Building on Toronto's Greenbelt. - corruption in action

You might remember that most thinking people were incensed last November when the Ford government announced, seemingly out of the blue, that it was summarily reversing protections on part of the Greenbelt north of Toronto. The reason? So that some of Ford's developer buddies could build lots of houses (and make lots of money in the process). Because there's a housing crisis, don't you know?

There was a big outcry at the time, but Ford insisted on ramming the necessary legislation through, insisting that there was nothing underhand or corrupt going on. 

Fast forward nine months, and the Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk has issued a damning report, categorically blaming the government for giving preferential access to previously protected Greenbelt land to a small group of government-supporting developers (who are expected to make $8.3 million on the properties, as re-zoning increases land values by over 3,400%), as well as unnecessarily breaking up the protection of the Greenbelt when there were quite sufficient housing opportunities elsewhere to realize Ford's obsessive drive to build houses (as even Ford's own housing department admits, along with all three of the municipalities where Greenbelt land is being compromised). Ms. Lysyk found the whole process to be "not transparent, fair, objective, or fully informed".

The Ford government admits it did wrong, but insists that the ends justify the means, and that there is nothing to be done about it now. There's a housing crisis, don't you know? They are rejecting all calls for resignations and accountability, not even Ryan Amato, Minister Clark's Chief of Staff, who was integrally involved in the whole sordid episode, or Housing Minister Steve Clark, his boss. 

In fact, in subsequent interviews, he has doubled down on the policy, claiming to be "unlocking" land for housing, blaming federal immigration policies, and making comments threatening the whole Greenbelt comcept.

Ford's response from the get-go has been obfuscation, denial and misdirection, in a word: gaslighting. The ultimate in "sorry/not sorry" responses. He says he readily accepts 14 of the 15 recommendations of the report; the only one he does not accept - "re-evaluate the 2022 decision to change the Greenbelt boundaries" - is arguably the only one that really matters.

In short, the Conservatives plan on brazening it out; they think they have already got away with it. But they may be unpleasantly surprised: this is a big deal for many politicians and voters. This is the kind of scandal that should bring down a government.

They do promise to be more careful in the future, though. Ha, right! They may be more careful not to get caught, but this is not an ethical government, as they have demonstrated time and again. 

UPDATE

It looks like Ryan Amato has been persuaded to take the fall for all this (he "resigns"), and Ford and Clark must be desperately hoping that it will be enough. 

But I don't think so. People - even conservatives - REALLY don't like sleaziness and corruption, and this will probably still come home to roost.