More About Doug The Slug

In my previous post, I wrote rather scathingly of Doug Ford and his refusal to put back into the building code a requirement for new home builds to have a plug built in to facilitate EV chargers. To clarify any confusion left by that post, the extra $500 charge to new homes would have been for the infrastructure, not the actual charger.  Unfortunately Ford, who takes his direction from developers, refused at their behest this simple requirement, disingenuously citing his desire to make life more affordable for Ontarians burdened by his benighted 'leadership.

Toronto Star readers, a generally perceptive group, were quick to point out the error of Doug's ways:

Setting homes up for EVs makes sense

Ford government won’t make electric vehicle chargers mandatory in new homes despite championing EV industry, April 11

The Ford government’s position on the inclusion of roughed-in wiring for EV charging stations in new homes is disingenuous and short-sighted. An additional $500 cost will not deter the buyer of a new home, with average costs approaching $1 million in major markets. It is literally a tiny percentage of the overall cost, and will be amortized over 25-30 years. In comparison, pre-wiring during construction would eliminate over half the cost of installing an EV charging station. It seems obvious that our government is happy to spend our money to entice EV component manufacturers, but totally unwilling to assist Ontarians in future-proofing their new homes, to reduce our carbon footprint and lessen the impact of our changing climate. Did past governments argue the same way against requiring electric dryer circuits in the building and electrical codes?

Doug Lewis, Clarington, Ont.

The Ontario Conservatives won’t make house builders install plugs for electric cars. Putting another plug in a million dollar house would have little or no effect on the price of the house. Builders put in plugs for microwaves, stoves, clothes dryers, et cetera. Putting in one more plug for an electric car charger is not a big deal. It becomes a bigger deal if the plug has to be installed once the house is built. The homeowner still has to buy a charger to plug into the plug but at least the house is not ripped apart to install the plug. Like many of the Ford government’s policies, this call does not make any sense.

Wolfe Erlichman, Godfrey, Ont.

Doug Ford's illogic and hypocrisy are manifest. The question, however, is whether enough of the electorate notices or even cares.

The Curse Of News Literacy

There are some days I almost wish I weren't a newspaper reader. That way I wouldn't be confronted  daily with the world's stupidity and perhaps not constantly haunted by a jaundiced view of humanity.

In my previous post I wrote at some length about the buffoonery that defines the Doug Ford government here in Ontario; while I briefly return to that subject now, I shall also take a look at my disappointment over Jagmeet Singh's recent pronouncements. Just bear with me, if you are so inclined.

First, a peek at our Pavlovian premier, Mr. Ford. The previous government, under Kathleen Wynne, mandated charging plugs for all new house and condo builds in 2018. Mr. Ford, in 2019, stripped that provision out of the building code. Despite his heavily investing in EV battery plants for Ontario, he will not reverse that decision.

... after lobbying from developers who said the plugs added $500 to the cost of a new house, Ford stripped them from the code. He also ended rebates of up to $14,000 for buyers of EVs and scrapped chargers from GO Transit stations and other public locations.

Why, when EV investment is so important to the Ontario economy, would he continue to hang tough?

Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra, who tabled legislation modernizing the building code on Wednesday, warned that keeping new home costs low is more important than mandating EV chargers.

“Look, I think homeowners can make that decision on their own. If you’re wanting to buy a EV, we encourage you to do it — that’s why we’re making massive investments in that,” Calandra told reporters at Queen’s Park.

“But if that’s something that you want to do, then the homeowner themselves can undertake that. We want to keep costs of building new homes down,” he said.

The price of installing an EV charger in an existing home can be between $1,000 and $3,000 — much more than putting one in during construction.

 Green Leader Mike Schreiner said the Tories “are ideologically opposed to building the infrastructure we need for electric vehicles” and that has economic consequences.

“Is Ford Motor Company delaying the building of their plant and retooling their plant in Oakville because they know we don’t have the infrastructure in Ontario to facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles?” said Schreiner.

I leave you to draw your own conclusions as to the 'soundness' of the government's 'thinking'. 

