Agricultural land should be priced as agricultural land; nature preserve should simply not have a retail value.
Surely they would only have had a "reasonable expectation of profit" if they were assured the land would be rezoned when they bought it? If, as Ford insists, there was no advanced telling, it should be all on them not taxpayers.
This is the irony of the individual carbon footprint argument: the heavy lifting needs to be done by governments & corporations, but we also need individuals to lead by example, to show that changes in social norms don't have to be "sacrifices" and to push for those changes to be made from a position of some experience.
"Politically sensitive" is more the point. The "most transparent government ever" really should stop allowing "commercially sensitive" to be an excuse in situations like this. Surely the AG can be trusted to keep irrelevant information confidential.
Hamish Buchanan @mstdn.ca Artist & graphics artist for film & TV in Toronto. I have exhibited in many parts of Canada & internationally. Works in the collections of the National Gallery & others. Here I'm mostly into politics, the environment, urban affairs. Pedestrian, transit-user & 3-season cyclist. Gay as a garden party, but mostly the garden part.
Not a fan of whataboutism.