The People Speak

 

H/t Moudakis

H/t de Adder

Following up on yesterday's post, here are some of the things people are thinking about when they consider Doug Ford and his unholy relationship with developers:

Doug Ford shows his true colours with attack on the Greenbelt, Cohn, Nov. 11

Premier Doug Ford and his developer cronies want to kill the type of communities federal Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner is talking about and what Jane Jacobs talked about before him.

Building mansions on farmland and conservation areas does not make a community people want to live in. Besides shops and transit, people want well-funded schools in good repair and accessible health care where staff are not devalued in burnout jobs. Cultural amenities are lacking in the suburbs: theatres, galleries, concert halls, museums and parks where people enjoy the benefits of nature.

Doug Ford is not interested in viable communities or nature conservation, and our democracy suffers as a result.

Diane Sullivan, Toronto

The Greenbelt grab, Nov. 19

Kudos to the Star team for looking into what looks like a huge scandal. And I completely agree with the spokesperson for Environmental Defence, who is quoted as saying: “Nobody would pay this amount of money for land if they didn’t think it was going to be open for development.”

The question is, how can this be fully investigated, how can it be stopped and what will happen to those in government who appear to have colluded with those making (at least) the most recent purchases of Greenbelt land now proposed for development?

Truly a very sleazy mess, and one that must be investigated by the police, the Auditor General and appropriate ethics officers.

David S. Crawford, Toronto 

Then there is this letter, from Orillia: 

The Ford government’s recent proposal to open the protected Greenbelt to housing development seems to be, yet again, another financial windfall for his developer friends.

The developer buys the land cheaply because it is protected from development and then reaps gigantic profits when your government changes the rules and allows housing. Some might say that such action may be evidence of shady backroom deals and hidden kickbacks for secret government services rendered. It certainly is not being done for the environment or to the long-term benefit of the citizens of Ontario.

Please protect our watersheds, our conservation areas and our scarce farmland for the next generations. Ontario needs more affordable rental stock and more dense, multi-storey units that are priced according to income. Ontario does not need more urban sprawl and more ‘McMansions’ on our Greenbelt lands.

David Howell
Orillia

And this, from London, Ontario:

You are free to tell Doug Ford to halt his plan to destroy the Greenbelt so we don’t hasten climate change. You are free to tell Doug Ford to stop paving over agricultural land so we can rely on our own country to supply us with food.

As evidenced by his about-face with CUPE, public opinion does matter.

Jennifer Mills, London 

It has been said that politics is perception. If that is true, much of the public is perceiving the dark shadow of corruption and insider information in the government it helped re-elect, either by intention or inertia, this past June. 

 

The Doug Ford Paying His Debt To Developers Act

One will no doubt remember this infamous video from over four years ago, prior to Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative's first victory in Ontario:

Although he later disavowed his comments, promising to protect the Greenbelt from development, he has, of course, gone back on his 'word', the crisis in affordable housing his official justification. 

A joint investigation by the Toronto Star and The Narwhal has uncovered some interesting, perhaps damning, evidence of collusion between the premier and his developer supporters.

Developers owning Greenbelt land now set to be developed appear to have given significant sums to Ford’s Progressive Conservative party, donation records show. Lobbying records reveal connections between the party and five of the landowners who will benefit most from the proposed changes.

The timing is raising questions about whether the landowners knew the lands would soon become developable and profitable — or if they simply took a gamble and won.

 The Star/Narwhal analysis of property records and corporate documents shows at least six developers bought parcels of land since 2018 that include portions of Greenbelt now set to be removed from the protected area.

While there is undoubtedly always a gambling element in the purchase of properties, evidence is mounting suggesting the game was rigged. 

Here’s who owns the land Doug Ford wants to remove from the Greenbelt

Each dot on the map represents property within the areas slated to be opened up to housing development. Hovering over/tapping the dots will reveal who owns the land, when they purchased it and for how much.

In the above, although it is perhaps difficult to discern in the reproduction, the red dots represent properties bought after Ford's election in 2018, and the orange properties purchased before June 2018. If you go to The Narwahl, you can hover over the map to see who owns what. 

The Star/Narwhal analysis of property records and corporate documents shows at least six developers bought parcels of land since 2018 that include portions of Greenbelt now set to be removed from the protected area.

