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Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

Richard White said:
Apparently the housing minister is staying put as per the Premiers office.

Does Doug Ford not realize he is giving the opposition reason to have his government investigated by the RCMP? By allowing the Minister to stay on without consequence despite being under investigation this gives reason to believe there is some backroom dealing going on.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1696953609060323834
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The opposition has no power to compel the RCMP to do anything.
 
2 parcels on their way back to the Greenbelt:

Ontario Newsroom

news.ontario.ca news.ontario.ca

Aerial view of parcels:

1693426518539.png


Farmland, a very narrow belt of it, right at the eastern fringe of Ajax on west side of Lake Ridge, north o 401.

While I'm happy to see this stay in the Greenbelt, it is a curiosity that this might be the site that had the single best redevelopment case. The blue shading btw is the floodplain, which the map I used for this image.
 
tripwire said:
I can see him backtracking on the whole Greenbelt fiasco before stepping down; but definitely a lot more weaseling around to keep it going. Reminds me a bit like his blue license plate pet project - which I still see on the road here and there.
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If he backtracks completely; i.e. all of the plots go back into the Greenbelt, a handful of developers/friends/wedding guests will be out a lot of money. Either he tries to weasel it out of the taxpayers 'out of fairness', or he should stay away from open windows.
 
Richard White said:
No but they can ask the OPP to investigate. In this case the OPP has referred the matter to the RCMP.
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The RCMP would need to have a whiff of a Quid pro quo, "something for something" in order to open an investigation. Government incompetence and developer cronyism is not sufficient; we need Clark, Ford or Amato to have criminally benefited. Proving that benefit is a long shot. Ford’s trial will be in the next election, not via a criminal charge, an election which I believe he’ll still win a majority.
 
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Admiral Beez said:
The RCMP would need to have a whiff of a Quid pro quo, "something for something" in order to open an investigation. Government incompetence and developer cronyism is not sufficient; we need Clark, Ford or Amato to have criminally benefited. Proving that benefit is a long shot. Ford’s trial will be in the next election, not via a criminal charge, an election which I believe he’ll still win a majority.
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In three or four years, some or all of same will end up on boards, etc. collecting a few hundred k per year.

I'd say that any land that is removed from the greenbelt should have LVT applied to it. Therefore no windfall profit from change of use for the owners of the land, and the value accrues to the public to be used for infrastructure and services instead of making wealthy developers wealthier and motivate future access politics.
 
lenaitch said:
If he backtracks completely; i.e. all of the plots go back into the Greenbelt, a handful of developers/friends/wedding guests will be out a lot of money. Either he tries to weasel it out of the taxpayers 'out of fairness', or he should stay away from open windows.
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The right thing to do is to offer to pay whatever the developers paid for the farmland. Lost potential profits are the developers’ own risk.
 
Admiral Beez said:
The right thing to do is to offer to pay whatever the developers paid for the farmland. Lost potential profits are the developers’ own risk.
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Not sure why the government i.e. taxpayers) should buy this land back - at the very least it should be offered to the former owners for the price they were paid. If the former owners do not want it back again, the developers are stuck with land that cannot be developed - my heart is bleeding!
 
DSC said:
Not sure why the government i.e. taxpayers) should buy this land back - at the very least it should be offered to the former owners for the price they were paid. If the former owners do not want it back again, the developers are stuck with land that cannot be developed - my heart is bleeding!
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By buying it back the risk of its development in the future is reduced.
 
Admiral Beez said:
By buying it back the risk of its development in the future is reduced.
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Naw.... The original landowner would be free to resell it again. Somehow, there has to be a way to seal the Greenbelt and forever prohibited from developments. I think let the greedy builders just take the business loss, but of course there are tax deductions for that too.
 
Admiral Beez said:
By buying it back the risk of its development in the future is reduced.
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This government would sell it again if they thought nobody was watching. Unfortunately, nothing is forever. The Ontario Heritage Trust owned about 25% of the First Parliament site and THAT is supposed to protect land. Did they stop the government expropriating it for Ontario Line?
 
A government could buy the land and grant it to a private agricultural or wilderness trust.
 
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