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The chief of staff to Ontario’s Housing Minister resigned on Tuesday, almost two weeks after a report from the province’s Auditor-General concluded that a government decision to open parts of the Greenbelt to housing construction favoured a handful of developers and delivered them a potential $8-billion windfall.
The senior political staffer, Ryan Amato, led an internal government project to select the properties that were later opened to development. The report’s release placed him at the centre of an intensifying controversy over the Greenbelt, an environmentally protected zone that arcs around the Greater Toronto Area.
After Mr. Amato’s resignation, opposition parties reiterated their previous calls for Housing Minister Steve Clark to step down.
Read more:
- The Editorial Board: The Greenbelt saga is a long way from over
- Listen to The Decibel: Ford accused of playing favourites in Greenbelt plans
- Ford’s Greenbelt removals ‘favoured’ certain developers, Ontario’s Auditor-General says
Ontario Premier Doug Ford listens as Ontario’s minister of housing Steve Clark speaks during a press conference in Mississauga, Ont., Friday, Aug. 11, 2023.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
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Quebec rebuffs idea of limiting student visas to tackle housing crisis
The Quebec government says it won’t accept a cap on the number of international students it can admit, rejecting one of the options the federal government is considering as part of a plan to tackle a national housing crisis.
Universities and colleges, meanwhile, said they were surprised and troubled, respectively, by the idea, which was first raised by Housing and Infrastructure Minister Sean Fraser at a Liberal cabinet retreat in Charlottetown on Monday.
Quebec’s reaction indicates that attempts to limit international student admissions could create conflict with the provinces. They have jurisdiction in areas of education and their postsecondary institutions have come to rely on lucrative international tuition fees.
Pause in tourism, wildfire smoke add to woes for B.C.’s hard-hit wine industry
Smoke from the Kelowna-area wildfire and a brief ban on tourism in the wider Okanagan Valley have dealt another blow to B.C.’s premier wine region, exacerbating its twin crises of climate change and a worsening economy.
Most recently, on Saturday, a ban on tourists using hotels in the Okanagan was introduced amid a provincial state of emergency so that evacuees fleeing the wildfire and first responders could find rooms. The ban was originally slated to last until Labour Day, but was lifted Tuesday afternoon by the province for everywhere except West Kelowna starting Wednesday.
But the travel restriction added volatility during the multibillion-dollar sector’s biggest month of the year, effectively shutting down important revenue streams such as wine tours and destination weddings, according to Miles Prodan, president and chief executive of Wine Growers British Columbia, the trade organization representing 180 wineries making nearly all the commercial wine in the province.
- Crews continue battling NWT wildfires, blaze remains 15 km from Yellowknife
- Listen to The Decibel: What it’s like to escape from wildfires
- Wildfires could push Northwest Territories fall election back a month
- Find more updates and coverage on The Globe’s wildfires page
The McDougall Creek wildfire burns next to houses in the Okanagan community of West Kelowna, B.C., on Aug. 19, 2023.CHRIS HELGREN/Reuters
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Also on our radar
The military training program where Indigenous youth learn to lead: The six-week Canadian Armed Forces Bold Eagle program is one of five regional programs across the country that are made exclusively for Indigenous youth. It seeks to cultivate leadership, fitness, teamwork and resiliency.
Melting glaciers in the Alps: Fears that glaciers in Italy and Switzerland will melt away deepened this week when temperatures hit 0 C at record altitudes in both countries.
South Africa rolls out red carpet for Chinese President: In his first visit to Africa in five years, Xi Jinping has been given a hero’s welcome in Pretoria, highlighting the growing advantage that China wields in the battle for influence on the continent.
Foreign interference inquiry: Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Tuesday his government is nearing the “final stages” of the negotiations and internal planning needed to launch a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada and he expects to make an announcement soon.
African Union suspends Niger over coup: The African Union (AU) has suspended Niger from all its activities after last month’s military coup, and said it had asked the AU Commission to compile a list of members of the junta and their supporters for targeted sanctions.
Saskatchewan says parental consent needed for student name, pronoun change: Saskatchewan schools will have to seek parental consent when children under 16 want to change their names or pronouns at school, the provincial government has announced – a move that critics say will endanger the well-being of LGBTQ youth.
Alberta minister to celebrate geothermal technology in Germany amid moratorium: The province’s moratorium on renewables includes a pause on all geothermal power project approvals as well as plans for sustainable biomass or hydroelectric facilities.
Morning markets
Euro slides, stocks gain: Weak European economic data sent the euro lower and sparked a bounce in bond and share markets on Wednesday, as investors also awaited results from tech darling Nvidia later to see if the sector’s lofty valuations still look justified. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.88 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.46 per cent and 0.45 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed up 0.48 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 0.31 per cent. New York futures were positive. The Canadian dollar was lower at 73.68 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Reconciliation, and the search for two victims in Manitoba
“Searching for these women would be a statement of solidarity. It would tell the families and the broader Indigenous community that their concerns and needs are shared … A successful search could bring some measure of peace to the families of the victims. But even an unsuccessful effort would demonstrate that the province and the country have heard and understood their sorrow. That alone may be a form of solace.” - The Editorial Board
Ottawa should follow B.C. and make birth control free across Canada
“Reproductive rights are human rights and must be protected at a federal level. They should not be up for negotiation with the changing ideologies of provincial governments. The United Nations and the World Health Organization have stated that access to safe, voluntary family planning is a human right, and that family planning is essential to promoting gender equality, advancing the autonomy of women, and reducing poverty.” - Rupinder Toor, Amanda Black
Today’s editorial cartoon
Illustration by Brian Gable
Living better
Buyer’s guide: Travel insurance for snowbirds
Retirement may be the time in your life where you can make those travel dreams come true, but it also comes around the age where travel insurance gets seriously more complicated. Salmaan Farooqui writes on some top tips from insurance experts to help make that process easier.
Moment in time: Aug. 23, 1882
Regina is seen from a distance in an 1885 photo.Gift of the Estate of Omer Lavallée/McCord Stewart Museum
Regina is named in honour of Queen Victoria
In one of the most controversial transportation decisions in Western Canadian history, the new Canadian Pacific Railway syndicate abandoned the favoured Yellowhead route through the Rockies in 1881, and redirected the main line west from Winnipeg and through a more southerly mountain pass. The decision meant that the territorial capital at Battleford, 320 kilometres north of the settlement frontier, had to be relocated. A strong candidate was Fort Qu’Appelle, a Hudson’s Bay Company post in the scenic Qu’Appelle Valley. It would have been a stunning setting for the new capital. But Edgar Dewdney, the lieutenant-governor for the North-West Territories, and William Van Horne, CPR general manager, were opposed to running the railway through the valley because of the apparent engineering difficulties. Their alternative was about 160 kilometres farther west, on the open, treeless prairie, where the main line crossed Pile of Bones (Wascana) Creek – what one observer dismissed as an “exaggerated ditch.” Dewdney reserved the site in June, 1882, claiming that it was at the centre of a great agricultural district. Less than two months later, when the first CPR train arrived on this day, the new capital was officially named Regina in honour of Queen Victoria. Bill Waiser
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