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- Written by Gordon Prentice
Doug Ford’s plan to open up 7,400 acres of Greenbelt for development, announced on Friday 4 November, shows we can’t trust a word he says.
The mask has slipped.
Back in 2018 Ford was caught on camera promising a group of developers he would open up a “big chunk” of the Greenbelt. There was a furious reaction and he did a rapid U-turn.
Now, emboldened by a second election victory, there is no need for a course correction. It’s full steam ahead.
The Toronto Star reports:
“Ontario backtracks on Greenbelt pledge with plan to allow housing on 7,400 acres”
The 30 day consultation period ends at 11.59pm on 4 December 2022.
"Tough Decision"
Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark told the Star:
“It was a tough decision. The situation has changed and our policy had to change with it.”
And he justified the change of heart this way:
“Ontario is expected to grow by more than two million people by 2031, with approximately 1.5 million of those new residents in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Region. This growth was recently confirmed by the federal government’s newly released immigration targets. To accommodate that growth and support the building of more homes, our government is proposing to remove 15 areas of land totalling approximately 7,400 acres from the edge of the Greenbelt area.”
But environmental groups were unsparing in their criticism.
Death Sentence
Environmental Defence says:
“the proposed 7,400 acre giveaway to land speculators is a death sentence for the entire Greenbelt.”
They predict:
"Stripping these 7,400 acres of protection at the request of land speculators would unleash a firestorm of land speculation across the entire Greenbelt – denying farmers the certainty they need to continue stewarding the forests, wetlands and soils on their land, and pushing ownership forever out of reach. It will also start a never-ending queue of Greenbelt land speculators at the Minister’s door, each with their own convenient rationalization for paving their own patch of Greenbelt."
They say there is no need for this attack on the Greenbelt as there is:
"a vast supply of unused “greenfield” land already open for development within existing municipal settlement boundaries."
Local Impact
The proposed changes impact the Greenbelt immediately adjacent to us here in Newmarket, west of Bathurst in the municipality of King. (see map)
The land marked in diagonal lines in turquoise is to be removed from the Greenbelt. And the land outlined in yellow is to be redesignated from Oak Ridges Moraine to a settlement area.
The photos show land that will lose Greenbelt status.
Gordon Prentice 06 November 2022
Below: Looking West from Bathurst at Greenbelt lands from the binoculars shown
Update on 9 November 2022: Editorial from the Toronto Star: The Greenbelt is for nature not housing
Update on 10 November 2022: Opinion piece from the Tornonto Star: Doug Ford's Housing Bill is short-sighted and will undermine long term prosperity
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- Written by Gordon Prentice
I am taken by the arresting full page ad in this morning's Toronto Star urging readers to contact Doug Ford on 416-325-1941.
The message is from the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association and l'association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens.
I call as requested and get through to the Premier's Office but don't speak to the great man himself.
Instead of the expected recorded message I find I am speaking to a real person.
"I'd like you to pass a message on to Doug Ford. I think his use of the "notwithstanding clause" in the dispute with CUPE is entirely inappropriate. And I'd like you to get back to me with his response."
I leave my phone number.
I am told to expect a call back.
When that happens you will be the first to know.
Gordon Prentice 5 November 2022
Above right: Dawn "Corn Roast" Gallagher Murphy's Tweet earlier today. She's heard from parents. She will not waver. And she will not waive her right to invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms believing it is a convenient way to resolve a labour dispute.
Update on 7 November 2022: From the CBC: Education Minister says Bill 28 will be replealed in its entitety. And from CTV: CUPE to end strike after Ford offers to rescind education law
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- Written by Gordon Prentice
Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, is yet again using the infamous “notwithstanding clause” of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (section 33), this time to prevent a strike by 55,000 school support staff which could begin as early as Friday of this week. (Photo right: Stephen Lecce, Education Minister)
Today’s Toronto Star editorial summed up the issue rather nicely:
“Negotiate – not legislate – school labour dispute”
The Ontario Legislature convened this morning at 5am to give a second reading to Bill 28 which is described as an Act to resolve labour disputes involving school board employees represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
The Star says the Government:
“… invoked the notwithstanding clause to prevent a legal challenge on grounds that the government move infringes on Charter protected rights of workers… And the invocation of the notwithstanding clause is an admission that the government knows it’s wrong and that its legislation likely wouldn’t survive a legal challenge.”
The Globe and Mail quotes legal experts saying the use of the notwithstanding clause to quash the ability of education workers to go on strike is “extreme, politically fraught and unprecedented in the history of labour disputes.”
Professor Braley-Rattai tells the Globe and Mail:
“Section 33, the notwithstanding clause, is so rarely invoked that in the first few decades of the Charter, some thought it to be political suicide. But I think that has begun to change, and I anticipate seeing more of this from right-leaning governments.”
