NDP calls for probe into land expansions

Ontario New Democrats asked the auditor general’s office on Friday to launch a new investigation of the government’s land-use policies by probing its expansion of some municipal boundaries.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles and two other caucus members said in a letter to the acting auditor general — Bonnie Lysyk’s term expired and the province has not yet named a new auditor general — that their request follows the office’s “explosive” Greenbelt report that found the process to select lands for removal from the protected area favoured certain developers.

Premier Doug Ford ultimately reversed his Greenbelt plan after that report and another one from the integrity commissioner, which made similar findings.

The NDP claimed there is evidence that preferential treatment was given in the urban boundary expansions — against the wishes of some affected municipalities — to some of the same developers that stood to benefit from the Greenbelt land removals. “These forced urban boundaries are the other half of Ford’s Greenbelt scheme that benefited wealthy land speculators,” said Sandy Shaw, who represents Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas.

CBC has reported that in Hamilton, land added to the city’s urban boundary for growth contains properties owned in part by two developers with lands in the Greenbelt parcels in question.

The NDP is asking the office to conduct a value-for-money audit and assess the financial and environmental impacts of the government’s changes to municipal official plans for Hamilton, Ottawa, Waterloo, York, Peel, Niagara, Peterborough, Halton and Wellington, as well as Ministerial Zoning Orders, which override local zoning bylaws. “We ask that your office specifically consider whether such decisions were evidencebased and consistent with provincial plans, policies and statutes, as well as their impact on the smooth functioning of municipal and provincial planning and approval processes,” the NDP wrote.