Things are not much better on the federal scene. I must confess to my surprise and disappointment with NDP leader Jagment Singh, who now seems to be waffling on the carbon levy and thereby succumbing to the siren call of populism.

The federal New Democrats no longer believe a consumer carbon price is necessary to fight climate change, Jagmeet Singh suggested Thursday.

The new position, which appears to break with the NDP’s previous support for the policy, was outlined in a speech Singh delivered at the Broadbent Institute’s annual policy conference in Ottawa on Thursday. In it, he distanced his party from the federal Liberals’ flagship climate policy, which has drawn criticism from across the country as the levy and its accompanying rebates increased this April.

Singh condemned the approaches of both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to the climate crisis, and said tackling it “can’t be done by letting working families bear the cost of climate change while big polluters make bigger and bigger profits.”

Sadly, this move lends legitimacy to the prattle of PP and the provincial premiers, who seem to speak as one in denouncing the levy as a burden on all of us, despite the fact that most come out ahead with the feds' quarterly rebate checks. 

I will give Singh credit for one assertion, however.

Referring to a March report that concluded industrial carbon pricing systems were far more effective than the consumer levy on fuel, Singh told reporters that the New Democrats “want more attention on the policies that are the biggest drivers of lowering emissions,” such as the industrial price on pollution and methane regulations. 

Industrial carbon pricing systems would be a reference to such protocols as cap and trade. Yes, the very same system that Doug Ford dismantled when he came to power, a move that led to Trudeau imposing the carbon levy on all of us. Interestingly, even as Mr. Ford and others rail against the levy, no one seems to have any interest in bringing back cap and trade. Why not? You would have to ask Mr. Ford and his friends in high places for the answer.

I also don't have a direct answer as to why the electorate cannot make the journey from A to B and connect the dots that would show the arrant hypocrisy of people like Ford when they indulge in the political theatre of fed-bashing.

Hence my jaundiced view of humanity.

Small Minds And Big Power

It will probably come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog that I have a rather low opinion of our species. There are too many small-minded people thinking they are the smartest people in the room, reflecting the classic Dunning-Krueger effect. Nothing can be done about this reality, as they seem wholly incapable of taking any semblance of instruction.

The real problem, however, is when politicians target that audience for their political support. We see it, of course, in the U.S. as Don Trump cultivates his MAGA morons. Unfortunately, the problem also occurs closer to home. We see it in PP's simplistic aphorisms like "spike the hike' and "axe the tax", his answer to climate change mitigation efforts. And here in Ontario, Doug Ford has no doubt provided sociologists and political analysts all manner of fodder when it comes to populism. Indeed, he has made an art out of promulgating the picayune.

Ford, our very own arrested development premier, has made a virtue out of small-minded policies at the expense of constructive, long-term ideas. As you know, thanks to his 'magnanimity', we no longer have to pay licence plate renewal fees, at an annual expense to revenues of $1.2 billion. Add to that the ongoing gas tax 'holiday', and you are left with a substantial gap in the provincial treasury. And perhaps you have heard of Ford's latest scheme to force the LCBO to bring back paper bags to spare the expense of having to buy a reusable one if you have forgotten yours at home, all in the name of making life more affordable.

One of the problems when you concentrate on the 'needs' of the 'little guy' is that you think you can fool everyone and ignore those who want real intelligence in decision-making. Take, for example, his latest scheme. Because his government is woefully behind in the goal of building 1.5 million homes by 2031, Ford's solution is to count the rooms in Long-Term Care homes and dormitories. 

It's an idea being met with ridicule in the legislature. Rob Ferguson writes:

“What are they going to count next … jail cells?” New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles said Tuesday as she criticized Ford for fighting fourplexes as a way to improve the housing supply.   

Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra — who on Wednesday will announce new measures to “cut red tape and help municipalities build” — pushed back at critics with his own argument.

“Obviously, student housing is very important,” he said.

“Every time we build new housing, or a college or university campus builds new housing, that is more housing that is available in the community. I don’t think that’s a very difficult concept to follow.”

Why such transparent fraud?

To meet its 1.5-million target, the province needs to build an average of 150,000 new homes annually.

But the last two years, the actual numbers were well below that, with 109,111 in 2023 and 80,300 in 2022. Soaring interest rates and higher building costs driven by inflation were factors.

 Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, a former three-term mayor of Mississauga, accused the government of “trying to prop up their numbers with dorms and retirement units because they’re not meeting their (housing) targets.”

“It’s misleading, and it’s just a shell game,” she told a news conference at Queen’s Park. 

“You can’t even have a microwave in a dorm room. My goodness, that is not a home,” Stiles said in an exchange with Calandra in the legislature’s daily question period.

 Green Leader Mike Schreiner mused whether the government might go further.

“At this point, the government is going to start counting tents,” he quipped.  

Stiles's, Crombie's and Schreiner's objections are based on an assumption that the electorate is not stupid. That is likely a miscalculation on their part. In any event, people who know things, read papers and keep up with events are clearly not the target audience the Ford government has in its sights. Quite the opposite, in fact.

 

The High Price Of Populism

In this age of economic deprivation for so many, it is understandable that people seek relief wherever they can find it. Some do without, some shop at discount stores, some take second jobs. Unfortunately, some embrace whomever seems to be offering a helping hand. 

Here in Ontario, that 'helping' hand comes from populist politicians, most notably our own Will Loman ("Be well-liked and you will never want"), Doug Ford. Like the salesman he was through his Deco Labels business, which he still owns, Ford has never lost his appetite for public approval. And that propensity is leading all of us down a very dark economic road.

The province's latest budget, unveiled the other day, projects a tripling of the deficit to $9.8 billion, piling on top of the current debt of almost $400 billion. The government argues that it necessary to keep spending in these economically challenging times and making life more affordable for people.

And therein lies the rub. While the deficit and debt continue to grow, our populist premier is surrendering huge sources of revenue via an extension of the gas tax reduction, the ongoing elimination of auto plate renewal charges, massive subsidies to keep the price of hydro lower, and having the public pick up the tab for developers' charges, at the same time giving below-inflation increases to vital services like health care, education, etc.

Not everyone is fooled by this fiscal sleight-of-hand. Certainly, Toronto Star readers are not. Here are two of their letters

Perhaps if the Doug Ford government hadn't been so enthusiastic about shredding long-term stable revenue streams it wouldn't be in the deficit position it now finds itself. Since 2018 the province has lost approximately $1 billion a year each from the cancellation of the greenhouse gas cap and trade program, the elimination of vehicle licensing fees and reductions in the provincial gasoline tax. To this has to be added the billions in provincial revenues that are now having to be diverted to municipalities to pay for infrastructure needed to support housing, making up for the development charge revenues that were lost through Bill 23 — the infamous Building More Homes Faster Act. Then there is the ongoing $7 billion annual diversion of revenues to artificially lower hydro rates and hide the actual costs of nuclear refurbishments. In the longer term the costs of financing the government's "get it done" megaprojects, many of which, like the Highway 413, the Bradford Bypass and Pickering B nuclear refurbishment, have been previously assessed as uneconomic, unnecessary and destructive, has to be considered as well, in a context of increased interest rates. Beyond the long-term environmental and climate consequences of these choices, different decisions would have left the province far better positioned to make needed investments in areas like education and health care.

Mark S. Winfield, Toronto

Gas tax cut diminished government revenues 

The Ford government could handily have trimmed its deficit in this latest budget by cancelling its gas tax cut. By the government’s own admission, this tax cut has diminished government revenues by $2.1 billion over the past two and a half years. Might not all that money have been more helpful providing affordable housing, supporting public transit, and fixing our overburdened health-care system?

Kenneth Oppel, Toronto

For people like Doug Ford, life and politics are but a shell game, one that fools far too many people far too often. But in the end, we all wind up paying a very steep price.

Political Pandering Of The Worst Kind

In the ongoing debasement of democracy, Ontario's Doug Ford is certainly playing his part. With his populist deck fully stacked, his latest effort to pander to the lowest common denominator has been dealt: no more driver's licence plate renewals! 

This is wrong on a number of levels, but worst of all in the way that it plays to the notion that government exists only to make life easier for the individual, not society as a whole. And the problem this measure seeks to address? The fact of over one million lapsed plates; since Ford scrapped licence renewal fees, many have forgotten that they still have to renew them online.

“I’m here to announce today, actually, that we’re getting rid of that totally — registering your vehicle,” Ford said.

“We did the first step: getting rid of the sticker. Now, we’re getting rid of the re-registration. They’ll be automatically re-registered. So people won’t have to worry about that at all.”

Now, if one has a Machiavellian cast of mind, one will see the political advantages for Ford. Not only does it enhance his "street cred" with Joe average, it also puts the opposition parties on notice - oppose this measure and you will be seen as elitist and out of touch. My guess is that both Marit Stiles and Bonnie Crombie will have little to say about it for that reason. However, if they are smart they can object to it with conviction and practicality.

Putting aside the ongoing infantilization of the electorate, all they have to do is talk about the danger of increasing the numbers of drivers with no insurance, Up to this point, to renew one's plate, one had to provide proof of insurance coverage. That requirement is now gone, and hence, the roads will pose even more danger than they already do.

But this government is all about short-term advantages, not long-term consequences. Sadly, I expect it will boost the Ford government's popularity considerably.

History: An Update

As one who taught high school for 30 years, I have always believed in the power of education. It is the best and perhaps the only way to narrow the disparities that exist in society. In my experience, the truly educated are rarely the ranters who seem to dominate media today.

In my previous post, I talked about how many reactionary states are bound and determined to limit  education about Black history. Not only would such instruction empower Black people; it would also help to reduce the prejudice that is still very common against people perceived as "the other." To know about a rich history would limit the kind of reductionism that often defines Black people today.

At this point in my life, I am profoundly world-weary. But even this cynical, hardened heart was gladdened by news that the Ontario Ford government is going to make Black history a mandatory part of the curricula in Grades 7, 8, and 10, starting in 2025.

Stephen Lecce said Black history is Canadian history and adding it as a mandatory part of the curriculum will ensure the next generation will better appreciate the sacrifices and commitments Black Canadians have made.

"We are committed to ensuring every child, especially Black and racialized children, see themselves reflected within our schools. It is long overdue," Lecce said during a Thursday morning news conference at Lincoln Alexander Public School in Ajax. 

While I rarely have anything good to say about the Ford government, this is one initiative I heartily applaud. 

MPP Patrice Barnes, the parliamentary assistant to the education minister, spearheaded the curriculum change and said she wants it to deepen students' understanding of the country's diverse and vibrant heritage.

"Celebrating the remarkable achievements of the Black community within Canadian history is vital in providing a modern curriculum that reflects the truth of our democracy, one that combats hate and fosters inclusivity," Barnes said.

"This isn't just about Black experiences, it's not just about Black students. It's about the responsibility we have to provide all students with a comprehensive understanding of our country's rich and varied history."

This kind of curriculum was, of course, entirely absent when I was a student. Consequently, I grew up with little thought about the Black experience, usually equating and identifying Blacks with the sordid history of slavery. And it is clear that such education is sorely needed in Canada. Edward Keenan writes that we cannot be smug about being so different from the Americans, whose MAGA mentality drips with racism:

If anyone were under the impression the border keeps such thought currents from infecting Canadian politics, Pickering city councillor Lisa Robinson was recently happy to demonstrate otherwise, writing a column in a local newspaper arguing against observing Black history month (and indeed, the teaching of Black history) and outlining how it is racist to call her "white priviledge" (sic) and explaining how having her pay suspended for 90 days recently by her colleagues made her a "modern day slave," demonstrating that slavery is "not a Black and white issue." She then reminded people of the era "during the world wars" in the early 1900s when, she claims, soldiers sacrificed "without thought or division based on colour" (which might have been news to the soldiers serving in the segregated Black No. 2 Construction Battalion in the First World War, as well as to the 20,000 Canadian-born citizens of Japanese descent interned in camps during World War II).

That we have our own version of Marjorie Taylor Greene in elected office should be a comfort to no one, and, of course, Lisa Robinson is hardly alone in her prejudices. One hopes that with the education revisions just announced, we will see far less of her kind in the future.

Shiny New Things

 

Despite our professed admiration for things that have withstood the test of time (heritage buildings, old literature and traditional values come to mind), it is undeniable that there is much allure to be found in the new as well. We marvel at innovative architecture, science and engineering, to name but three. And that is often all to the good; otherwise we would simply be mired in the past. 

However,  sometimes we can be blinded by the sheen of shiny new things and fail to appreciate the many costs that accrue in throwing out the old and embracing the new.

Such is the case with the Doug Ford government's plan to redevelop Ontario Place in the image of a tawdry but expensive spa, a development that has both  profound financial (think $600 million taxpayers' dollars to build an underground parking lot), aesthetic and environmental costs. Many protests have occurred opposing this development, and now an insider has emerged to voice his concern.

A prominent landscape architect, known for designing Trillium and Tommy Thompson parks, has walked away from the redevelopment of Ontario Place, citing his opposition to clearing hundreds of trees to make way for a private spa and waterpark on Toronto’s waterfront.

After it became clear he couldn’t influence plans from the inside, Walter Kehm told the Star he could no longer be tied to a project that threatens a decades-old wildlife habitat, likening his professional commitment to protect nature to a doctor’s Hippocratic oath: “Do no harm.”

Earlier this fall, the former director of the University of Guelph’s school of landscape architecture resigned as a senior principal at Toronto-based LANDinc, one of two firms under contract to help design and construct the “public realm” of Ontario Place.

Kehm voices concern about the less-obvious destruction involved in this construction.

In more than half a century, “the 800 trees on the West Island have developed their own ecological niche,” he said. “We’re talking about more than the trees. We’re talking about a home for all the species that live there.”

Refreshingly, this expert  is able to consider something other than the bottom line.

Kehm said he had repeatedly advocated to preserve the trees on the West Island, as part of his broader vision for a forested Toronto waterfront, including during a meeting near the end of last summer.

The “big vision” for Toronto’s waterfront that Kehm had fought for, one he’s dubbed the “Emerald Necklace,” takes inspiration from a connected chain of parks that runs through Boston.

In the midst of a mental health crisis — on top of a changing climate — he stressed the importance of not only protecting “urban forests,” such as the one found on West Island, but also creating more opportunities for Torontonians to harness nature’s therapeutic benefits. 

In the world of quick profits and secret, sleazy backroom deals that characterize the Ford government, a public expression of integrity is both rare and welcome. I therefore leave the final world to Kehm:

“Nature is calming for the soul,” he reasoned. “You don’t need a spa for that. You need trees.”

 

 

 

Keeping Up The Pressure

Fires are burning in the House of Ford (not the fashion mogul's, but rather the corrupt and incompetent one that 'rules' our province). That increasing attention is being paid to the sometimes smoldering, sometimes white-hot combustions is attributable to citizen awareness, ceaseless probing by NDP leader Marit Stiles and her MPPs, media investigations, and the absolute arrogance of the now badly-wounded Ford cabal.

People feel rightfully emboldened now that the premier has promised to correct his Greenbelt 'mistake' by restoring the stolen lands. Ford, however, is sadly mistaken if he thinks that is the end of this very visible evidence of his corruption.

There are, for example, the pesky questions surrounding the provincial fiats declaring urban expansions in both Ottawa and Hamilton.

On the same Friday afternoon last November that Premier Doug Ford's government announced its plan to take certain developers' land out of the Greenbelt, it also made moves that benefited developers who own rural land on the outskirts of Ottawa and Hamilton. 

It did so by expanding each city's boundaries, instantly turning certain parcels of agricultural land from rural to urban, opening them up to future housing development and sharply increasing their potential value. 

Opposition parties believe these moves have strong parallels with what Ford's government did in selecting 15 parcels of Greenbelt land for housing development, potentially boosting their value by $8.3 billion, until ultimately reversing course last month.

That's prompting calls for investigations into the Hamilton and Ottawa boundary changes, focused on why certain land parcels were picked despite objections from each city council. 

"We see some connections … and we want to get to the bottom of it," said NDP Leader Marit Stiles. 

Stiles wrote to Ontario's auditor general's office on Friday to request an investigation into the government's expansions of urban boundaries in Ottawa and Hamilton, as well as its changes to other official land-use plans, such as Waterloo, Niagara and York regions.

Despite requests from both municipalities for a review, so far the government is hanging tight, with perennial carbuncle and toadie Paul Callandra, the current minister of housing, insisting that the expansions are needed to meet their housing goals, again ignoring all the data that show existing lands within the boundaries are adequate.

So who benefits?

The most controversial property captured by the province's expansion of Ottawa's boundaries is prime agricultural land on Watters Road in Orléans, more than 20 kilometres from the city centre. 

• In February 2021, Ottawa city council explicitly excluded that 37-hectare farm when it voted on its own plans to enlarge the city's urban boundaries. 
• In August 2021, a newly incorporated company called 1177 Watters Developments Ltd. bought the farm for $12.7 million. 
• In November 2022, the Ford government made the land part of the City of Ottawa with the stroke of a pen. 

The company's five directors donated more than $12,000 to the Ontario PC Party in 2021 and 2022, CBC Ottawa's Kate Porter revealed last November.

Liberal Party interim leader John Fraser, the MPP for Ottawa South, questions why the government put this parcel into the city's boundaries. 

"You've got a group of people who buy a piece of land in 2021", said Fraser. "This is land that you're probably never going to build on, because it's zoned agricultural. And then all of a sudden this piece of land, totally inappropriate, appears [within the urban boundary] and then the value of that land triples." 

Over in Hamilton, the stench of corruption and insider information is the same.

In Hamilton, the province ordered the city last November to add 2,200 hectares, despite council's previous vote in favour of maintaining existing boundaries. 

Among the properties that were wrapped into Hamilton's new boundaries: land owned by some of the same people whose holdings were among the 15 parcels removed from the Greenbelt last November. 

As previously reported by CBC Hamilton's Samantha Beattie, the land added to Hamilton's urban boundaries includes properties owned in part by developers Sergio Manchia of UrbanCore Developments and Paul Paletta of Alinea Group Holdings, formerly Penta Properties. 

According to the Ontario integrity commissioner's report into the Greenbelt, the two developers used the same representative to make their requests both for Greenbelt removals and for changes to Hamilton's official plan. The urban boundary changes were part of the government's amendments to that official plan.  

And earlier reporting shows that the government met with developers, giving them advance notice of expansion  before speaking to Hamilton officials. 

There is a long time to go before the next provincial election, but those four years cut both ways. Ford et al. likely hope to ride out the storm, while those who truly care about this province also have plenty of time to keep up their attacks and investigations, one of their prime motivations being the hope that the malodourous corruption enveloping this province will finally dissipate after our next visit to the polls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Political Prisoner

 

                                                                   

                                                                        BUT

During my reasonably long life, I have been witness to an array of political leadership styles and sensibilities: the inspirational, the aspirational, the ideological, the bumbling and, worst of all, the stupid. Here in Ontario, where I reside, it is stupidity that is on daily offer from Premier Doug Ford.

I'm sure Doug sees it quite differently, doubtlessly convinced his 'ability' to wade through and often eliminate red tape and see through 'scams' is the kind of bold leadership the province needs and is benefitting from. 

- Why all this endless talk about the future of Ontario Place? Just bring in a giant spa, sign a 99-year-lease, and have the taxpayers fund an underground parking lot to the tune of about $700 million.

- Need more houses? Cut development fees and build on farms and wetlands. 

- What's wrong with having such close ties to developers who benefit from inside information? Fostering close relations with movers and shakers is how to get things done.

Sadly for Doug, there are too many 'stupid' people who fail to appreciate his genius. Take their attitude toward development of  the Greenbelt, which our Ford recently called "a scam."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford called the Greenbelt a “scam” on Thursday as the NDP accused his government of hiding from new reports about the area’s planned development.

“We have a Liberal government that [got] a bunch of staffers, randomly got a highlighter and went up and down roads. They were going through golf courses, through buildings. It was just a big scam as far as I'm concerned,” the premier said of the 2005 government which established the space.

Ford made the comments in response to questions about reports that suggested his office discussed changes to the Greenbelt months prior to announcing it would be removing 7,400 acres from 15 different areas of the area for development. He denied that his office discussed the changes in August, as was reported by Canadian investigative online magazine The Narwhal.

Sorry, Mr. Premier. Not so fast. Victor Doyle, one of the developers of the Greenbelt Plan, begs to differ.

Ontario’s Greenbelt is fundamental to the environmental, agricultural and economic sustainability of the Golden Horseshoe. In calling it a “scam” — defined as a dishonest or illegal plan or activity — Premier Doug Ford has disparaged the Ontario civil service along with countless professionals, citizens, politicians and the municipalities, conservation authorities, civil society organizations and community groups that devoted their time and knowledge to create the largest and most strongly protected Greenbelt in the world.

Globally recognized and recipient of both provincial and national awards, the Greenbelt ensures clean water by protecting our aquifers and rivers that feed the Great Lakes. It protects our forests to provide clean air and habitat for plants, wildlife and pollinating insects. It protects vast tracts of the best farmland in Canada, which are a fundamental component of our economy and food security and it plays a critical role in combating the impacts of climate change by mitigating flooding, sequestering carbon and moderating temperature.

The real scam is the premier's insistence that the Greenbelt is needed for housing.

Today, leading research by civil society organizations and the Regional Planning Commissioners of Ontario show there are over of 200,000 acres of approved, unbuilt land for urban uses in the Greater Golden Horseshoe with over 2 million units planned, 1.3 million of which are either under construction, approved or applied for.

This does not include the 60,000-plus acres of farmland the minister approved for urban use this past fall just in the GTHA. There is absolutely no need whatsoever to remove any land from the Greenbelt, which is supposed to be the counterbalance to the permanent urbanization arising from development of the above lands.

To a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To an idiot, simple solutions are ubiquitous. In many ways, I feel like a political prisoner, shackled to a government that knows the cost of everything but the value of nothing. 

Would that there were enough intelligent voters to rectify the situation in 2026.

 

Ode To Democracy

 A busy day ahead, so I shall let Theo Moudakis speak for me:

J'Accuse

The sad state of Ontario provincial politics should be evident to anyone who reads a newspaper or watches the news. Those who do should also look in the mirror to see if the following applies to them:

Doug Ford has abandoned the people to put politicians first, Cohn, Nov. 19

After reading so much negative publicity about how Premier Doug Ford is trashing our province, I say shame on you to those 57 per cent of voters who were physically able to get out and vote but did not.

You could have made a difference had you done your homework, got involved and realized what damage Ford had done in his first tenure as premier. Perhaps you found the other candidates unappealing, but they may have offered a better choice had you bothered to look into it. Now we have to put up with — and fight — some of Ford’s policies for another four years.

Please educate yourselves about the candidates and get out and vote next time.

Jane White, Scarborough

Let's all try to be better citizens next time around. 

The Smell Of Manure

Unless they have spent their entire lives within the confines of a city, I doubt there are many people unacquainted with the smell of manure. This pungent organic waste, while offensive to many, is instrumental in helping to ensure that the land growing our crops is sufficiently fertile to produce good crop yields.

Unfortunately, there is another kind of manure that exhibits a greater stench, that of corruption and the granting of privileged information to select interests. That stench emanates from Queen's Park and the Doug Ford Conservative government.

I recently posted about the Toronto Star-Narwahl joint investigation into that government's decision to open up parts of the Greenbelt to housing developments, a decision that stands to increase the great wealth of several developers with deep ties to the Ford government. 

And therein lies the stench.

A report by CTV News the other day makes clear that insider knowledge has been shared with select developers, one of them being Green Lane Bathurst GP Inc., of which developer Michael Rice is the director. The following report, in my view, definitively illustrates the more-than-cosy relationship Rice and other developers have with our self-proclaimed 'government for the people'. (The video is of subpar quality, as I had to record, compress and then upload the file from my computer: 

Unless one has a naive disposition, one likely will conclude that the evidence of unethical, even illegal, conduct on the part of the Ford cabal is strong. The NDP is calling for the auditor general to investigate this entire imbroglio. I would suggest the Opposition go one step further and request that the Ontario Provincial Police open an investigation and look for the criminal wrongdoing that is strongly suggested by all of this.

Readers React

I'm on a bit of a tight schedule today, so I cede to newspaper letter-writers their thoughts on Doug Ford's tactics and values before his province-wide blink yesterday.

Premier Ford’s decision to withdraw Bill 28, and go back to the bargaining table shows the kind of things that can happen when you stand up to a bully.

Joe Virio, Bowmanville, Ont.

 “I pity that man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth shall starve in the process.” This quotation, by former U.S. president Benjamin Harrison, was posted on the wall of the union office where I once worked.

It makes me wonder: how cheap does the Ford government want to make our educational system?

Trampling the rights of the lowest paid is not only deplorable, but devastating to our society.

Who wants to live, work and do business in a province that disrespects and under values its education and health care professionals?

Ontarians want and deserve better.

Paul Templin, Newmarket, Ont.

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 Nobody loves a bully.

The development lobby gets approval to build Highway 413, at a cost of $8.2 billion amid disagreement about its utility.

More than $1 billion a year in annual licence fees is given away as an election goody.

Ongoing green energy projects were scrapped mid-development at a cost of $230 million, amid a growing climate-crisis. The lowest paid education workers (70 per cent women), earning less than $40,000 a year, get offered a salary increase of 1.5 per cent, or, in some cases, 2.5 per cent..

Any trained nurse (more than 90 per cent women), with a salary capped at one per cent, could have easily and far more effectively triaged these competing priorities, so that the educational chaos spread across the Star’s recent front pages could have been avoided.

Paul Visschedyk, Burlington, Ont.

 

Upon Awakening

It would be nice to think that the slumbering masses have awakened to a new understanding of government and its relationship to the people, but I abandoned magical thinking a long time ago. Nonetheless, occasionally our overlords overplay their hand, and people do get a glimpse behind the curtain.

Such seems to be happening in Ontario, now in the midst of an education labour disruption that could have been so easily avoided, had our rulers not been consumed with their own arrogance.

A new Abacus poll reveals some interesting statistics:

... 62 per cent of respondents blame the provincial government for schools closing after thousands of education workers, including education assistants, custodians and librarians, walked off the job Friday. Meanwhile, 38 per cent point the finger at the workers.

Sixty-eight per cent of parents of school-aged children believe the Ford government bears the most responsibility, the survey found, while 71 per cent of respondents want the province to negotiate a "fair deal" with education workers, rather than continue with its current strategy.

Laura Walton, president of CUPE's Ontario School Boards' Council of Unions, said the results of the poll show Ontarians support the education workers in their job action.

"This poll confirms what we already knew: that the majority of people support education workers, that they see through the Ford government's lies about working for workers and students, that they know $39,000 isn't enough, and that they believe workers' rights to freely bargain and strike if necessary must always be protected," Walton said in a statement.

"Seven out of 10 Ontarians want the government to negotiate a fair deal. That starts with repealing Bill 28, an unjust law which Ontarians know is like giving a schoolyard bully a sledgehammer."

Meanwhile, both sides are now appearing before the Ontario Labour Relations Board, the government seeking a declaration of an illegal strike, CUPE arguing against that designation. Perhaps the desperation of the Ford cabal is reflected in the chief argument of its legal brainstrust:

Ferina Murji said strikes are prohibited in the midst of any contract, not just one that was ratified by union membership.

"A collective agreement is a collective agreement is a collective agreement," she said.

If one believed in the power of pithy sayings, one might be able to sum up the current imbroglio this way:

The Ford 'Progressive' Conservative government: not here for you.