolition; the city’s chief planner has written a letter to the province about following provincial heritage guidelines; and Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam is trying to mount a save campaign, even as the buildings come down.

With its unprecedented use of MZOs the Ford government is making heritage conservation, environmental preservation and municipal planning rules all but irrelevant. It’s reminding everyone that it doesn’t believe in consultation, public transparency or accountability.

So it’s not just a piece of Toronto’s historic fabric the province is tearing down with these foundry buildings. It’s taking a wrecking ball to the trust citizens place in government.

The Ford government is making heritage conservation, environmental preservation and municipal planning rules all but irrelevant