MPPs set to return to Queen’s Park following chaotic summer break

Politicians are set to return to Queen’s Park on Monday after a chaotic 15-week summer break that saw two cabinet ministers’ resign, a cabinet shuffle, and a major policy reversal.

There was also the release of two damning reports from the auditor general and integrity commissioner about the process to remove lands from the Greenbelt for housing development.

The return of the legislature will see Premier Doug Ford set about backtracking on a decision to remove 7,400 acres of land from the Greenbelt to build 50,000 homes following almost a year of public outcry.

The surprise announcement came following a caucus retreat in Niagara Falls, Ont., where party members shared with Ford what they have been hearing about the Greenbelt from people in their communities.

The RCMP is reviewing information to determine whether it should investigate the Greenbelt land swap. Ford has said he is confident nothing criminal took place.

A review of the Greenbelt announced earlier this month will still proceed, as reviews are mandated every 10 years. When the review was originally announced Paul Calandra, the new housing minister, said it could mean more lands get removed, but Ford clarified that won’t happen now.

On Friday, the Ford government lost a third cabinet minister in as many weeks with the departure of Monte McNaughton, who is leaving to go work in the private sector. His departure comes on the heels of the resignation of Steve Clark as municipal affairs and housing minister and Kaleed Rasheed as minister of public and business service delivery.

Clark resigned days after the integrity commissioner found he had broken ethics rules in failing to properly oversee his chief of staff, who led the process to select lands for Greenbelt removal that favoured certain developers.

Rasheed resigned from cabinet and the Progressive Conservative caucus this week after news reports raised questions about his connections to a developer who benefited from the Greenbelt removals and a trip to Las Vegas.

Many questions remain unanswered

Opposition politicians are expected to continue pressing the government on the Greenbelt issue, saying there are still many unanswered questions.

“I can assure you we are going to be using this opportunity to get more answers, because Ford and his Conservative government have a lot to answer for,” NDP Leader Marit Stiles said Friday.

“We have every intention of continuing to hold them to account.”

She said there are still questions surrounding what developers knew in advance of the official announcement that the Greenbelt was to be opened up, what the premier knew, what his staff knew, why his director of housing policy resigned last week, and what emails had been deleted, as referenced by the auditor general in the course of her investigation.

“There’s endless questions and I think why it’s really important is that this casts a long, dark shadow over this government in everything they do,” she said.

“We have the privatization of health care, we have the selling off of the 95-year lease for Ontario Place that people are really opposed to. I think it’s fair that we need to shine light in every corner.”

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said “the heat is not going to get turned down any time soon,” but it may take some time to get proper answers on outstanding Greenbelt questions, and the Liberals will also be advancing other priorities at the same time.

“It is really important for us to focus on the things that are important to Ontarians like housing, like health care, like education, like the environment,” he said. “We have to keep doing that. I think we’ll be able to walk and chew gum. So we will find different ways to dig deeper.”

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said he doesn’t want to lose sight of the fact there is still a housing affordability crisis, and will be pushing for solutions that don’t involve prime farmland or enriching developers to the tune of $8.3 billion.

Opposition politicians won’t be the only ones at the legislature Monday armed with criticisms of the government. The Ontario Health Coalition has said it will be busing in “thousands” of protesters to pressure Ford to drop his plan to expand the private delivery of public health care.