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More than a year after the Ford government was to have started a mandatory review of the Greenbelt, Ontario’s municipal affairs and housing minister won’t say where the key study of the ecologically sensitive zone stands.
The study — which must be completed by law every decade and was due to start over a year ago — was delayed by the snap election called by Premier Doug Ford in Jan. 2025. Asked for an update on the Greenbelt review by reporters on Tuesday, Minister Rob Flack gave a short reply.
“No, thanks,” he said as he walked away from a scrum at Queen’s Park.
The Greenbelt, an over 800,000-hectare ecologically sensitive zone around the Greater Golden Horseshoe, was created in 2005. It provides environmental protection and specifies where development should not occur.
Critics are calling on the Ford government to launch a months-delayed review of the Greenbelt. The mandatory review is required by law and was supposed to start in February
Consultations, report on protecting Greenbelt part of last review
The legislation that created the zone requires a review every decade. That involves consultations with municipalities within the protected area and members of the public.
It also requires the government to hear from its own Greenbelt council, a body of 10 representatives it appoints to regularly meet and provide advice to the minister on land use planning related to the zone.
But the term of the last member of that council expired last summer, and the Ford government has not appointed new members to conduct the review. Minister Flack has been largely silent on the file since taking on the municipal affairs portfolio last spring.
The minister broke his silence on the review in December, when he was asked about it during Question Period.
“I think everyone knows we had a winter election, as of that, we are taking time to get the framework put in place so we can do a proper review,” Flack said at the time. “The Greenbelt is enshrined in legislation for generations to come. I repeat, the Greenbelt is enshrined in legislation for generations to come.”
But in the months since he made those comments, the government has not said anything else about the review or re-constituted the Greenbelt council.
Greenbelt subject of scandal for Tories since 2022
The Greenbelt has been the subject of scandal for the Ford government since 2022, when it announced it would swap 15 pieces of land from the protected area and open them up for development. Reports from the auditor general and integrity commissioner found that the process to select lands was rushed and favoured certain developers.
The property owners with land removed from the Greenbelt stood to see their land value rise by $8.3 billion, the auditor general found in her own Greenbelt investigation.
Ford reversed course after heated public outcry and the RCMP continues to investigate the matter.
The RCMP said Tuesday that an investigation into the matter is ongoing.
Environmentalists and opposition critics have been calling on the government to move forward with the review and state definitively that no lands will be removed from the zone.
Stiles calls for transparency around Greenbelt review
NDP leader Marit Stiles accused Flack of trying to hide the details of the review from Ontarians.
“This Premier and his government want to hide everything from the people of Ontario,” Stiles said. “I’m very afraid of what they have planned in terms of the Greenbelt.”
Stiles linked the lack of clarity on the Greenbelt review to the premier’s new law to exempt himself and his cabinet from the freedom of information process.
“He just wants free reign to do whatever he wants with nobody having access to that information ever,” she said.
Green party leader Mike Schreiner said with the RCMP investigation into the scandal still underway, he can understand why the government wants to say little about the Greenbelt review.
“That review is there so we see what types of policy changes need to be made to strengthen protections for the Greenbelt,” he said. “I’m hoping the government’s going to move forward with this, because it’s an important piece of public policy to tell you.”
Liberal parliamentary leader John Fraser slammed the government for its secrecy on the Greenbelt review.
“Look, it’s not a serious government,” he said. “It’s a government that’s adrift, it’s tired, it’s out of touch, out of gas. They believe that Ontarians aren’t watching. Ontarians are getting tired of this.”
