Doug Ford gets Greenbelt draft report amid predictions ‘the walls are closing in’ on his Tories

Good! The greenbelt swap has to be some of the most blatantly crooked dealings we've seen from him.

To summarize, he removes chunks of land (owned or purchased recently by developer friends who went to his daughters wedding and/or paid for his staff to go to Vegas) from the greenbelt, and denies providing them forwarning despite one of them securing the land at a ridiculous interest rate recently (21%). Numerous reports have since come out showing that a) he knew this was coming well before he's claiming he did and b) there was significant conversations held between him/the housing minister and developers

He claims the land is required for the housing crisis despite reports from his own government showing that the greenbelt is not needed and we have plenty of land elsewhere. He also refuses to explain or provide rationale for how the land sections were chosen.

Finally, he then tries to claim he'll add other land to the greenbelt elsewhere, avoiding mentioning the fact that the other land is already protected by a different conservation policy, and so isn't really actually increasing the land in the greenbelt.

Ridiculous.

Non-paywalled link: https://archive.ph/HDhQd

Some interesting sections:

Premier Doug Ford is girding for a much-anticipated auditor general’s report into his controversial Greenbelt land swap.

While sources say a draft of Bonnie Lysyk’s audit has been shared with the premier — for the government’s official response before publication as is customary — her findings are not expected to be released for another few weeks.

...

Also generating buzz was the revelation a former top Conservative official had left suddenly as chief executive officer of the Ontario Home Builders’ Association, an influential lobby group for property developers.

Luca Bucci, who had been Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark’s chief of staff before joining the OHBA in June 2022, parted ways with the association Tuesday.

Surprise! It came out today! And it's toothless! DF will continue forward because there are zero legal ramifications for his actions.