... didn't stay in Vegas. Consequently, another one bites the dust. Dean Blundell explains all:
The corruption obviously runs deep, and it runs from the top down. Doug the Slug is holding another news conference this afternoon. Given how deep the premier is in to the developers, expect only the usual misdirections, pontifications, evasions, self-serving justifications and NO reversal on the Greenbelt crime.
In other words, ANYTHING BUT THE TRUTH.
Sometimes it's difficult to know what is going on in the mind and motivation of Ontario premier Doug Ford. Is he merely a benighted soul who embraces a simple mantra of 'private sector good, public sector bad'? Is he incapable of grasping the perilous climatic times and food challenges we face? Or is he simply so arrogant that he thinks he can ride out the outrage over the Greenbelt theft? Then again, perhaps his associations and friendships with wealthy developers have warped his concept of the "ordinary folks" he publicly proclaims his affiliation with?
All are legitimate questions, ones prompted by his appearance at the 104th Annual Plowing Match, a yearly genuflection in which politicians show their 'common folk' bona fides. Doug Ford riding a tractor makes us all want to vote for him, eh?
Among the waves and hellos from the sidelines to the premier and his caucus as they wended their way along the opening day parade route in a tractor-pulled wagon, there was also some discontent among attendees at the event held in Dufferin County, west of Orangeville.
“If Doug Ford keeps going the way he’s going — for (future generations), where’s their food coming from? Farmers feed us,” said Mona Blain, whose husband’s family has been farming for 100 years in southwestern Ontario.
“Farmers keep our world from going hungry, and when you keep building on our prime farmland, where’s the food coming from?” said Blain, who voted for the Progressive Conservatives in the last election.
“When you start giving away land for billions of dollars and helping out your friends in the process, there’s something wrong,” she added.
While many attending expressed similar concerns, Mr. Ford, ever the cliche-master, offered this chiropractic bromide, avowing
“we’re always going to have the agriculture, the food sector’s back, but most importantly we’re going to have the farmer’s backs.”
Not so, according to opposition politicians.
Ford “is not listening to rural people, he’s not listening to farmers. They are saying very clearly that they want the land returned to the Greenbelt,” [Marit} Stiles said.
Green Leader Mike Schreiner said 60 per cent of the land removed from the Greenbelt is in the Duffins Rouge agricultural preserve east of Toronto, “and that’s some of the best farmland in North America.”
Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said while Ford didn’t mention the Greenbelt in his speech, it was the “elephant in the room.”
While the plowing match is a celebration, he said, “people are angry, and they are angry in rural Ontario and they are angry in urban Ontario.”
One thing is certain, however. In appearing on land in which horse manure is spread far and wide, Doug Ford shows he is very much in his element.
Just a change of pace for today. Besides, have you ever seen Samuel L. Jackson give a bad performance?
The report – called the Provincial Climate Change Impact Assessment – projects a soaring number of days with extreme heat across Ontario, as well as increases in flooding and more frequent wildfires.
None of the news is good, but it does underscore for anyone with critical thinking skills the folly of the Greenbelt theft.Its 530 pages are filled with often grim details about the expected effects of climate change in Ontario, including:
The agriculture sector faces risks of "declining productivity, crop failure, and livestock fatalities."
"Most Ontario businesses will face increased risks due to climate change."
"Climate risks are highest among Ontario's most vulnerable populations and will continue to amplify existing disparities and inequities."
...they project how an expected rise in the number of days with extreme heat – 30 degrees and up – will have impacts on Ontario's growing seasons, businesses and human health.
By the 2080s, the report forecasts that southern, central and eastern Ontario will average 55 to 60 such extreme heat days per year, a nearly fourfold increase from the current annual average of about 16 days.
Northern Ontario, which experiences an average of 4 extreme heat days annually, is projected to see upwards of 35 such days each year.
One sees the reason for obscuring this report for so long when looking at its recommendations.
"Changes in Ontario's climate are expected to continue at unprecedented rates," says the report. "It is important to recognize how these findings can be used to spur action to protect residents, ecosystems, businesses and communities across Ontario."
The report lays out the ways the researchers expect climate change to affect each region of Ontario along five broad themes: infrastructure; food and agriculture; people and communities; natural resources, ecosystems and the environment; business and the economy.
The president of the Climate Risk Institute, Al Douglas,
says Ontario's food production and agriculture are particularly vulnerable to climate change.
"Yields will decrease," he said. "It will affect the overall health of livestock. It will pose indirect threats to things like water availability, water quality. It'll indirectly impact soil health and soil quality."
The future is perilous; food scarcity will be common, as will be flooding, both of which demand protection of sensitive lands. Only the most benighted and the most venal will fail to understand the gravity of what we face. I suspect both adjectives apply to the Ford bandits.
