Ontario Premier Doug Ford announces that he will be reversing his government’s decision to open the Greenbelt to developers during a press conference in Niagara Falls, Ont., Sept. 21, 2023. The announcement comes after a second cabinet minister resigned in the wake of the Greenbelt controversy.Tara Walton/The Canadian Press
It was a stark reminder of a controversy that is not going away: During an election debate on Monday, the moderator asked Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford whether he would allow housing on the province’s protected Greenbelt.
Mr. Ford bluntly acknowledged he had broken his promise not to touch the ecologically sensitive zone. After allowing select developers to build homes in parts of the protected area, his government scrapped the project amid a political furor in 2023.
“I apologized to the people. We’re moving forward. We’re building homes,” he said during the leaders’ debate.
As much as Mr. Ford tries to steer away from his Greenbelt misstep, he had little choice on Monday but to confront the issue. In calling an early election, Mr. Ford is sending Ontario voters to the polls during a criminal investigation into his government’s aborted decision to open up parts of the protected lands for development.
Mr. Ford has said he called the Feb. 27 election because he needs a new mandate from voters to protect Ontario from the economic uncertainty caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats. But opposition leaders say the RCMP probe is a key reason Mr. Ford called a snap election 15 months before the next scheduled vote.
“I think there’s no question that the timing of this election is absolutely connected to Doug Ford, not only just trying to escape his own record, but trying to outrun this RCMP criminal investigation that’s under way,” NDP Leader Marit Stiles said in an interview.
Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie also said Mr. Ford’s snap election call is an attempt to get in front of any charges resulting from the Mounties’ probe. “It’s clear to me that he’s trying to outrun an RCMP investigation,” she said in an interview.
Developers who bought Ontario Greenbelt land linked to Ford government
The RCMP said in an e-mail that it is conducting a thorough investigation but did not answer questions because of the continuing probe. Constable Beau Gavin, who is one of the investigators, also declined comment.
Police officers interviewed several current and former Premier’s Office staffers last summer in Toronto. Investigators asked questions about the decision-making and cabinet-approval processes for the Greenbelt plan, according to an individual with knowledge of one interview. The Globe and Mail agreed not to name the person so they could speak about an active police investigation.
The RCMP’s sensitive and international investigations unit is investigating allegations associated with the government’s decision to open parts of the Greenbelt for development, the force confirmed in October, 2023.
Mr. Ford has long faced controversy over his Greenbelt plans. During the 2018 election campaign, the Liberal Party circulated a video of Mr. Ford saying he would hand a “big chunk” of the area to developers. After an outcry, he promised not to touch the 800,000-hectare arc of protected farmland and countryside around the Greater Toronto Area.
Then, in the fall of 2022, Mr. Ford’s government announced plans to carve out areas of the Greenbelt for housing development. Media outlets, including The Globe, have reported that some of the properties identified for removal had changed hands after Mr. Ford was first elected in 2018 and, in one case, less than two months before the plan was announced – prompting questions from opposition politicians whether some developers were tipped off.
Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner and then-auditor-general concluded in reports released in the summer of 2023 that political staff had driven a process that discarded environmental and infrastructure criteria and favoured certain developers, who stood to gain $8.3-billion in increased property values. Some of the developers had ties to the PC Party.
At a campaign stop earlier this month, Mr. Ford told reporters that he has not been interviewed by the Mounties and did not know whether any of his staff had been either. “What I have said is let’s co-operate 1,000 per cent because we did nothing wrong,” he said.
Mr. Ford’s spokeswoman, Grace Lee, did not address a question from The Globe about opposition accusations that Mr. Ford called an early election to outrun the police investigation. Instead, she reiterated that Mr. Ford has not been contacted by the RCMP.
The Greenbelt scandal and police investigation do not appear to be hindering the popularity of Mr. Ford’s PC Party, which has a double-digit lead in public opinion polls.
“I think that it’s certainly not a top-of-mind issue for most Ontarians,” said Lydia Miljan, a political science professor at the University of Windsor.
Prof. Miljan said one reason the RCMP’s Greenbelt investigation hasn’t stuck to Mr. Ford could be because the force has not released updates.
“When the police are investigating, they don’t say much. So it’s not like we’re getting daily revelations,” she said. “It’d be different if, for example, there was a court case going on and that way people would be following a trial. The fact is that we don’t know what the police have found.”
With a report from Robyn Doolittle