Our Government’s Position on the Greenbelt Report

At a time when Ontario is experiencing unprecedented growth, it’s never been more important to deliver on our commitment to build at least 1.5 million homes.

Last year alone, our province grew by more than 500,000 new residents. That’s more newcomers than Texas and Florida, the fastest-growing states in America, both of which are roughly double the size of Ontario’s total population.

Failing to act would only worsen the housing supply and affordability crisis, particularly for young families and newcomers who will see the dream of home ownership slip further away.

As we welcome more people, we need to build more homes of all types. It’s as simple as that.

To do so, and in addition to other initiatives underway to build more homes, including in cities near transit, our government made the decision to swap non-sensitive areas of Greenbelt land identified and requested by many municipalities, in some cases for several years now, with other newly designated Greenbelt areas, supporting the construction of at least 50,000 new homes while growing the Greenbelt by more than 2,400 acres.

Critically, this initiative impacted non-publicly owned lands adjacent to existing property and established conditions to ensure that billions of dollars worth of community benefits, such as new roads, parks, transit, water, and health care infrastructure, as well as significant non-profit housing, are fully funded by the landowners and builders–not Ontario or municipal taxpayers.

The government also requires that new home construction begin on these lands no later than 2025, with significant progress on approvals and implementation achieved by the end of 2023.

The non-partisan, non-political Office of Ontario’s Provincial Land Development Facilitator will be assessing site agreements against the government’s requirements. If conditions are not met, we will not approve the development, and the sites will return to the Greenbelt.

While we will never waiver in our commitment to build more homes, we recognize that there are areas for improvement as we move forward and continue our work to respond to Ontario’s housing crisis in a fair and transparent way.

As such, we fully support or support in-principle and will enact 14 of the 15 recommendations put forward in the report to formalize processes and improve transparency.

At the same time, we won’t deny 50,000 families a chance at home ownership.

There is no time to delay as we respond to the housing supply and affordability crisis.

Our government will proceed with these developments, subject to our criteria and requirements being met.

As we work to fulfill our promise to build at least 1.5 million homes, we will do so in a way that builds public trust and confidence in the process.

 On the recommendations:

We accept the recommendations on increasing awareness and adherence to proper records retention and stakeholder engagement policies by political public servants. 

We have confirmed the enhancement of mandatory new staff onboarding and recurring all-staff information and training sessions delivered in partnership with the Office of the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario.

We also accept the recommendation to implement an attestation process to confirm the exclusive use of government email platforms.

We also accept the recommendation regarding the Office of the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario, and a request for his determination on this matter has been sent.

Regarding the recommendation on roles and responsibilities of political public servants and non-political public servants, our government will work with the Secretary of Cabinet and Cabinet Office to review our existing role and responsibility documents describing the relationship between political and non-political public servants in policy and operational matters.

Additionally, we accept the recommendation for a comprehensive overall review of the Lobbyists Registration Act, 1998 (LRA), Members’ Integrity Act, 1994, (MIA) and Public Service of Ontario Act, 2006 (PSOA). We will initiate a review of all three acts at an independent legislative committee to strengthen and ensure regulatory oversight.

Ultimately, we are accepting all recommendations on strengthening processes and transparency. We can’t stop building homes when we are in a housing crisis.

 On site selections:

As we’ve said from the start, no one was notified of any specific changes in advance of the public announcement.

Additional information was required by non-partisan public servants to ensure sites could be assessed against the government’s criteria.

More sites were reviewed than were ultimately selected for removal.

Again, no landowner was given any advance notice about specific sites being removed ahead of the public announcement being made.

All governments, including ours, receive countless unsolicited proposals from stakeholders, opposition members and constituents every day.

9 of the 15 sites selected for removal have been identified and requested by municipalities, in some cases for several years, in order to build much-needed housing.

 On the majority of sites being received at a dinner function:

These sites have been subject to longstanding requests from municipalities and landowners for almost 20 years.

I trust this helps to clarify the steps our government is taking on this important subject and our agreement with 14 of the 15 recommendations. 

To that end our government remains committed to meeting the critical demand for new housing in the province.