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Ontario  + Canada + Cross Border News  + Multi-residential Housing  | 
Ontario's new housing minister has apologized to developers for the province's handling of scrapped Greenbelt development.

New Ontario Housing Minister Promises Open Greenbelt Review

Ontario’s new housing minister has pledged to conduct an open review of the province’s Greenbelt.

“It will be a full, open and accountable process,” Paul Calandra told reporters. “It will look at the entirety of the Greenbelt. There may be lands that need to be added to the Greenbelt, there may be some lands that are removed.”

Calandra was appointed housing minister after his predecessor, Steve Clark, resigned amid ongoing turmoil surrounding the removal of 3,000 acres from the Greenbelt, a protected zone surrounding the Greater Toronto Area.

Integrity Commissioner David Wake’s recent report found that Clark violated ethics bylaws, did not properly oversee the land-removal process and violated MPP conflict-of-interest and insider-information rules. As Connect reported, outgoing Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk issued a scathing report that accused the province of removing the land through a “biased” process that favoured “certain prominent developers.”

The province has contended that the removed land is needed for housing development.

Photo: Paulcalandra.com

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Government of OntarioMonte Stewart

About Monte Stewart

Monte Stewart serves as Content Director - Canada for Connect Commercial Real Estate. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monte provides daily news coverage of major Canadian commercial real estate markets, including Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Calgary. He has written about the real estate sector for various media outlets and Avison Young since the early 2000s. In addition, he has covered sports, general news and business for several leading wire services and publications, including The Canadian Press, The Associated Press, The Calgary Herald, The Globe and Mail, Research Money, The Daily Oil Bulletin, Natural Gas World and The Toronto Star. Monte is active in his community as a youth basketball coach and raises funds for such charitable causes as Movember.

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