 TACC Developments, headed by prominent developer Silvio De Gasperis, paid $50 million in May 2021 for 100 acres of farmland north of Canada’s Wonderland in Vaughan. Large portions of the property are in the Greenbelt and were undevelopable at the time the land was purchased. If Ford’s proposal goes through, a lucrative chunk alongside Pine Valley Rd. will be cleared for houses.   

An executive assistant at the company said De Gasperis was out of the country for a family wedding and unable to respond to questions for this story. 

Collectively, the developers who purchased land within the Greenbelt since Ford was elected spent more than $278 million, according to land registry documents. 

With Ford’s decision to open them for development, the land values could skyrocket. The government, which is mandated to consult the public about the changes for 30 days, could finalize them as soon as early December.

“Wealthy developers stand to gain huge amounts of money when farmland is rezoned for development,” said Jessica Bell, the NDP housing critic. “They buy the land cheap, and they can sell it or develop it for incredible profit.”

The Narwhal/Star reached out to every developer named in this story. Most did not respond.

The cone of silence enveloping the developers is par for the course, especially if that course is a rigged playing field, as many suspect. 

It should be clear to those who see more than dollar signs when they open their eyes that developing parts of the Greenbelt, indeed, any action that promotes sprawl, flies in the face of the world's climate crisis. Sprawl means not only the elimination of valuable agricultural and greenspace; it also means more people will be emitting more greenhouse gases as they commute further and further to work, an untenable scenario in our fraught times.

So what can be done when the power of the province is making its heavy hand felt? In addition to widespread protest, one possibility is what some are contemplating in Hamilton, which just elected a largely new city council. Simply deny the budgeting funds needed to pay for the costly infrastructure that new, far-flung development entails. It is difficult to see how the Ford cabal could counteract such a measure, unless the premier invoked another notwithstanding clause threat to overturn local democracy.

But if Ford were willing to go that route, at least his avarice and his subservience to his business masters would be plain for all to see.

 

Sad, But Not So Surprising

As I have written before, the evasion of responsibility on the part of the Ford government and its chief medical flunky, Dr. Kieran Moore, is deeply disappointing but not really unexpected. Ideology and political culture almost guarantee that his official stance (get your shots and masks in crowds) will be largely ignored.

However, now Dr. Moore has taken it to a whole new level. Despite his advice to mask up in situations that warrant it, he did this:

Charlie Pinkerton

@CharliePinkerto

On Monday, Ontario’s CMOH Dr. Kieran Moore “strongly recommended” Ontarians wear masks indoors. Last night, 3 days later, he was partying maskless at Toronto Life’s celebration for its 50 most influential Torontonians of 2022, videos show.

It's Easy To Pierce Thin Skins

Not to mention, it also looks like fun. To quote Mr. T: I pity the fool! (But not really.)

Mrs. F

@ms_frazzled

Your tan looks so good up there, friend! Let’s go play something else for a while. #TrumpAnnouncement

Adam Parkhomenko

@AdamParkhomenko

Our Inability to Behave Humanely Or Reasonably

 

H/t Moudakis

Many years ago, I would periodically buy The National Lampoon, the era's  pre-eminent journal of satire. One of its covers has always remained in memory:

Presumably a spoof on the tendency of fund-raising organizations to use emotional ploys to encourage donations, it was also a devastatingly effective reminder of how emotion often strongly affects our decision-making, both for good and ill.

Years of observation and experience suggest to me that the role of emotion or reason in positive decision-making has passed. The only problem is that here in Ontario, our Chief Medical Officer of Health, Kieran Moore, has not gotten the memo.

In his press briefing yesterday, the good doctor appeared to take two tacks: an appeal to reason, based on the rising number of pediatric cases overwhelming hospitals, and an appeal to emotion, as he urged all of us to mask up "for the kids". Indeed, if one cares to look, one can readily find pictures and videos of kids struggling to breathe.

