You know what, maybe Ford disagrees with you because he and you and the others are unable to justify, explain, and/or otherwise rationalize a goddam thing:
Doug Ford can’t bluster his way out of the Greenbelt controversy
By Star Editorial Board
Wednesday, August 16, 2023
At a news conference last week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford challenged the findings of the province’s auditor general that developers got preferential treatment in the decision to open Greenbelt lands to development.
Deny, obfuscate and stonewall.
That is the playbook that Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark are following in the wake of a
scathing report by Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk about the deeply flawed and biased process in Greenbelt land swaps.
In the process, they are amassing a credibility-destroying catalogue of deceits.
They claim they did not know about the way developers enjoyed special access during the process.
They expect Ontarians to believe that such a critical, controversial high-stakes venture much in the news was master-minded by Clark’s chief of staff, Ryan Amato who kept his political bosses in the dark.
On the face of it, the contention is preposterous.
It flies in the face of Ford’s own nature. It contradicts the operating practice of a government famously controlled by the premier’s office. It suggests a political staffer would risk career suicide by operating behind the backs of his superiors.
Ford’s capacity for self-delusion was on display during a question-and-answer session with reporters last Friday.
“No one had preferential treatment,” he snapped when asked to explain what Lysyk described as precisely that.
Yet that is the very conclusion of Lysyk’s report:
“Direct access to the Housing Minister’s chief of staff resulted in certain prominent developers receiving preferential treatment,” it stated.
“What occurred here cannot be described as a standard or defensible process.”
This was not a failure of bureaucracy. This was the result of a political process run amok that deliberately excluded the checks and balances of the civil service in apparent pursuit of a predetermined outcome.
Ford’s own action belies his denial. He was quick to accept 14 of Lysyk’s 15 recommendations to address the flawed process and special access to decision-makers that she had identified.
The premier’s knee-jerk denial of preferential treatment suggests that transparency and accountability are not his paramount interests.
Moreover, his refusal to accept Lysyk’s key recommendation — that the decision to open up Greenbelt lands for development be reviewed — is unacceptable given the serious problems revealed in her report.
It’s critical to remember what’s at stake. The preferential treatment could benefit the PC government’s developer friends to the tune of $8 billion or more. Those are 2016 estimates. The value of the lands to be opened up for development are no doubt worth far more.
Sadly, Ford has shared his view that the end — in this case, the construction of housing — justifies the means to enable it. He still refuses to acknowledge that Greenbelt land is not required for new housing, as proven by his own government’s report, and those homes will do nothing to solve the affordable housing crisis.
Indeed, as Ford stuck to his claims of blissful obliviousness to what took place under his watch, the
provincial government launched an ad blitz in the wake of the auditor general’s report to promote its housing agenda.
That fits with the Ford government’s overall damage control strategy. Push through whatever they want with reckless abandon, then ride out the furor rather than do the right thing. As
one Tory insider remarked, “I think we can weather this for now.”
That cynical view may fit Ford’s sense of ethics. But Ontarians set a higher ethical bar for their politicians. The government’s response smacks of a cover-up. There has been no effort to right a wrong.
That Amato and Clark still have jobs is incredulous. That the Progressive Conservative government is pushing ahead with this flawed Greenbelt development defies belief.
The entire affairs requires an immediate investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police. The premier will not call a judicial inquiry and the opposition parties don’t have that power, so that only leaves the OPP to find out if this troubled scheme broke any laws.
Hubris leads to downfall. The truth has a way of coming out. There are ongoing investigations into the Greenbelt scandal and a press gallery digging up facts.
Ford’s response to this controversy demeans his government.
