EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a new Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Greenbelt lands removed by the Ford government will soon be back under protection, but the calls for investigations — over that land-use controversy and others — keep piling up.
On Thursday, NDP Leader Marit Stiles was the latest to call for an investigative tool into the Greenbelt affair. She tabled a motion on Wednesday (to be voted on Tuesday) to create a select committee to investigate how the lands came to be selected for removal.
She joins the other two opposition parties and at least one city council who are calling for multiple reviews and inquiries into the Greenbelt and municipal boundary expansions that have benefited developers close to the Progressive Conservatives.
Stiles noted that a select committee formed during the Liberal gas plants scandal led to a senior staffer going to jail. Its creation was supported by all parties at the time, she added. (The Liberals were a minority government at the time, however, and if an investigative committee is going to be formed anyway, it's perhaps best not to look like you went along kicking and screaming).
"If (Premier Doug Ford) and his government have nothing to hide, then they will support this motion on Tuesday," she said.
The motion is a long shot as it will need majority support to pass, and the PCs control a significant majority. Government members of a parliamentary committee voted down a Liberal motion for that committee to investigate the Greenbelt land removals just two weeks ago.
Ford's office didn't respond to a question about whether it would support the NDP's motion by press time.
The committee would be made up of MPPs from all parties, and the NDP would ask the government for an equal split between PC and opposition members, Stiles said. The final say would rest with the government.
It would be able to compel documents and witnesses, and would be public, instead of private investigations like those of provincial watchdogs, Stiles said.
Ontario's auditor general and integrity commissioner have found the Ford government's process for selecting Greenbelt lands for removal was deeply flawed and lacking the proper oversight, favouring a few developers — often friends of or donors to the governing party.
Former housing minister Steve Clark and his chief of staff, Ryan Amato, resigned over the controversy. Clark remains a PC MPP. Another former minister, Kaleed Rasheed, resigned from the PC caucus after The Trillium's reporting on a trip to Las Vegas involving a developer and several figures connected to the government.
Three days before Stiles' presser, Green Leader Mike Schreiner called for a public inquiry into the Greenbelt scandal, writing in a letter to the integrity commissioner that the government's actions "pose a serious threat" to the public's confidence in its elected officials.
Stiles said the NDP will hold a public inquiry if it forms government, but that those processes can take years, "and people need answers now."
Also this week, Ottawa's city council called on new Housing Minister Paul Calandra to review how and why his government expanded the city's urban boundary, noting a piece of prime agricultural land that was purchased by PC donors in 2021.
Ottawa-area Liberal MPP Stephen Blais wrote the auditor general to ask for an investigation earlier this month, citing the same property.
The NDP confirmed it's also working on an auditor general complaint about the changes to urban boundaries in Ottawa and Hamilton — the latter of which benefited a landowner who bought tickets to Ford's daughter's stag and doe.
Those municipalities were among a handful the Ford government ordered to expand their urban boundaries — including Waterloo, Belleville, Peterborough and Wellington County — leading some to worry about sprawl and loss of farmland.
The councils are supported by environmental and "Stop Sprawl" groups that have proliferated in recent months — and who have said they're switching gears to focus on boundary expansions after the Greenbelt reversal.
Hamilton hasn't asked for a review of its own boundary expansion, but it has supported the Hamilton Conservation Authority’s call for a probe into the Ford government's changes to wetland evaluation.
Schreiner released a statement on Thursday in support of Hamilton's call.
"It’s time for this government to stop doing favours for deep-pocketed donors and start standing up for everyday Ontarians," he said.
Stiles said she hasn't spoken to Hamilton mayor and former NDP leader Andrea Horwath since the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference last month, but noted that her MPPs in that city and Ottawa have supported those calls for inquiries.
As for the NDP's upcoming integrity commissioner complaint focused on the Las Vegas trip, "We're working on it," Stiles said.
"There's a lot there," she said, noting that the integrity commissioner has a high bar for starting investigations and that she wants to have a "really tight request."
Stiles also noted the potential RCMP investigation.
"We'll see what happens there," she said.
