Ford calls greenbelt a “failed policy” of Liberal government at Oshawa press conference
Published May 12, 2023 at 12:12 pm
Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters Monday in Oshawa that he never asked his staff to look at “any specific land” in the greenbelt to build houses and skirted around questions as to when he began to look at the environmentally sensitive land as a “solution” for the housing crisis.
Ford also doubled down on comments he made this week that the greenbelt is a “scam” perpetrated by the previous Liberal government.
“The greenbelt was a failed policy and a flawed policy for the Liberal government,” he said. “They made the policy and then changed it 17 times.”
The questioning was in response to reports from investigative online magazine The Narwhal that the Premier’s office talked about opening up 7,400 acres for development long before the announcement was made.
The magazine discovered emails on the greenbelt land swap as early as August of 2022 and that Ford himself, who promised in 2018 that his government “wouldn’t touch the greenbelt,” was aware of the conversations.
Ford denied the charges and a spokesperson for his office said on Twitter that the “implication that staff were discussing specific changes is false.”
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Ford chose to focus on the need for more housing in his own response to questioning in Oshawa Friday.
“We need to build homes – this is the fastest growing region in North America, by far,” he said. “These people need homes.”
Ford promised that his government won’t allow homes to be built on “ponds and wetlands” and added that the Province can “grow the economy and build houses while being environmentally responsible.”
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