THUNDER BAY — Thunder Bay’s Progressive Conservative MPP has expressed satisfaction with the Ford government’s response to a pair of explosive reports detailing irregularities in a process to remove lands from Ontario’s Greenbelt for development.
Thunder Bay–Atikokan MPP Kevin Holland on Tuesday defended the government’s commitments on the issue, which have stopped short of restoring the removed lands, a day after his PC colleague Steve Clark announced his resignation as municipal affairs and housing minister.
Holland, a former parliamentary assistant under Clark, expressed regret over his departure during an interview at an NOHFC announcement on Tuesday.
“Obviously, it was a difficult decision for him to make, but I really have to give him credit that he stuck it through until all of the investigations had been concluded, and he stood for them, took the advice that was provided to him, did what he needed to do,” he said.
“I think his decision to resign now was a personal one for him. I have the utmost respect for [former] minister Clark, he’s a very valued member of our caucus, obviously. His decision is regrettable, but I accept it.”
Holland had stood by Clark and his right to remain in cabinet last week, as Premier Doug Ford continued to assert his own confidence in one of his most high-profile ministers.
Clark’s resignation came just days after the release of a report by Ontario’s integrity commissioner that concluded he broke conflict of interest and insider information laws in his failure to properly oversee the Greenbelt land swap process.
That process saw the government move 2,995 hectares of land from Greenbelt protections, opening them up for development of an estimated 50,000 homes. The government put over 3,800 hectares of land elsewhere under protection in exchange, but that did not mute widespread criticisms from impacted communities, environmental groups, and First Nations.
A scathing report by Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk found the land swap process was highly influenced by a small circle of developers with access to Clark’s chief of staff and who stood to benefit from the decisions.
The report also concluded, like one from an earlier housing affordability task force, that removing lands from the Greenbelt was not necessary to meet the province’s goal of building 1.5 million new homes.
Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference Tuesday his government would "re-evaluate" the controversial land swaps, but did not commit to undoing any of them.
Ford said new Minister of Housing Paul Calandra, who replaces Clark, will lead a “top-to-bottom” review of the swaps along with an adjudicator.
"We are going to make sure there is merit to every application that comes forward. That said, there is nothing more important than building more homes for the people of Ontario."
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles called that process a “sham” Tuesday, arguing the legislature should be recalled in order to return the swapped land to the Greenbelt.
Asked what more his government must do to win back the trust of the public on the issue, Holland reiterated an earlier commitment by the PCs to implement 14 of 15 recommendations in Lysyk’s report, but not her recommendation to revisit the land swaps themselves.
“I think we just need to continue to do what we’ve done all along, and that is build our economy, support our businesses, improve our health care, build those homes,” he said.
“We’ve committed to working on 14 of the 15 recommendations — the 15th one, of course, is putting the lands back in. We are committed and focused on building the homes that we need to provide for the people that are coming to Ontario, and for the generations of families that are priced out of housing right now. We remain focused on getting the homes built.”
Holland argued the government’s missteps on the issue were an example of the “bold action” needed to confront the province’s housing shortage.
“Minister Clark had an ambitious goal, he said it last week — an ambitious goal to create 1.5 million homes,” he said. “We knew we couldn’t sit back, we knew that we had to move quickly… We have to take bold action. We took bold action, the auditor general has made recommendations on how we maybe should have done it differently, and we’re going to implement those 14 recommendations.”
