It’s safe to say that the last year hasn’t been easy for Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his government. After being re-elected on a promise to “get it done”, the PCs have seemingly been mired by crisis after crisis. It has required the Premier to play defence, overshadowing their promises to build housing and grow the province’s economy. However, the government has been working hard to reverse their fortunes to get back into the good graces of Ontarians.
Troubles began last November, only a couple of months after the PCs were re-elected with a majority government. At that time, former Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark announced that the provincial government would remove 2,994 hectares in 15 different areas of the Greenbelt to build 50,000 homes.
Within days, news outlets began to release reports that showed that the landowners who stood to benefit from the swaps included a number of prominent developers, many of whom were connected to the PCs. By mid-January, Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner and Auditor General both announced that they would conduct separate probes into the land swaps following requests from the opposition parties.
Following a few months of relative calm, the government faced a one-two punch in August, with both the Integrity Commissioner and Auditor General releasing their findings. The Auditor General determined that all, but one, of the 15 sites removed from the Greenbelt were suggested by Clark’s Chief of Staff and the developers who had access to the top staffer. The Integrity Commissioner, on the other hand, found that Minister Clark violated two sections of the Members Integrity Act and recommended that the Minister should be reprimanded by the Ontario Legislature.
The fallout from the two reports was considerable, with Minister Clark and his Chief of Staff Ryan Amato resigning. The OPP referred the matter to the RCMP. Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery Khalid Rasheed also resigned from cabinet after it was discovered that he had given the Integrity Commissioner the incorrect dates for a trip he took to Las Vegas that coincided with a trip taken by Shakir Rehmatullah. The two are close friends and Rehmatullah’s company owned land removed from the Greenbelt. It was reminiscent of the early years of a Ford government mired in self-inflicted mistakes.
As summer moved into fall, the government was determined to take back control of the narrative and get back on track. Paul Calandra was named the new Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, with the Government House Leader being seen as a strong communicator with experience managing tough files.
Calandra moved quickly to clean house, purging most of his predecessor’s staff. This was followed by the momentous decision to reverse the government’s Greenbelt plan, with Premier Ford saying that it was a mistake to open it up in the first place and that he is “very, very sorry”. The Ford government later announced that it would also reverse the controversial expansions it made to the urban boundaries of some municipalities. Determined to fix the mistakes of the past, Premier Ford seems intent on ensuring that it remains scandal-free moving forward. Deb Hutton, who served as a one-time chief of staff to former premier Mike Harris, has been tasked with looking for potential issues while helping political staff in government brush up on conflict of interest rules.
After months of playing defence, the government has grabbed the bull by the horns, working diligently to mitigate any fallout from the Greenbelt scandal. The Tories’ public opinion fortunes have bounced back to 40 per cent from 34 per cent last month and 38 per cent in August. While they’ve been aided by the official opposition NDP in disarray, distracting the province with their own internal conflict, and the Ontario Liberals focused on selecting their new leader, the PCs are creeping back into favour with many Ontarians. This may not be the final chapter of the Greenbelt saga, but at this point, the government may be on its way to putting this whole ordeal behind them.