UPDATE: A new online poll finds that people are very unhappy with the Ford government:
... seven-in-ten (69%) Ontarians are angry or annoyed about Doug Ford’s plan to rezone parts of the greenbelt for housing, up 8 points from December 2022. Only 17% of PC voters are pleased or happy about the plan.
Despite all of Doug Ford's bluster and lies about how important the Greenbelt is to meet his goal of building 1.5 million new homes in the next 10 years, the reality of real estate in Ontario, indeed, in Canada as a whole, offers a quite different picture.
So far this year, there were 44,000 housing starts in the first and second quarters, slightly above 40,100 during the same period last year.
Still, those numbers are far behind the province’s 150,000 yearly target to reach 1.5 million new homes in a decade. And while the first half of 2023 is above 2022 levels, experts warn the rest of the year will take a hit with construction on new projects declining as the industry faces an acute labour shortage and high interest rates.
This undoubtedly comes as an inconvenient truth for Mr. Ford and his cabal, given how much emphasis they have placed on the necessity of stealing from the Greenbelt to meet their goals.
Last month, a Desjardins report noted that in the second half of 2023, there will be a more significant slowdown in new starts as the construction industry faces acute labour shortages, mixed with high borrowing and material costs and expectations of softening economic activity — deterring developers and investors.
And in terms of affordability, forget about it. According to Marc Desormeaux, the principal economist at Desjardins,
“[t]he so-called ‘missing middle’ remains largely absent from new home construction,” he said, referring to multi-unit homes such as duplexes, midrise apartments and purpose-built rentals, which offer more affordable options than single-family homes.
There are ways around these obstacles, as recommended last year by the province's own task force on housing affordability. Those recommendations, however, run counter to Ford's obligations to enrich his developer puppet-masters. Included in the solutions were
densification in urban centres by building more mid- to highrise buildings, transforming single-family homes into multiple units, and building more transit-oriented communities.
Most interesting, from my perspective, is what Professor Mike Moffatt observes:
Importantly, he said, the report noted there is enough land to build on to meet these targets and that environmentally sensitive areas must be protected.
“Building on the Greenbelt goes against his government’s own recommendations to achieve the 1.5 million target,” he said. “There are many other ways to build the housing we need, we have enough land to do it.”
The Ford oligarchs have shown no intention of backing down on their plans to pillage the Greenbelt, despite the report's conclusions.
But then again, the people of Ontario have shown no sign of backing down on their fierce, spirited opposition to the theft.
We will see who wins this battle.
I'm fairly certain that readers who have stuck with me during my protracted postings on the Doug Ford corruption scandal are growing a bit weary of my apparent monomania. I don't blame you. Even I get tired of writing about a situation that seems to have no resolution, given how intractable Doug and his Slugs are proving on the Greenbelt theft.
How can any of us move forward, with the stench of corruption still so pungent? The Toronto Star has a few suggestions:
Two investigations have condemned the process to select Greenbelt lands for new housing. The controversy has led to the resignations of a senior political aide, Ryan Amato, and Steve Clark, who had been municipal affairs and housing minister. A government chastened by such findings — and which put any any priority on doing the right thing — would have immediately reversed decisions revealed to be corrupted and politically driven.
And yet, as last week ended, not only was Ford moving ahead with development on 7,400 acres of Greenbelt lands but astonishingly, he suggested that more of this protected band of greenspace could be carved out for new housing following a review.
Let’s recall the many problems with how those lands were picked — lack of consultation, lack of regard to the environmental impacts, overwhelming negative feedback swept aside, gerrymandering of the selection criteria, and most appalling of all, the overriding influence of developers on what lands were chosen.
Despite damning reports from both tha auditor general and the integrity commissioner, the Ford band of robbers plays on, which raises questions that demand answers:n
.... why [are] Ford and his Progressive Conservatives ... so beholden [to] developers, so eager to bend to their wishes, that they’re willing to cast aside good governance and public opinion?
It more than defies explanation. It demands further investigation.
First, we need a police investigation. Ford has said he is “confident” there was no criminality. This from the politician who told the auditor general he was “unaware” of the many other problems on the file. The RCMP — handed the file by the Ontario Provincial Police — has said it will conduct a “full assessment” before determining whether to launch an investigation. Given the public interest, we need the Mounties to investigate and be transparent about what they find.
Secondly, we need a public inquiry. We have been well-served by the investigations to date by Lysyk and Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake. Yet both had to stick to their respective mandates. In Wake’s case, he was restricted to reviewing whether Clark contravened the Member’s Integrity Act. (He found that Clark did violate the act for his failure to oversee the process to select Greenbelt lands for development.)
While the chances of a public inquiry are nil, in my view, we have to hope that the RCMP does not quail at the prospect of criminally investigating a sitting government. Past performance leaves doubts as to their fitness for the task, but it must be done.
It is our only hope to lance the boil that is festering in Ontario
