This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
The government is returning a plot of land to the Greenbelt after finding out it was listed for sale, despite the landowners' representatives saying it's all a big misunderstanding.
A 133-acre property along Kingston Road in Ajax was one of 15 parcels removed from the Greenbelt late last year to help build 50,000 homes.
On Tuesday, the Ford government found out the owner listed it for sale after it appeared in an Aug. 8 ad in the Globe and Mail. That's a no-no, Ford said, as it "goes against everything that our government is doing to bring home ownership into reach for more people."
The government was duped, Ford said.
"At no point was the intention to sell disclosed to the government’s facilitator during active and ongoing discussions,” he said. "In response, our government is exploring every option available to us, including immediately starting the process to put these sites back into the Greenbelt."
The Provincial Land and Development Facilitator (PLDF) has been in talks with the owners of the 15 parcels to build houses on the land. When initially removing the lands from the Greenbelt last year, the government said the owners had to make significant progress on approvals for development by the end of 2023 and had to get shovels in the ground in 2025, or have the lands returned to the protected area.
On Wednesday, shortly after Ontario's integrity commissioner released a report saying Housing Minister Steve Clark broke MPP ethics rules for his role in the Greenbelt land swap, the government announced it's returning the land to the Greenbelt.
The integrity commissioner's report adds another layer of intrigue to the property. J. David Wake wrote that "it remains a mystery" to him why that land was removed from the Greenbelt in the first place, and that Ryan Amato, the housing minister's staffer who led the Greenbelt process, said he could not recall how he was made aware of it before he suggested it be removed from the protected area.
Wake detailed a meeting held by a prominent developer in October, while the Greenbelt project was underway, who was seeking to buy up land in the area, but the owner did not sell. However, the commissioner said he dropped that line of inquiry to complete his report in a timely manner.
The government has always intended for the removed land to be used for housing, and "any attempt to sell these lands or otherwise profit from this decision without building the homes Ontario residents rightly expect runs contrary to the government’s intentions and will not be tolerated," according to a government news release from Wednesday afternoon.
The province will launch a 45-day consultation before returning the land, it said in the release.
The Ajax land includes two properties owned by a numbered company, 2615898 Ontario Inc., purchased for $15.8 million in 2018. Corporate records show the company has two directors with listed addresses in Richmond Hill and China.
While Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk was gathering information for her report on the land, the PLDF told Lysyk that Buena Vista Development Corp. was expected to be the main developer, Lysyk told The Trillium on Tuesday.
Buena Vista's president had disputed the company's hold over the land in an earlier statement to The Trillium.
“I am not the owner or development of the land, contrary to the (auditor general’s) report,” Armand Reale said in an email to The Trillium. “I was part of a group of consultants assembled by the owner including planner(s) and lawyers to help them respond to the government process.”
John Dong, who represents the landowners, told The Trillium his clients never intended to flip the property.
“I think it was all misunderstood. My clients are foreign owners and are not developers. They purchased the property six years ago to hold as an investment,” Dong wrote on Tuesday.
“My clients have no development experience and required a partner with the requisite experience to meet the government's policy objective to have shovels in the ground in 2025,” he added.
“To accomplish this we engaged in a process to a find joint venture partner with the experience necessary to help us develop the property. At no time was the property going to be sold outright,” Dong said.
Ford's office had "nothing further to add at this time" when asked for a response to Dong's comments on Tuesday.
Dong said he had "nothing else to share" when asked for comment on Wednesday.
The government fired another warning shot to the other landowners, lest they be thinking of selling the one-protected land.
"The government will inform the remaining proponents that they are required to notify the Office of the Provincial Land and Development Facilitator of any potential transactions or actions regarding these lands," the release said. "Any actions that stand in the way of building homes quickly on these lands will not be tolerated."
