The owner of one of the 15 properties involved in the #Greenbeltscandal is asking the #DougFord government to exclude their plot from the provincial bill to return all that land to the protected area. Now lawyers are raising the prospect of a constitutional challenge if the legislation passes as is.
👀 Another real estate swindle?
Today, the Ford govt tabled legislation that will transfer additional public land & cultural venues over to Kinga Surma, #OntarioPlace tsarina.
Properties include the McMichael Gallery, #Ontario Science Centre, Royal Ontario Museum, Science North & numerous Public Health facilities.
The Province says this "centralization" would "create opportunities" & allows them to "better manage & oversee real estate more cost-effectively and efficiently"
MPP Kinga Surma says this "centralization" would "create opportunities" & allow them to "better manage & oversee real estate efficiently"
🥴 The McMichael Canadian Art gallery currently sits on 100 acres of forested land in the Humber River valley in Vaughan.
In 1965, the McMichael family formally reached an agreement to donate their collection and their entire property to the Government of #Ontario in order to establish an art museum.
Several #Ontario municipalities have turned down #DougFord's offer of strong-mayor powers because of his unrealistic housing targets or worries that the these powers would tie themselves to a "dictatorship."
Newmarket was the first to refuse, telling the province there was no way the town could build 12,000 homes in 10 years because the municipality doesn't currently have the sewage capacity to serve more than a couple thousand more homes.
#DougFord has appointed Shoppers Drug Mart as the sole distributor of publicly funded vaccines!! 😳
"The vaccine rollout this year has been the worst we've experienced, raising questions how the MoH operates. Shoppers, who typically deliver solely to their own pharmacies, must now handle distribution to their competitors. With a distribution plan that resembles sabotage, we simply cannot continue provide vaccines with the govt providing no regular supply"
BREAKING: A new traffic study has found that moving trucks from Highway 401 to the 407 ETR could alleviate congestion for all road users, reduce travel times for truck drivers and potentially save #Ontario taxpayers around $6 BILLION.
Premier Ford purposely waived a $1B penalty owed by the 407 ETR owners rather than negotiate lower 407 ETR tolls that would ease congestion on Hwy 401.
Had the 407 tolls been reduced, #DougFord’s 'donor-friendly' Hwy 413 would not be justified.
👉 "this province's determination to build the 413 has blinded it to using the 407 to solve traffic congestion on the 401”
Peter Miasek, director of Transport Action Ontario
An analysis of minister’s zoning orders [MZO] issued by the #DougFord government during its first two full years shows some puzzling patterns...
"No one in the industry really thinks [MZO] zoning orders would actually speed up [development],” said Marty Stollar, former mayor of Lindsay, “these gratuitous MZOs literally do nothing to speed up development... and are simply a tool to increase the value of the land."
UPDATE: #Greenbeltscandal land developer Sergio Manchia has been charged under the Municipal Elections Act for allegedly donating more money than the legal limit to #Hamilton city council candidates.
Just last week...
"Not only did #DougFord meet privately with developer Sergio Manchia to discuss the removal of his lands from the Greenbelt, this meeting (which the Premier says he doesn't remember) took place at a $1,200-a-ticket Conservative fundraiser held at the developer's house." #onpoli
A Paris, #Ontario cattle farmer is concerned about coexisting with a proposed 400-unit subdivision. The farmland, bordered on three sides by the Grand River, has been a family farm since 1852.
More farmland gone: this farmer will likely be forced to sell - especially once the new homeowners start complaining about "the bad smell"
@CanadianCrone "The Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) is an unelected, unaccountable quasi-judicial body that has the final say over planning matters in Toronto and across #Ontario."
The auditor-general might want to look into the OLT who have a 97% record of ruling in favour of developers. 🤔
@CanadianCrone Mr. Kraljevic replaced the former OLT chair appointee Marie Hubbard, who died in office in 2022...at age 87.
Ms Hubbard was a former mayor of Clarington - but not to be confused with that other former mayor of Clarington , Mr. X, who has been associated with #DougFord's #GreenbeltScandal.
a leaked letter from MPP Paul Calandra suggests that Premier #DougFord and various Cabinet ministers have doubled down to make the mayors of "lower-tier municipalities" accomplices to the #Greenbeltscandal by having them rubber-stamp the Conservative government’s forced farm, forest and wetland eating boundary expansions.
“There is simply no non-corrupt way to justify further extension of settlement boundaries"
Fresh from exposing Premier #DougFord’s $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap scandal, the provincial auditor general is now probing the #Ontario Place redevelopment. #Canada 🇨🇦
@GottaLaff When details for the #GreenBeltScandal came to light, any of the #DougFord government decisions became suspect because so many of the decisions were not in the interest of people of Ontario and didn’t pass the smell test. #OnPoli
In the midst of the #GreenbeltScandal, a reminder that #Ontario taxpayers will now pay for roads, community centres, transit, sewers etc. because of Premier Ford's Bill 23.
i.e. The Ford govt legislation will cost Hamiltonian's $14 to $25 million a year & York Region tax payers upwards of $34.9 million a year, costs that were previously carried by the developers.
Not only did #DougFord's developer buddies snag land at a profit, his #Bill23 eliminates infrastructure costs = even higher profits.
Premier Ford has fired Ontario Conservative party veteran Janet Ecker from the Metrolinx board after she criticized him. #DougFord appears to be moving to crush any dissension in the ranks over his #GreenbeltScandal.
"I think [Janet] wanted to get fired. A lot of people want to distance themselves from Ford because of the Greenbelt,” conceded a PC insider.
"Developer guests at Doug Ford family wedding got fast-track zoning approvals from government" https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-doug-ford-mzos-land-zoning-orders-greenbelt-1.7010332 "…just four guests at a Ford family wedding reception benefited from as many MZOs [ministerial zoning orders, i.e., exceptions to zoning laws] as previous Liberal governments issued in total over the course of their 15 years in power."
"MZOs are a powerful tool...At the stroke of a pen, a cabinet minister overrides local planning rules, avoids public consultation and can change what is allowed be built on the property."
No surprise the Ford govt's MZO's were awarded to the same 4-5 developers involved in the #Greenbeltscandal or that housing minister Calandra is signalling he's unlikely to scrap those MZOs.
Longtime Conservative strategist Deb Hutton is providing "crisis response management support" to the #DougFord govt while it continues to navigate the fallout from the #Greenbeltscandal and Las Vegas trip fiasco.
Hutton was senior adviser to former PC premier Mike Harris & was recently appointed to the Metrolinx board by MPP Caroline Mulroney. She is married to former PC leader Tim Hudak.
The #Ontario government, via #HousingMinister#PaulCalandra, says it will soon introduce legislation that will wind back provincial changes and reverse controversial expansions it made to the urban boundaries of some municipalities as part of its plan to build more homes.
All these Ford government "wind-backs" and "flip-flops" are costing Ontario taxpayers millions. Meanwhile #DougFord wasted an entire year or more 'working' for his insider buddies instead of a creating comprehensive housing strategy.
🤔 Prior to the RCMP criminal investigation Ford was clear he wasn’t going to reverse anything.
NEW: Land owned by a LiUNA senior executive was one of the parcels removed from the Greenbelt in 2022, just months after the union endorsed Doug Ford’s PC party.
LiUNA is a sizable trade union that has a professional relationship with both the #DougFord government & the Conservative Party of #Ontario
“LiUNA has absolutely no insight nor involvement" says Victoria Mancinelli, LiUNA’s director of public relations.