Reprimands are not Enough: Rescind Greenbelt Removals, says National Farmers Union – Ontario

September 1, 2023

Treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit (Guelph, ON)  — “Rushed,” “non-transparent, “reckless,” “deceptive,” and “chaotic.” These are the words used by J. David Wake, Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner, to describe the Ford Government’s process in determining the removal and redesignation of over 7,400 acres of formerly protected Greenbelt lands for private development.

Echoing Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk’s recent analysis that the Greenbelt land removal process was “not transparent, fair, objective, or fully informed,” the Integrity Commissioner’s report recommends that Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, be officially reprimanded for conflict of interest and communicating insider information in direct contravention of the Members’ Integrity Act (1996).

In particular, Wake found that Minister Clark:

(a) “went far beyond” the original Premier’s Office mandate letter which called on the Ministry to explore policy revisions to the Greenbelt but not actually recommend specific lands for removal;(b) failed to supervise or direct “this highly significant initiative within his Ministry,” leaving it instead to a novice chief of staff; and
(c) brought the land removal proposals to cabinet even though he ought to have been aware that it would provoke significant public criticism regarding the “lack of transparency, process and criteria” and would be viewed as “unscientific and partisan.”

With “his head in the sand,” reports Wake, Clark failed to supervise an improper process that furthered the fiduciary interests of a select group of developers, many of whom have personal ties to the Premier.

A reprimand is the least Ontarians should expect as a penalty for a Minister who has regularly bragged that the “buck stops with me.” But reprimands of Clark, or even “buck-stopping” Ford himself, will do nothing to address the actual impacts this carving up of the Greenbelt will have on food production or the continued protection of our finite farmland, which we were already losing at a rate of 319 acres per day.

While the procedural malfeasance and backroom dealings described in both the Integrity Commissioner and Auditor General reports are staggering, so too is the government’s disregard for the value of farmland in this province. In the Auditor General report, we were informed that the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) believes the Greenbelt land lost “will lead to significant adverse impacts on agriculture,” with over 83% of the land slated to be paved over assessed as Class 1-3 prime agricultural land. Both reports note that initial selection criteria that might have prevented removal of Greenbelt land with natural heritage features or designated for specialty crops were hastily dropped to push through this estimated $8.3 million developer windfall.

When the Integrity Commissioner asked Kate Manson-Smith, former Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, “if agricultural land and natural heritage features were not as important to the government” as a proposed site’s potential to yield housing, Manson-Smith suggested his question be posed “to elected officials or Minister Clark’s staff.” We call on all Ontarians to take Manson-Smith’s suggestion to heart and ask their elected officials: What good is housing for residents of this province if we don’t have enough land to grow the food to feed them?

Yes, Ontarians desperately need affordable housing, but it is time to call out the red herring of the Government’s misleading rejoinder of “affordability.” Nowhere within the More Homes Built Faster Act (2022), or in any other recent legislation, has the government specified that a required percentage of affordable housing be constructed on formerly Greenbelt-protected land. And, as the government’s own Housing Affordability Task Force concluded, there is plenty of land available within existing urban boundaries to build affordable housing where people actually work and where community infrastructure exists.

Reprimanding Clark does not remedy how this Government has endangered our food system and undermined key environmental and agricultural protections under its dubious promise of “affordable” housing.

Farmland is for those who grow food, not speculative investors. Return the 7,400 acres of Greenbelt land now!

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For more information:

Max Hansgen
President, National Farmers Union–Ontario
email: president@nfuontario.ca, phone:(613) 464-1251