Floreat Grimsby In Medio Horti
After the defeat of proposed amendments to permit hunting under Grimsby’s “Discharge of Firearms and Bows” at last Council in October, it appears after some “reconsideration” that at least one Councillor thought permitting hunting was suddenly a good idea.
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Following Freedom of Information (FOI) requests by Environmental Defence and EcoJustice to the Provincial government, they released a treasure trove of documents related to the Greenbelt fiasco. You can find the repository at this link here.
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On Monday, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra announced at Queens Park that after reviewing previous decisions made by the Ministry, it would be introducing legislation to roll back Provincial changes made to Official Plans and Official Plan Amendments in 13 municipalities, including those made to the Region of Niagara’s OP (list of changes here).
For the most part, this applies to urban boundary changes. Calandra said this was part of “building a better relationship” with municipalities. That also includes the Minister “reviewing costs” of Grimsby and Pickering, reversing course on his statements last week that would have municipalities on the hook for incurred expenses.
The costs incurred by Pickering hover around $360K, while Grimsby’s costs have been pegged between $82K to $88K.
While the Province intends on making municipalities whole, officially no “person” will have any recourse under Bill 136 aka “The Greenbelt Statute Law Amendment Act, 2023” should it receive Royal Assent in its current version.
With provisions such as “Proceedings barred”, “No costs award”, “No remedy” and “Retrospective effect”, the Province has attempted to prevent litigation through legislation between anyone, be it the Province, developers, municipalities and other classes related to this whole affair.
While most of the posts here on the Greenbelt flip-flop and its relation to Grimsby have focused on the waterfront lands at 502 Winston Road, not much has been said about the former Greenbelt properties between Oakes Road North/Kelson North and Main Street West/CN rail tracks. That is until now.
Global News has taken a detailed look at some of the lands there. Parts of the lands in question are owned or controlled by an employee (executive assistant) of LiUNA, a large Ford-friendly construction union that has local offices on Hunter Road in Grimsby.
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Well, it’s been about 10 months since the last look at the waterfront Greenbelt land and future development of 502 Winston Road. Needless to say, quite a bit has transpired since. The conclusion in that December 2022 post was that an Auditor General’s report, IC investigation and/or more formal investigative process (RCMP) was needed over the whole Greenbelt process. That suggestion has now come to bear fruit.
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The Province listened to Ontarians and promised to return and reverse all the removals and re-designations they made to the Greenbelt. That includes two parcels at 502 Winston Road and lands at Cline Road in Grimsby. However for Council, it seems the money-carrot attached to these developments may be too much to resist.
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As was speculated in an earlier post, the RCMP have now officially gone from exploratory mode in the Greenbelt scandal, to a full-blown criminal investigation. The OPP handed the reins over the matter to the RCMP earlier due to “perceived conflicts” and it now looks like the RCMP findings and recent events has lead the Mounties to get invasive.
The RCMP stated they would be investigating “allegations associated to the (Greenbelt) decision” and will be handed by the “Sensitive and International Investigations Unit” of RCMP’s O Division (Ontario).
In response to the news, Premier Ford’s office released this statement, in part:
“We have zero tolerance for any wrongdoing and expect anyone involved in the decision-making about the Greenbelt lands to have followed the letter of the law,”
Given that statement, it should be interesting to see where the trail leads the RCMP. With some of the outlandish claims by the government, developers and lobbyists in either the Auditor General’s report, or that of the Integrity Commissioner, surely there will be some takedowns or people being squeezed to name names in return for reduced charges.
It is unknown how long the investigation will take, however given the gravity of the matter, the RCMP will be quite comprehensive in reviewing this matter and laying charges, as necessary.
A day late and a dollar short, Ford’s mea culpa moment of calling the Greenbelt swap a mistake with plans to reverse the changes clearly did not throw the Feds off the trail at all.
More to come.
With the resignation of two Ministers, a possible RCMP criminal investigation and many skeletons waiting to come out of the closet, Premier Doug Ford today did what the public has been telling him to do from the beginning, reverse the Greenbelt “land swap” and build elsewhere.
At a press conference just down the QEW in Niagara Falls he said he was “very sorry” and that he was acting in “the best of intentions”. He stated:
“I made a promise to you that I wouldn’t touch the Greenbelt. I broke that promise. And for that, I’m very, very sorry. I pride myself on keeping our promises. It was a mistake to open the Greenbelt. It was a mistake to establish a process that moves too fast”
For someone who was defiant right up to recent days over the Greenbelt changes, to surrender as he has, shows that it likely feeling more than the public heat over the matter. The big question is whether the RCMP will buy this or will they move forward to investigate if there was any criminality in the matter. One way or another, there needs to be an independent inquiry into what really happened.
While this may close the book for many in the public on the scandal, there are still many tall-tales to be told… so watch out for the next post.
While the Las Vegas tourism board may promote itself with the “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” slogan, there is at least one MPP in the Ford government who may now disagree with that.
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With the developments (no pun intended) of the last few days, it seems the whole big Greenbelt heist is starting to become unraveled. Today’s announcement that the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Steve Clark, has decided to step down from his position came somewhat as a surprise after his initial refusals, although the writing was clearly on the wall. He will remain on as an MPP.
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