Ford’s untrue housing claims don’t fool Ontarians

August 14, 2023

TORONTO — Ontario Greens leader and MPP for Guelph Mike Schreiner released the following statement in response to continued claims from the Ford government that development on the Greenbelt is necessary to solve Ontario’s housing crisis.

“This government’s desperate attempts to gloss over the Greenbelt scandal by repeating false claims that we need the land to solve our housing crisis aren’t fooling anyone.

We all know that it’s simply not true.

Report after report – including one from the government’s own housing task force and last week’s bombshell from the Auditor General – have concluded that we already have enough land to build the homes that we desperately need.

Just a couple of months ago, new mapping showed that Ontario can deliver the next 30 years of GTHA homes using just a portion of the land that was approved for development before 2022.

So why the continued attempts from Ford and his ministers to play Ontarians for fools?

This government’s real reason for sprawling onto prime farmland, wetlands and floodplains has nothing to do with helping everyday Ontarians. Nothing to do with building affordable homes.

It’s to shovel $8.3 billion into the pockets of wealthy PC-friendly speculators at the expense of everybody else.

Ontario Greens have put forward plenty of solutions to solve the housing crisis without carving up the Greenbelt. Bills 44 and 45 propose amendments to the Planning Act that would end exclusionary zoning by:

• allowing for fourplexes and four storey walk-up apartments in neighbourhoods as of right; and
• allowing for mid-rise developments ranging from six to 11 storeys on transit corridors and major streets.

We’ve also put forward three bills to keep Ford and Co.’s hands off the Greenbelt and permanently protect its forests, farmland and wetlands for generations to come.

Greens will continue to put forward real solutions to the housing crisis while opposing the Ford government’s Greenbelt giveaways.”

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