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