Ontario's newly installed housing minister Paul Calandra speaks to journalists at the Queen's Park Legislature in Toronto on Sept. 6.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
The Ontario government, reeling from the controversy that has erupted over its decision to open parts of the province’s protected Greenbelt to housing development, pledged to toughen penalties for illegal lobbying and promised that a new review of the environmentally sensitive area would be public and open.
Ontario Attorney-General Doug Downey’s office issued a statement on Wednesday saying Premier Doug Ford has asked him to draw up proposed new lobbying rules, with increased penalties for violators “up to and including jail time.” Under Ontario’s current regime, the most severe punishment for breaking the rules that govern lobbyists is a two-year ban on lobbying.
The statement makes reference to a recent report from the province’s Integrity Commissioner, J. David Wake, who documented potential unregistered or illegal lobbying connected to the requested removal from the Greenbelt of a site east of Toronto, which he said involved a consultant he identified only as Mr. X.
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The government had already agreed to review lobbying rules, as recommended by the province’s Auditor-General in a separate report last month that concluded the government’s process for selecting the land it removed from the Greenbelt was “seriously flawed” and favoured certain developers. The report said developers collectively reaped an $8.3-billion windfall in increased land values.
“While our government expects all lobbyists to follow the current rules, it has become clear that a few bad actors have taken advantage of the system,” the statement from Mr. Downey’s office says. “Our government does not and will not tolerate this type of behavior.”
Paul Calandra, who was appointed Ontario’s Housing Minister on Monday after the resignation of now-former housing minister Steve Clark, told reporters on Wednesday that he has asked senior bureaucrats to draw up options for what he pledged would be a “public, open and accountable” review of the 800,000-hectare Greenbelt, which arcs around the Greater Toronto Area.
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He said the review, first announced by Mr. Ford on Tuesday, could conclude that some some of the 15 plots the government removed from the Greenbelt last year should be returned to protection. (One of those plots is already being returned to the Greenbelt, after its owner raised the government’s ire by putting it up for sale rather than making it ready for homes.) But Mr. Calandra also said the review could result in more lands being pulled out of the Greenbelt to build housing.
Opposition politicians have dismissed the Greenbelt review as a sham, and as an attempt to distract from a controversy that has engulfed the government for weeks.
Mr. Clark, the former housing minister, resigned Monday amid increasing political pressure over his role in the Greenbelt controversy. The Auditor-General and the Integrity Commissioner both found that the process for choosing the land for removal from the Greenbelt was led by Mr. Clark’s chief of staff, Ryan Amato, who has also resigned. The Integrity Commissioner found that Mr. Clark had violated ethics rules by failing to oversee the land selection process properly.
The Ontario Provincial Police have referred the Greenbelt matter to the RCMP, who will decide whether to investigate.
On Wednesday, Mr. Calandra said the government stands behind its goal of building 1.5 million homes across Ontario by 2031, to address the province’s housing crisis. But he said this must be done in a way “that maintains the public trust.”
“It will be a full, open and accountable process,” Mr. Calandra said of the review. “It will look at the entirety of the Greenbelt. There may be lands that need to be added to the Greenbelt, there may be some lands that are removed.”
Talks are still under way with the office of the province’s land and development facilitator, which mediates land-use disputes, on deals with developers and municipalities to develop the sites that have already been removed from the Greenbelt. The government has repeatedly said the developers of these sites must put up significant money for infrastructure and community benefits, while protecting “natural heritage” areas.
Despite the new review, Mr. Calandra said these talks would continue. The minister said he’s looking to have deals on the sites completed by the end of the year and that they will be made public. He said these proposals will then be included in the review of the entire Greenbelt. The government had previously said that if developers failed to show significant progress on approvals by the end of this year, or if they failed to start construction by the end of 2025, the lands would be returned to the Greenbelt.
In addition to the review, Mr. Calandra said he is looking at “additional accountability measures” for developers, including revising the rules for what are known as ministerial zoning orders (MZOs), special directives the government has used to override normal local planning procedures and accelerate projects.
The minister said he intends to stop developers who have been given MZOs from selling their land, to ensure they actually use the special building permissions. He said some have won the fast-track permits from the government but sat on the land or put it up for sale. Mr. Calandra said the measure could be made retroactive for MZOs granted as far back as 2018.
The government is also looking at creating a “use it or lose it” policy to force developers to move more quickly to build on lands where they have received planning approvals, Mr. Calandra said. And he said there could be new penalties for builders who cancel deals, and a possible increase to the province’s tax on foreign property buyers.
David Wilkes, president and chief executive officer of the Building Industry and Land Development Association, an industry lobby group, said that while the association supports the province’s push to build more homes, not all lands approved for development are ready. In some cases, he said, developers are awaiting sewers or power or other infrastructure, and cannot proceed.
“We can’t build on lots that aren’t ready to be built on,” he said. He declined to comment on MZOs or the Greenbelt.