Mississauga Mayor and Ontario Liberal leadership candidate Bonnie Crombie is facing heat on the day she officially announced her entry into the race for comments she made about the Greenbelt.
Speaking to reporters after she officially launched her Liberal leadership bid, Crombie outlined a situation in which she said she would be open to swapping land out of the protected Greenbelt, if she eventually becomes premier.
She said that if “local communities and local municipalities” came to the province and said whitebelt land was “trapped” in the Greenbelt, they could “ask for that to be exchanged for other (new) Greenbelt land.”
The whitebelt refers to undeveloped areas just outside the boundaries of existing towns and cities that are not protected by plans like the Greenbelt. Crombie’s campaign told Global News she was referring to areas of land that already have services like sewage setup.
The Ford government has been under pressure for its decision to remove land from the Greenbelt at the end of 2022. The land removed from the Greenbelt has been opened up for development as part of the province’s housing strategy, with critics raising concerns about a potential relationship between the government and landowners who benefited.
Crombie said a key difference between her suggestion and the current Progressive Conservative government’s policy would revolve around consultation. Her campaign said she was “100 per cent committed” to the Greenbelt.
When the province announced it was removing land from the Greenbelt in November 2022, it said the changes “would expand the Greenbelt by approximately 2,000 acres” by swapping new land into the protected area.
Travis Kann, a communications staffer in Premier Doug Ford’s office, tweeted calling the Liberal leadership candidate’s comments “another clean hit from Bonnie ‘right-of-centre’ Crombie.”
In an interview with Global News, Crombie said the Liberal party under Wynne had shifted too far to the left in an effort to court NDP support and indicated she would move the party to the centre-right which she called the “secret sauce” to winning elections.
Crombie later claimed she misspoke after receiving backlash over the comments.
The comments drew instant reaction from her opponents and critics.
Ted Hsu, who is also running for the Liberal leadership, said in a response on Twitter that he would protect the Greenbelt.
“How do I differ from Bonnie Crombie? The #Greenbelt is a clear issue. I stand behind the Greenbelt in the way that it was intended to be: preserved,” he wrote.
Nate Erskine-Smith, also running to be Ontario Liberal leader, tweeted: “Liberals created the Greenbelt. As leader, I will work to protect it.”
Yasir Naqvi is the fourth candidate in the race.
In her answers to reporters, Crombie also pledged to protect the Greenbelt, calling it “sacred.”