The work of a provincial adjudicator who is currently negotiating with developers about their plans for 14 sites removed from the Greenbelt will be made public, said new housing minister Paul Calandra.
Of course it could be. The will of the people can do whatever they want. Nobody was left thinking there was some supreme alien overlord preventing us from doing so.
At a news conference Wednesday, Calandra said he has asked his ministry staff to lay out parameters for a review of the Greenbelt and hundreds of existing development applications that is "public, open and accountable."
Calandra said a nonpartisan provincial adjudicator will continue working with the owners of that land — which include some of the largest developers in Ontario — on their plans for building new homes on the sites.
He acknowledged that public trust in the government was damaged by the findings of Ontario's auditor general and integrity commissioner, who both issued scathing reports on the Greenbelt land swap.
Stiffer penalties for developers who buy land but do not build on it could be introduced in the fall economic statement, he said, as part of the government's renewed focus on a "use it or lose it" policy.
Clark stepped down following a damning report from the integrity commissioner that found he failed to properly oversee the process by which the ministry selected land for removal from the Greenbelt.
"We don't need another review to tell us that we need to build housing inside existing municipal areas — not on prime farmland or vital ecological habitats that lessen the impacts of climate change."
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