FORD’S ABOUT FACE

His mistake wasn’t opening the Greenbelt, it’s reversing decision

Premier Doug Ford slammed on the brakes and did a massive U-turn on the Greenbelt last Thursday.

Standing before his cabinet after a caucus retreat in Niagara Falls, Ford said he was sorry for breaking his promise to never touch the Greenbelt.

“It was a mistake to open the Greenbelt. It was a mistake to establish a process that moved too fast,” he said.

No Premier Ford, the mistake is reversing course.

Due to this decision, residents of several Ontario municipalities won’t get much needed public services paid for by developers.

They won’t get an influx of affordable housing or what Ford calls attainable homes for purchase, they won’t get community centres built and paid for by developers, there won’t be land provided for a new hospital in King Township, and planned schools for these developments will now be put off.

But at least the NDP can say it stopped Ford from building on the Greenbelt.

Does anyone remember when the NDP used to stand up for the interest of working people in the province?

In fighting the Greenbelt land swap, and every other move the Ford government has undertaken to make housing easier to build and more affordable, the NDP has looked after the interests of the people living in downtown Toronto. It isn’t looking to make sure that a family can actually find a home they can afford, it’s looking out for people who live in comfortable neighbourhoods and who don’t want new homes being built.

Because the government’s original plan involved taking lands out of a protected area and allowing development on those lands, the government was able to extract promises for community benefits from the developers. At a minimum, developers were expected to provide 10% of the land for affordable housing, that means geared to income rental housing, social housing, working with local housing authorities.

Some of the major developments in this plan would have seen as high as 26% affordable housing.

Now, none of that will be built.

Does the NDP feel proud about that?

Above and beyond the affordable housing, the Ford government was negotiating with each developer on a percentage of land being set aside for what the premier calls attainable housing. These are simple starter homes, the kind that people can purchase and something that allows first time buyers to get into the market.

Those won’t be built either.

Neither will proposed fire halls, sporting facilities, community centres, parks and other amenities that would have been fully paid for by the developers instead of the taxpayers – all so they could develop some of their lands for regular housing and make a profit.

The NDP is so opposed to that idea that it would rather not see social housing built, that people not be able to get a starter home. The Dippers should be ashamed of themselves for this but instead they’ll gloat, they’ll declare victory, they’ll claim they saved the habitat of an obscure bat while Ontarians continue to struggle with the housing crisis, which is very real.

Ford’s decision to reverse course on this isn’t good public policy, it’s horrible public policy, but it’s a move to try to save his political fortunes.