Months after a controversial decision to allow housing to be built in parts of Ontario’s Greenbelt, Premier Doug Ford is facing a growing backlash from critics for breaking a promise he made repeatedly over the last five years.
After a leaked video in 2018 showed Ford telling a room of developers that he would “open a big chunk” of the Greenbelt up for homebuilding, the PC leader pivoted and made an unequivocal promise: “We won’t touch the Greenbelt.”
That promise was repeated throughout Ford’s first term in office but, in November 2022, the Ford government changed its mind and removed 7,400 acres from the Greenbelt slated for housing development.
In the months that followed that decision, the Ford government’s rhetoric has hardened.
Most recently, the premier called the protected land around southern Ontario “a big scam” and “a failed policy” brought in by the previous Liberal government.
Opposition parties at Queen’s Park have jumped on his comments.
“The Greenbelt protects resources that clean our water and air, provide a home for wildlife and mitigate flooding risks,” the Ontario NDP scolded Ford on Thursday, pointing out parts of what is now the Greenbelt were brought in under Progressive Conservative leadership.
Interim Ontario Liberal Leader John Fraser accused the premier of trying to enrich private interests.
“Doug Ford promised again and again to protect the Greenbelt, only to pull a bait-and-switch after he was elected, carving it up to make his rich friends richer,” he said. “Make no mistake, Doug Ford is doubling down on his broken promise so he can continue to carve up and give away more of the Greenbelt to his friends.”
Others say it is difficult to be sure what will come next for the Greenbelt.
“It’s hard to know the premier’s mind — we know that he committed previously not to touch it and then he did,” Tim Grey of Environmental Defence told Global News.
“These are some of the best agricultural lands in the world. The lands that are not actively being farmed are areas that are covered in wetlands and forests… the idea that this is some kind of wasteland surrounding cities just waiting for a subdivision to be built out of it is just ridiculous.”
A timeline of Doug Ford’s Greenbelt promises
February 2018
- “We will open up the Greenbelt, not all of it. We’re going to open a big chunk of it up and we’re going to start building.”
May 2018
- “Unequivocally, we won’t touch the Greenbelt. I’ve heard it loud and clear; people don’t want me touching the Greenbelt, we won’t touch the Greenbelt.”
December 2020
- “I have committed not to be paving anywhere in the Greenbelt.”
- “We committed to expanding the quality and quantity of the Greenbelt in 2020. During the election, I said I wasn’t going to touch the Greenbelt… I have not touched the Greenbelt. We won’t touch the Greenbelt. We won’t build on the Greenbelt.”
- “We aren’t touching the Greenbelt. We said we weren’t going to touch it. We support the Greenbelt. We’re pouring money into the Greenbelt.”
March 2021
- “We’re expanding the Greenbelt. We will not build on the Greenbelt. We’ll make sure we protect the Greenbelt.”
November 2022
- “We have a housing crisis that the majority of our kids can’t afford to buy a home. They can’t afford to live in Toronto or the GTA because the previous government didn’t have the backbone to make the changes. We’re increasing the Greenbelt more than 2,000 acres.”
April 2023
- “The decision was very easy. We’re in a housing crisis right now.”
- “One piece of field… had housing all around all four corners—in an empty field with weeds in it. They call that the Greenbelt? That’s not the Greenbelt. That’s just a field with a bunch of weeds.”
- “I talked to people who were in the room. They sat there with a big map and they literally got highlighters—a bunch of staffers joking around, going up and down the roads.”
- “Some land shouldn’t be in the Greenbelt, and some should be in the Greenbelt, and we’re expanding the areas that we feel should be in the Greenbelt.”
May 2023
- “It was just a big scam as far as I’m concerned.”
- “I think we’re doing pretty good on the so-called Greenbelt … as the Liberals made up that name.”
- “Let’s just be honest, the Greenbelt was a failed policy, a flawed policy from the Liberal government.”
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