But will that be effective? In his column today, Edward Keenan suggests it will not, arguing that while Canadians are a rule-following people, they are less amenable to suggestions, even when strongly argued:

... in the past, I’ve found myself ignoring warning signs and wandering dangerously close to the edge of the Scarborough Bluffs and then, suddenly realizing I might fall off a cliff, wondering why there wasn’t a high fence to force people to stay away. Maybe a clear warning and an obvious danger — a sheer cliff drop-off, masses of hospitalized children — aren’t warning enough for us, because we’re somehow conditioned to think if something is really important, we won’t be given a choice.

Conducting a social experiment, Keenan donned a mask and went into the Toronto subway system.

In my subway cars, I counted about a quarter to a third of people wearing masks. In the Eaton Centre around lunch time, the number of people masked was more like 15 per cent. Inside City Hall, my observation was closer to 5-10 per cent of people masked.

Most of us say we’d wear a mask if officials say we have to, and a majority of us even say we think they should tell us we have to. But man, it appears most of us won’t do it unless we have to.

What seems reasonable to me is that mask wearing is a measure most of us could easily toggle on and off as needed to head off more severe measures and more severe consequences. What also seems reasonable to me is that if top doctors and public health officials are begging me to consider wearing one because hospitals are getting overwhelmed, then maybe that ought to be persuasive.

The goal, here, obviously, is for as many of us as possible to make it happy and healthy and alive to a time when there’s no real reason to wear masks when we go out. Maybe at some later point, it will make sense to wear masks again, for a while, to again ensure more of us can survive and thrive. Is that too big a burden to accept? And do we need a law to force us to co-operate every time?

Keenan uses reason and reasonable several times in the above. However, as we have seen in the past few years, so many seem to have abandoned that faculty, instead embracing negative emotional reactions to the problems confronting us, up to and including our present medical crises.

Do the right thing, urges Dr. Moore. Are enough of us even capable of that anymore?

Time For Some Truth

 

In Doug Ford's Ontario, the answer is, "Plenty of people." 

Yesterday I attended a rally to protest the provincial government's plans to override local democracy and extend urban boundaries into the valuable Greenbelt and farmlands (a.k.a The Doug Ford Discharging His Debt To Developers Act). By the robust turnout, it was clear that the premier is fooling few with his claim that such is needed to create affordable housing. Indeed, affordable housing today is something of an oxymoron, isn't it?

While much more needs to be said, an unanticipated visit to the dentist this morning forces me to keep this post brief. Just who are these developers? Clicking on this CBC link affords some answers, as will this one to the Hamilton Spectator. Draw your own conclusions.

As well, these letters from readers show that Ford's veneer of concern and rectitude is quite thin:

Ontario backtracks on Greenbelt pledge with plan to allow housing on 7,400 acres, Nov. 4

It’s no wonder people don’t vote. Why bother, when too often it seems that promises made aren’t promises kept.

Why pay attention to a politician’s platform when we suspect it is nothing but lies in order to get votes? Premier Doug Ford said he wouldn’t touch Ontario’s Greenbelt, and many believed him. I would wager there isn’t a single person in this province who doesn’t believe that his housing plan is simply a way to appease his developer buddies. We all know, there is no need to carve portions out of the Greenbelt for the building of homes. In his usual way, Ford acts without thinking things through, ignoring the experts and public opinion.

Bob Coupland, Oakville

Greenbelt is for nature, not housing, Nov. 9

After reading the above editorial and realizing Ontario’s own housing affordability task force found there was no need to intrude on our Greenbelt for new housing, I now understand what Premier Doug Ford is up to.

The only reason he wants the Greenbelt properties is to appease his developer buddies who have bought up lands in anticipation of Ford’s takeover of huge sections for them to build on. This would destroy precious watersheds, wetlands, farmlands and animal habitats which should be preserved in perpetuity. Discussions are going on right now to determine the fate of the Greenbelt, and the answer to its destruction should be an emphatic NO.

Jane White, Scarborough 

It has been said that sunlight is one of the best disinfectants. Clearly, there is the need for some heavy-duty sanitization of the Doug Ford regime.

The Biggest Danger To America Today?

Single women. That's right, single women. According to Jesse Watters, the only way to combat such an insidious threat is for those ladies to get married, where, presumably, they will fall into line with the natural (or God-ordained) hierarchy.

'We need these ladies to get married' — Fox News' Jesse Watters is BIG MAD that single women made waves voting for Democrats during the midterms.

Or, put another way, there's this: