Jessica Bell MPP, University–Rosedale

Government of Ontario

NDP: The Conservative spiral continues: another bad decision reversed, what else is the Ford government hiding?

Published on October 23, 2023

QUEEN’S PARK – Marit Stiles, Leader of the Official Opposition NDP, released the following statement responding to the government’s latest flip-flop in their spiraling corruption scandal: 

“Minister Calandra’s latest flip flop makes it abundantly clear; we have only scratched the surface of the damage this government has done. There is a deeply concerning culture of corruption and preferential treatment embedded in how this government makes public policy, and Ontarians deserve more answers.

In the middle of a historic housing crisis, this government has wasted a year trying to convince Ontarians that their nonsensical land use policies, tailor-made to benefit select land speculators, offers real solutions for everyday Ontarians.  

For a year, they blamed their own bad policymaking on municipalities, who have been in a constant state of flux while this government throws new policies at them and spirals out of control trying to cover up their corruption. Enough is enough. Today’s announcement is the bare minimum, and simply won’t cut it anymore.” 

Quotes 

MPP Jeff Burch (Niagara Centre), NDP critic for Municipal Affairs 

“This government has a habit of making bad decisions and then blaming everyone else. They can’t get their story straight, and they wait until they are cornered in to finally make the right decision."  

Quick Facts 

  • The Ontario NDP have repeatedly pressed Ford’s Conservatives to reverse course on the Urban Boundary expansions. As recently as October 5, they refused 

  • The Ontario NDP submitted a request to the Auditor General (AG) for a value-for money audit into the Urban Boundaries expansions and MZOs (Ministry Zoning Orders) 

  • On October 10, the AG confirmed they were already investigating Ford’s questionable use of MZOs 

  • Many of the same favoured speculators who preferential treatment with the Greenbelt swaps, now under RCMP investigation, also seem to have received preferential treatment with the forced urban boundary expansions