Political Advertising
Last year the Superior Court of Justice struck down amendments to the Election Finances Act which restricted third party spending on so-called “political advertising” in the 12 months leading up to a Provincial election.
Ford responded by invoking the notwithstanding clause and the changes were pushed through, restricting political advertising by any third party in this year’s election to $637,200 across the entire Province and $25,488 in any given riding. (The latter sum is about half of what I could have spent on my recent campaign for Deputy Mayor/Regional Councillor.)
By using the notwithstanding clause Ford is showing he is ready and willing to exclude the Courts from adjudicating on highly partisan legislation which undermines and erodes Charter Rights.
I wonder what my MPP, Dawn “Corn Roast” Gallagher-Murphy, thinks about this?
Gordon Prentice 1 November 2022
TVO Podcast 1 November 2022: The notwithstanding clause strikes again
Update on 2 November 2022: Toronto Star editorial: An offensive assault on labour rights. And from the Globe and Mail: Doug Ford's constitutional overkill
Update on 3 November 2022: from the Toronto Star: "It's time to ditch the notwithstanding clause"
From the UK's Guardian: "Canadian Bill would fine workers $4,000 for each day they strike."
Update on 7 November 2022: From the Toronto Star's Martin Regg Cohn: Doug Ford has stained his legacy in a way that backing down won't fix
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- Written by Gordon Prentice
The campaign is over and it’s time to recycle my election signs. 
I am at York Region’s Waste Transfer Station at Warden Avenue in Georgina.
As I heave bundles of metal H frames into a huge skip I ask the guys working there where it all ends up.
“Don Mills Steel and Metal in Gormley”
“That’s good. I want to see this stuff recycled.”
Now I wander over to another huge container reserved for election signs. It is an astonishing sight. It’s like an elephant’s graveyard. The old signs go there when they know it's the end.
Amazing!
I turn to the waste transfer guys, pointing to bundles of Tom Vegh signs. I am just about to throw my signs of top of Vegh’s.
“That’s amazing! I ran against this guy.”
“He’s been here twice today.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. And he is not going to run again. It’s his last time.”
“Really? You were told that?”
“Yeah.”
I ask if it is OK to take photos of all the signs.
“This is such a phenomenal sight. All these election signs.”
“Go ahead.”
Click. Click. Click. Click.
End-of-life
There is a wire trolley basket full of Vegh signs and many, many more in the container behind.
I look at the huge piles of Vegh lawn signs with the re-elect stickers in the top left corner.
Yup. He’s not going to be re-using these in 2026.
Gordon Prentice 29 October 2022
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- Written by Gordon Prentice
Earlier this week we learned that Brampton Mayor and former Conservative Party leadership contender had been fined $100,000 for breaking various rules in the contest for Leader including those related to the sale of memberships. 
The Toronto Star reported:
“His (Patrick Brown’s) team had said they sold over 150,000 cards.
Data obtained by the Star shortly after the race ended suggested 62,000 memberships were sold directly through his website portal; Brown’s campaign has argued many more were sold directly through the party itself.
Among the issues uncovered by the party, however, were hundreds of memberships sold allegedly in violation of the rules.”
Personally, I wouldn’t trust Patrick Brown as far as I could throw him so these revelations come as no surprise to me.
Utter madness
It is utter madness to allow aspiring Party leaders (and wannabe MPs and MPPs) to sell memberships in advance of the vote. There should be a cut-off date – perhaps 6 months before the contest – to ensure that only bona fide members of some standing vote and not the recently recruited.
I agree with Andrew Coyne who writes in this morning’s Globe and Mail:
“… a leader elected by the members is in practice accountable to no one. He isn’t even elected by the members, really, but rather by the tens of thousands of new members signed up in the course of the campaign for the sole purpose of voting for the candidate that recruited them, most of whom are never seen again.”
Rip Van Winkle parties
The deeper problem is that too many riding associations are shell organisations. Their memberships are tiny. They wake up at election times and go back to sleep again immediately afterwards. Their job done.
They should be a presence in the Town’s life all year round, attracting real members, shaping public opinion and doing their best to influence the local agenda on the things that matter.
The constant campaign
Instead of this, our MP and MPP fill the vacuum with a never-ending stream of taxpayer funded on-line advertising, day-in day-out, reminding us what (a) the Trudeau Government and (b) the Ford Government are doing for us.
People for the most part don’t get involved in local politics. Less than 2 per cent of Canadians are members of a political party.
Which explains why candidates sell memberships to boost their chances of getting the Party nomination.
And if the new members are here today and gone tomorrow who cares?
Gordon Prentice 28 October 2022
Update on 31 May 2024: from the Toronto Star: Brown says he'll clear leadership bid debt
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