No favouritism in Greenbelt decision, Ford says, after AG report says otherwise
Premier Doug Ford insisted his government didn't give any developers a leg up when deciding which land to remove from the Greenbelt, despite auditor general Bonnie Lysyk's report saying the opposite.
Two of the sites taken out were given to him by the two developers “in packages” at the September dinner hosted by the Building and Land Development Association. These lands — owned by TACC Developments and Green Lane Bathurst LP — accounted for about two-thirds of the land that was later removed. The day after that, on Sept. 16, is when Amato first told the housing department he wanted to move ahead with the removal process on a site-specific basis, rather than by evaluating the Greenbelt as a whole.
He gave these criteria to the public service in early October, but later altered them so sites he wanted would be included. This included axing criteria that the lands were easily serviceable with roads, sewage and utilities, and more. Both Ford and Clark said they didn't know what Amato was up to, even though Lysyk said Clark "ought" to have known.
Times have changed, Clark and Ford said, since they set the target. Rapid population growth and new federal immigration targets mean more housing needs to be built.
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